Implementeringsforskning –
Plan Internationals program Girls Get Equal

Kontaktperson: Elise Christensen.
Epost: elise.christensen@plan-norge.no
Søknadsfrist: 07.06.26
 

Terms of reference 

Implementation Research: Adolescent Girls’ Rights and Resilience. Plan International’s Girls Get Equal Programme 2025 - 2029.

Introduction

Plan International is an independent, politically neutral, and non-religious development and humanitarian organisation. Guided by a rights-based and evidence-informed approach, Plan International works with children, young people, civil society partners, academic institutions, and other relevant stakeholders, applying a gender transformative approach to advance gender equality and ensure the rights, inclusion, and meaningful participation of children and young people in all their diversity. The organisation implements long-term development and humanitarian programmes in more than fifty countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas, while mobilising public and institutional support in over twenty countries. Founded in 1937, Plan International combines global reach with locally grounded, research-informed practice focused on learning, accountability, and addressing structural inequalities.

Plan International Norway holds a five-year framework agreement with Norad (2025–2029), valued at NOK 255 million, supporting the programme Girls Get Equal: Realising Rights and Building Resilience (GGE). GGE is implemented in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger and Tanzania targeting young people - especially adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) aged 10-24 - as well as their families, communities, and relevant institutions. The programme aims to realise the rights, empowerment, and resilience of AGYW and young people by addressing structural drivers of child, early and forced marriage and unions (CEFMU), early and unintended pregnancies, and vulnerability to climate- and conflict-related shocks, through a rights-based, gender transformative, youth-centred, and evidence-informed approach.

It is structured around four integrated outcome areas:

1. Access to and completion of inclusive, climate-smart, quality education.
2. Economic empowerment of adolescents and youth, especially girls, and their households.
3. Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR): adolescents and youth, especially girls, make informed SRHR decisions, are protected from harmful practices and gender-based violence, and access relevant, age- and gender-responsive services.
4. Civil society and youth engagement: civil society, particularly youth- and women-led organisations, is strengthened.

The programme aims to benefit approximately 155,000 children, adolescents, and youth, including around 90,000 girls and young women, in collaboration with four hundred formal and informal civil society organisations. Inclusion is mainstreamed across all components, with targeted measures to ensure the meaningful participation of children and youth with disabilities and other marginalised groups.

Together with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), Plan International Norway has identified specific learning, and evidence needs that exist within the GGE program. To address these needs, Plan International Norway seeks to commission research across three of the four programme components. This commission is framed as implementation research, focused on understanding how, for whom, and under what conditions GGE programme interventions work. The research prioritises delivery, contextual factors, and the programme's contribution to change, and is not designed to measure results against a baseline. Standard evaluation criteria such as relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency are included where relevant to structure the research objectives, as outlined in Section 3. Findings will inform adaptive management during implementation and contribute to the evidence base for future programme design.
 

Objective and scope

The following are the desired objectives of the research activities.

a) Objectives

Impact contribution (Impact):
To generate evidence on the contribution of selected programme components to intended changes in empowerment, rights realisation, and resilience, addressing identified evidence gaps and testing innovative approaches where feasible. This is not intended to be addressed through experimental methods such as RCT (as per time and budget constraints).

Relevance & Coherence:
To assess the relevance and coherence of selected programme components in relation to the needs and rights of adolescent girls and young people, and their alignment with the programme’s Theory of Change, country contexts, and relevant policy and sector frameworks.

Effectiveness & Quality:
To assess the quality, effectiveness, and implementation performance of selected interventions and identifying factors that enable or constrain successful delivery.

Efficiency:
To assess whether selected programme approaches are implemented in a cost‑effective manner and to inform prioritisation of interventions with potential for scale and transferability.

