Research Consultant at Youth Alive Foundation

Background

• YAF is implementing a USAID funded project: Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE). On this Project, YAF is anchoring the Youth Development Cluster (YDC), comprising of 10 other civil society and private sector organizations working to strengthen social justice reforms for youths in Nigeria through effective advocacy for the implementation of the National Youth Policy (NYP) at state and national levels in Nigeria.
• The concept of social justice means equal rights and equitable opportunities for all. It holds the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities.
• The YDC is advocating for the implementation of pillars 1 and 5 of the National Youth Policy specifically:
  • PILLAR 1 - Productive Workforce and Sustainable Economic Engagement of Youth.
  • PILLAR 5 - Effective Partnership- Building and Collaboration for Youth Development.
• A major gap in the YDC advocacy is that there is limited empirical data on youth development and the opportunities in the emerging labour market for youths in Nigeria to strengthen implementation.
• This project proposes to bridge this gap by first conducting baseline research so that interventions are evidence based for better impact.
• It also seeks to explore the future of work for youths in Nigeria through labour market research on opportunities available for youth in an ever-changing world to guide interventions for youths. To this end, YAF is making this call for consultants to carry out 2 lots of research.

Consultancy 1: Baseline Research on the implementation of NYP
This research will achieve the following objectives:

• Analyse the political economy of youth development in Nigeria.
• Ascertain the status of Implementation of the National Youth Policy 2019 - till date highlighting areas that require focus.
• Assess the level of youth awareness of youth policies and programs and their accessibility to these programs.
• Review and track MDA’s budget to check budget allocations and investments for youth empowerment/development at the federal level.
• Assess what has been done under employment creation and enterprise development opportunities for youths by government in line with NYP.
• Ascertain knowledge of MDAs of NYP and how they are mainstreaming it into their work.
• Track and document all youth initiatives across all MDAs, Donors and Private Sector.
• The result of this research will lay a foundation for evidence-based programming, informing the project of changes at critical stages over the life time of the project.
• The research will also be linked to the monitoring and evaluation component of the project serving both as a baseline and means to capture progress and impact.

Consultancy 2: Emerging Labour Markets for Youths
This research will achieve the following objectives:

• Provide labour market information (LMI) indicators e.g. Population (age, growth/decline, immigration patterns); Unemployment rates; Number of employers; Change in number of employers by size of firm; Change in number of employers by industry; Changes in employment in SME.
• Identify 5 key emerging sectors in the labour market that youth can gain easy access nationally and in project states: Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Abia and FCT.
• What are the industry specific workforce issues that limit youth inclusion.
• According to market trends what does the future of work and enterprise look like for youths.
• Planning for the future: how do we make labour markets work for youths.

Methodology

• In order to conduct the baseline research and emerging labour market research, the Consultants will employ mixed bag of methodologies (qualitative and quantitative methods) for data collection including but not limited to review of secondary data, semi- structured key informant interviews (draft developed by consultant in consultation with YAF) as well as focus group discussions and survey questionnaire to assess youth awareness of government policies for youths and youth programs.
• In the Consultants proposal, we expect to see a detailed breakdown of how these different methods will be executed, which documents will be reviewed, which Key Informants will be interviewed and how the FGDs will be conducted.

Scope of Work

• The consultants will familiarize himself/herself with the project’s goal and outcomes including its results and indicators and will, in close coordination with the YDC project team, draft a research protocol for each consultancy.
• While this call targets the national level, we would like to see some evidence or data collection from the project states.

Key Deliverables

• 1 Narrative report on baseline research
• 1 Narrative report on Emerging Labour market research.
• The 2 narrative reports should include an executive summary, methodology adopted, findings and recommendation. We expect to see graphical representation of some findings.
• For data quality assessment, Interview notes with a list of key informants interviewed, administered survey questionnaires and focus group discussion notes should be submitted as well.

Selection Criteria
Candidates will be assessed on technical capacity and value for money. The candidates will be scored on the criteria (outlined below) this score will be weighted at 70%, the fees associated with the work will be weighted at 30%. After submission of the following documents: Cover letter explaining interest in the role, sample of previous work, budget of estimated costs, CV of team members. Evaluation criteria is as follows:

• Proven technical understanding of the National Youth Policy and youth development/employability initiatives (either through CV or sample of previous work).
• Availability in May - June 2022 and ability to deliver according to timelines
• Proven technical capacity in conducting baseline research
• For Labour market research experience conducting previous market research
• Budget

Experience and Competencies of Consultant
The consultants should have the experience of conducting similar survey work and analysis. The consultant shall provide a mix of skills and expertise as outlined below:

• Preferably Master's Degree or higher in Social Sciences, Statistic or other related subject (A doctorate degree or Ph.D. will be an added advantage).
• Minimum of 5 years' experience with research, development studies, surveys which includes leading a team of investigators.
• Broad experience in producing study reports, as well as supervising & training enumerators in data collection, validation and entry.
• Extensive theoretical and practical experience of youth development initiatives in Nigeria.
• A good understanding of the provisions of the NYP in Nigeria and the political economy that impacts the development of youth.
• Ability to submit a concise and well written analytical report on the results of the surveys in English.