Under its partnership with Porticus, Ubongo is distributing Akili and Me season 5 educational video content focusing on SEL topics through partnerships with local refugee-led organisations (RLOs) with the overall aim of: Children and caregivers in Kakuma refugee camp have the social-emotional knowledge and skills needed to support healthy cognitive development, well-being, and success in school and home life

Ubongo conducted a measurement pilot in 2025 to look at the best approaches to measuring SEL and the project’s impact. One of the core recommendations from that study was that the MEL for the project should look at impact holistically, understanding Ubongo’s contribution alongside the work of partners, rather than looking at their impact separately. Ubongo also identified this as an opportunity to collaborate with partners on conducting MEL to support them to build their capacity and align our work better. In April 2026, Ubongo’s Research Advisor visited Kakuma to conduct a MEL workshop with partners and visit partner organisations to co-design a midterm evaluation for 2026 and ensure that it aligns with existing MEL activities conducted by partners. Partners mentioned existing MEL activities under the project, including reporting Signals of Change to TripleLine & Porticus, narrative reporting to Cohere, and simple reporting of activities and outputs via WhatsApp to Ubongo. We also identified some of the challenges around MEL that partners face, including lack of dedicated MEL personnel and emphasis on activities and outputs over exploration of outcomes.

2. Evaluation design and methodology

Based on the discussions with partners, Ubongo, and Porticus/TripleLine, the evaluation objectives and evaluation questions were identified. The objectives for the evaluation are:

1. Support partners to learn from one another on what is working well or not working well in addressing SEL among children and co-create recommendations for the way forward for Ubongo and partners, particularly for a. Ensuring disability inclusion in partner activities. a. Engaging caregivers, particularly male caregivers b. Engaging children from different communities/nationalities

2. Map the pathways to change to understand what factors are needed to achieve the outcomes and impact we want to achieve.

3. Understand the impact of Ubongo’s work with partners holistically within the context of partners’ other work and the wider context

4. Collaborate with partners in MEL design and implementation to support capacity strengthening and peer learning, and co-create recommendations

This evaluation will take the first step towards achieving these objectives, but with the understanding that ongoing MEL from 2027 onwards should build on what has already been done.

The approach will be participatory at all stages, involving volunteers from seven partner organisations to ensure they learn from each other and build their MEL capacity.

The specific steps in the process are outlined below:

1. Planning workshop (2 days) including training volunteers on ethics, designing discussion guides and interview techniques and conducting practice interviews

2. Data collection using peer observation (every volunteer will observe at least one of their fellow volunteers while delivering the Ubongo content in their centre), approximately 21 focus group discussions (FGD) with girls, boys and caregivers and approximately 10 key informant interviews (KIIs) with people with disabilities/ organisations for people with disabilities, representatives from the Somali community, community and religious leaders, and teachers.

- Short report (5 pages) outlining the successes and challenges faced during the activity, and recommendations for ongoing MEL and capacity strengthening of the RLOs

- Filled debrief forms for all FGDs and KIIs

- Short report (5 pages) outlining the successes and challenges faced during the activity, and recommendations for ongoing MEL and capacity strengthening of the RLOs

• Experience conducting qualitative data collection, including using the Most Significant Change approach, for development and/or education projects
• Team lead must have experience supervising and training teams of data collectors
• Experience conducting data collection with children and refugees
• An understanding of the ethical and safeguarding requirements for data collection
• Adherence to all applicable data protection laws of Kenya
• Relevant qualifications (e.g. degree in social work, social sciences or education, training in research methodology)
• If an agency, they must be registered with all relevant authorities for conducting this work. If a group of consultants, they must have the relevant right to work.
• The team must read, write and speak fluent Swahili. Knowledge of other languages commonly spoken in Kakuma Refugee Camp will be an advantage.
• Previous experience working with Ubongo or similar organisations (edutainment, media for development, behaviour change communication) is desirable
• All team members must be based in Kakuma Refugee Camp or surrounding areas (preference will be given to refugees/refugee-led agencies)

3. Budget and payment

The total budget available for this activity is 4,572 USD. This will be paid in full on completion of the activity and submission and approval of the deliverables outlined below:

5. Requirements for the data collectors

• A summary of the relevant qualifications and backgrounds of all the team members working on this study. The CVs of all team members, including the data collectors, should be included as annexes.
• A simple workplan
• Consultant fees and per diems
• Car hire for 14 days (for use by your team and Ubongo’s Research Advisor)
• Refreshments (snacks and drinks) for approximately 136 participants
• Transport reimbursements for approximately 52 participants

Deadline

Activity

14th September

Deadline for submission of proposals

25th September

Contracting

October-November

Planning

16th to 27th November

Activity conducted over a period of 2 weeks

Debrief templates to be submitted by 24th November (before the analysis workshop begins)

4th December

Deadline for submission of short report