Consultancy for Life Skills Curriculum Design and Implementation Model

**Background and context**

Established in 2014, Tiko Africa is a nonprofit organisation that leverages technology and behavioural insights to design, implement, and scale a digital motivation platform called Tiko. Tiko connects adolescents and young people in low-income communities with non-judgmental, quality-assured HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and products tailored to their specific needs. We envision a world where all sub-Saharan African youth have the power to choose where, when, and how they meet their sexual health needs.

The Tiko platform meets our young people where they are and offers them services and products that help them to achieve their goals. These goals may include postponing or preventing pregnancies, ensuring healthy pregnancies, knowing their HIV status, using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the risk of HIV, adhering to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for viral suppression, or acquiring the necessary digital, vocational, and soft skills to secure income opportunities.

In Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Nigeria Tiko has successfully established multiple ecosystems of partners, including private and public clinics, as well as local demand-generation community-based organisations (CBOs) and Mobilisers. These ecosystems address the unique challenges faced by adolescent girls, powering them to make informed choices regarding their SRH, mental health and menstrual hygiene.

By combining the power of technology, behavioural insights, and strategic partnerships, Tiko is dedicated to providing comprehensive support to adolescent girls. Our goal is to empower them to make informed decisions about their sexual health and well-being, ensuring they have access to relevant services.

**Our challenge**

Tiko has established a successful track record in connecting adolescent girls and young women to critical health services. However, to ensure long-term, holistic impact, we recognise an urgent need to support our users beyond healthcare. As these young women transition into further education (TVETs, short courses), enter the competitive workforce, or launch their own entrepreneurial ventures, they require a robust bridge of foundational life skills to set them up for sustainable success.

To date, Tiko has utilised co-created life skills materials adapted from existing peer-education programs. We are now at a pivotal scaling point. Tiko is seeking a qualified Consultant to refine, standardise, and elevate our life skills and mentorship programming into a high-quality, scalable model that can be effectively rolled out across multiple countries while addressing the diverse needs of the girls we serve.

**Core Objectives**

The following objectives are expected to be achieved by the Consultant:

- **Develop a Comprehensive Life Skills and mentorship Implementation Framework:** Establish a standardised, scalable framework rooted in regional best practices for youth peer-learning and mentorship programs across Africa.
- **Design an Engaging, Tailored Curriculum and Materials:** Create updated, evidence-based life skills and mentorship course materials and toolkits that are modular, highly engaging, and adaptable to various target groups and geographic contexts within the Tiko network.
- **Establish Assessment and Evaluation Mechanisms:** Formulate practical tools to measure participant comprehension, and the overall real-world impact of the implemented curriculum
- **Build Internal Capacity: Equip Tiko staff and partners as ToTs with the necessary skills to facilitate and oversee the curriculum effectively on the ground.**

**Life Skills Model and Curriculum Principles**

Scalable: The life skills model and content should be able to be easily implemented across Tiko's network of partners at scale. Reaching thousands of Tiko users in an effective and catalytic way

Standardised but flexible: The life skills curriculum and content should be standardised so that it can be implemented across any Tiko market, but offer flexibility based on users needs. eg. Younger Tiko users vs older, SGBV survivors.

Quality-driven: Ensure all life skills material reinforces Tiko’s programme needs and expectations. Build in a quality assurance process to assess measurable outcomes.

Verifiable and integrated into Tiko systems: Life skills course completion must be tracked and quantifiable. Using the Tiko app for digital verification of Tiko users attendance.

Catalytic with consideration for ongoing support: The life skills programme will in most cases be once off, but should be designed in such a way that it builds lasting support networks and considers what Tiko’s role is beyond the end of the curriculum.

**Expected deliverables**

The following deliverables are expected from the Consultant following being contract by Tiko:

**1.Deliverable**

**Develop a Comprehensive Life Skills Implementation Framework**

**Breakdown**

**Contextual Review:** Assess T