Background

The Strengthen PSNP5 Institutions and Resilience (SPIR II) Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) in Ethiopia is a five-year project (2021-2026) funded by USAID/BHA. This is a graduation model social protection program that supports implementation of the fifth phase of the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP5) in Amhara and Oromia regions and provides complementary livelihood, nutrition, gender and climate resilience activities to strengthen the program and expand its impacts. The main objectives of SPIR II are to achieve sustained nutrition security, reduced risks to livelihoods, and strengthened social safety nets, reinforced by strong human capital, social cohesion, transformed social and gender dynamics, and a sustainable natural resources base. Under funding from USAID’s Food for Peace (FFP) Initiative and in close collaboration with the Government of Ethiopia, World Vision leads implementation of the SPIR II RFSA, in partnership with the Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara (ORDA) and CARE. The SPIR II RFSA will serve nearly 500,000 PNSP clients in 19 of the most vulnerable woredas in Amhara and Oromia regions of Ethiopia. In 2024 SPIR II is expanding operations to deliver the services in select woredas of Tigray region.

Statement of Work

IFPRI is seeking a qualified survey firm to collect quantitative data to evaluate the rollout of the group problem management plus (gPM+) intervention as delivered by both health extension workers and local facilitators in Tigray. The survey firm collaborator will partner with IFPRI to conduct a baseline survey in the four woredas: Samre, Tsaeda Emba, Keletawelaelo, and Enderta. All sampled households will be current beneficiaries of the PSNP program. The survey firm will be responsible for visiting households drawn from the PSNP beneficiary list in the 61 kebeles that comprise SPIR’s target service delivery area in Tigray. The survey firm will conduct a short screening survey for each eligible man and woman in the household to screen them for depression and inclusion in the gPM+ study. The screening protocol will continue until the target number of men and women have been identified as eligible for gPM+ (up to 8 men and 8 women in each kushet), and the baseline survey will then be administered to a these eligible individuals.

The full sample is estimated to include approximately 2,748 adults (a sample of approximately 12 adults each in 229 kushets).The key survey modules in the baseline survey will include mental health, household composition and socioeconomic status, food security, exposure to conflict- and violence-related shocks, and experience of gender-based violence. The estimated duration of the screening survey will be approximately 10 minutes followed by a baseline survey of approximately 90 minutes.Upon successful completion of the screening and baseline surveys, the collaborator may be invited to conduct an endline survey in May 2024 and one-year post-intervention survey in 2025 following the same sample.

Activities:

· Translation of questionnaire into Tigrinya (including back-translation to English for quality control purposes)

· Assistance with submission of study protocol to a local IRB

· Develop a CAPI program for the screening and baseline questionnaires in SurveyCTO based on the draft versions of these questionnaires in Word; revisions to the CAPI as needed

· Prepare a detailed security and ethical protocol for fieldwork with attention to the unique challenges of collecting data in a post-conflict setting

· Procure all supplies for survey work including tablets for administering the survey

· Conduct preparatory work for survey work including:

o Selection of all field staff.

o Liaising with program staff and local officials on community entry and identifying sampled households

· Take primary responsibility for the enumerator trainings and fieldwork, including:

o Prepare field manuals to document field procedures, details on administering the surveys, data capture process, and code of conduct in line with ethical standards and respect for the wider study communities.

o Prepare schedule for enumerator trainings and data collection

o Organize and lead enumerator training

o Ensure all logistics for field work, including lodging, transportation, insurance.

o Seek approval from the Project Leader for any change in the training or field plans.

Develop and implement a referral protocol for individuals who exhibit symptoms of moderate to severe depression and women who experience intimate partner violence.

Develop and implement a system for data quality checks with audio audits of at least 5% of interviews, corrections and callbacks to be implemented during the survey fieldwork.Coordinate with the IFPRI team to run data quality checks as the data are collected. Contact respondents again to fix any missing or erroneous data.

Develop a protocol for data capture and secure data storage to assure that data can be downloaded to a project Dropbox folder, that is secure and password protected, at least every other day; ensure timely delivery of the data collected.

Prepare final field reports for screening and baseline surveys with detailed information on number of households screened and number of households and individuals surveyed at baseline.

Deliver clean screening and baseline dataset.

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience conducting large-scale household surveys in Ethiopia
• Demonstrated experience recruiting and training enumerators
• Experience in building trust and good relations with village leaders, interviewees and communities
• Strong program management skills: demonstrated experience in successfully coordinating large field teams and managing deliverables.
• Demonstrated experience coding in SurveyCTO or similar CAPI program and using Stata for running data checks and managing datasets

Application

Proposals must include a comprehensive budget, a detailed description of the firm’s qualifications, and the curriculum vitae (CV) of person who will be managing the survey. All supporting documents should be uploaded as one pdf to the application section indicating CV or Resume. Materials should be submitted in English by November 30, 2023