Learning, Adaptation, and Use:
To generate actionable findings that support adaptive programme management, ensuring evidence is actively used to refine and improve programme interventions during implementation, with lessons applicable across multiple programme countries.

b) Scope

All research questions will be conducted in the context of the Girls get Equal Programme, with an implementation period between 2025-2029. The research will address three learning questions (outlined below) and consider the role of Plan International, implementing partners, program participants, and secondary stakeholders. Each research question will be examined in a subset of programme countries (as specified below) to ensure analytical depth and cost‑effectiveness. The research will focus primarily on programme-level results rather than individual project performance. While the research does not involve midline and endline data collection against the programme's results framework, programme monitoring data, including annual results framework updates and other routine monitoring data, will be made available to the selected research partner and is expected to inform the methodology where relevant. The primary focus of this research is therefore on unpacking contribution, contextual factors, and programme quality, rather than measuring results independently.  

Findings and recommendations from the research activities will be completed within a timeframe which allows Plan International to adjust the current program and inform the design of subsequent programs.  

c) Research questions

Plan International has defined four research questions, of which three will be selected for completion during the implementation period. The research questions were developed through a structured prioritisation process conducted in collaboration with IPA, drawing on a review of existing evidence, identification of key gaps, and input from country offices. The prioritisation process yielded learning questions of varied methodological character, spanning implementation research and process evaluation, reflecting the diversity of evidence needs across the programme's components and country contexts. We welcome proposals that bring methodological expertise and fresh perspectives to the design and implementation of the research. The questions are designed to explore Plan International's approach to programming within the chosen thematic areas, to generate evidence directly relevant to its implementation and adaptation. While specifically focused on the GGE programme context, the questions also address recognised evidence gaps and findings will have relevance beyond the programme.

Proposals must outline approaches for all four questions; the final selection of the three questions will be agreed jointly with Plan International Norway following review of proposed approaches. The research questions are as follows:

Education: How are accelerated education programmes adapting curriculum content and scheduling to meet the needs of over-age and out-of-school adolescent girls, and what do facilitators and participants identify as most important for supporting successful transition into formal schooling or other learning and livelihood pathways? Countries: Niger, Nepal, Malawi.

Economic Empowerment: What conditions enable or prevent young women from starting and sustaining agricultural enterprises - including access to land, inputs, and markets - and at which points in the agricultural value chain do they experience the greatest constraints? Countries: Mozambique, Ethiopia, Niger (enabling conditions); Bangladesh, Nepal, Tanzania (market barriers) 

Civil Society Engagement: What formats and sequencing of leader engagement - such as one-time sensitisation, sustained dialogue, interfaith networks, or peer-to-peer approaches - do programme teams and leaders associate with meaningful shifts in leaders' public and private behaviour, and what contextual factors shape which approaches are feasible? Countries: Bangladesh, Nepal, Niger.

SRHR/CSE: How is comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) being delivered across programme countries, and is there early evidence of gains in adolescents' SRHR knowledge and protective attitudes? Countries: Nepal, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Malawi.

Desired approach and methodology

Gender equality and inclusion is at the core Plan International's approach and are mainstreamed across all components of the GGE programme. Research partners are expected to reflect these principles in their research design and methodology, with deliberate attention to reaching and representing the most marginalised groups.

Youth leadership, meaningful youth engagement, and local civil society partnership are central to Plan International's approach and thematic expertise. The research partner(s) are therefore expected to embed these principles across all stages of the research process. This includes actively engaging young people as co-creators in the research design, data collection, and interpretation of findings, not solely as subjects or informants.

The approach and methodology are expected to vary between the four questions and should be justified according to budget, feasibility of completion and usefulness of data for program implementation and design. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are accepted.

Possible methodologies may include:

• Process Evaluation
• Contribution Analysis
• Cost-effectiveness analysis
• A/B testing
• Monitoring data analysis and participant surveys
• Participatory Methods and User Research Methods
• Cross-country comparative documentation
• Market assessments, including private sector partner landscaping
• Qualitative methods including interviews and focus groups
• Evidence Reviews

All research activities are expected to meet recognised standards for rigorous applied research, including transparency in methods and limitations, ethical data collection and management, and peer-reviewable analytical approaches. Proposals should demonstrate how quality will be assured throughout the research process, including through independent review, validation with stakeholders, and clear documentation of methodological choices and assumptions.

Financial framework

The total budget ceiling research under this Terms of Reference is NOK 4,21 million inclusive of all professional fees, travel, data collection, analysis, reporting, and dissemination costs. Financial proposals are expected to be submitted within this ceiling and should demonstrate cost‑effectiveness and proportionality in relation to the proposed scope, methodology, and intended use of findings.

Ethics and Child Safeguarding

Plan International is committed to ensuring that the rights of those participating in data collection or analysis are respected and protected, in accordance with Plan International’s Ethical MERL Framework and our Child and Youth Safeguarding Policy. All applicants should include details in their proposal on how they will ensure ethics and Safeguarding in the data collection process. Specifically, the consultant(s) shall explain how appropriate, safe, non-discriminatory participation of all stakeholders will be ensured and how special attention will be paid to the needs of children and other vulnerable groups. The consultant(s) shall also explain how confidentiality and anonymity of participants will be guaranteed. Selected research partner will be required to sign Plan International’s Safeguarding Policy.

Desired qualifications of candidate

The consultant(s) should be qualified and experienced individuals or consulting firms. The profile should include:

• A research specialist with a minimum of five years’ experience in relevant academic research and/or programme/project reviews in an international development context.

• PhD or other higher academic qualifications in a social science or another relevant field.

• Demonstrated experience in gender-responsive and inclusive research design, with attention to reaching and representing marginalised groups.

• Demonstrated experience in participatory research methods and meaningful engagement of young people as active contributors in research design and data collection processes.

• Publication in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and other publications relevant to the research questions.

• Documented experience within one or more of the following thematic areas: Child Early Forced marriage and Unions, including social norm change; sexual and reproductive health and rights; education; civil society engagement and youth economic empowerment.

• Experience with multi-method research or evaluation; both quantitative and qualitative.

• Extensive experience in multi-country evaluations or research.

• Ability to independently plan, design and conduct the assessment.

• Established contacts with research actors, such as universities or research institutes, in the seven programme countries. Potential consultant(s) shall disclose any conflict of interest with ongoing project activities of the organisation.

Proposal process

Interested candidates should submit proposals by June 7th, 2026.

The proposals must include the following:

• Brief application letter (max one page).
• Updated CVs/profiles clearly showing the qualification and experience of the lead consultant and his/her team, the CVs must have three references.
• Proposals must respond to the research objectives outlined in this ToR. This includes a proposed approach and methodology for each of the four research questions above.
  • The proposals must also include information about partners and in-country researchers, as well as details on proposed enumerators.
  • The technical proposals should include the evaluator(s) very clear understanding and interpretation of the research question, the terms of reference, a thorough assessment methodology, and a detailed plan for the assessment.
  • Proposals should not exceed fifteen pages (Arial font 11). Only proposal-specific information should be included.
  • Proposals should include a brief dissemination plan outlining how findings can be shared beyond Plan International, including potential for publication in relevant academic or policy forums. The proposed approach to dissemination will be considered as part of the assessment of proposals.
• A financial proposal indicating the number of working days, fees for the consultancy and incidentals.
• References, with copies or online links, to at least two comparable reviews/evaluations conducted by the bidding consultants.
• References for already established contact with relevant research institutes or other contacts in the six relevant countries.

Data ownership and publication

All data collected under this research remains the property of Plan International. Any publication of findings requires prior written approval from Plan International and must be made available through open-access journals or platforms, in line with Plan International's commitment to accessible and transparent knowledge sharing.

Further information

The theory of change of the programme and the results framework can be shared upon request.

Read more about Girls Get Equal.

For further information please contact elise.christensen@plan-norge.no