Background

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has contracted IFPRI to conduct an ex post impact assessment survey and to analyze the collected data to understand the impacts of the Char Development and Settlement Project (CDSP) IV that took place in the central part of Bangladesh’s coastal zone. The project office was based in Noakhali, and the CDSP IV project initially targeted five chars: Char Nangulia, Noler Char, Caring Char, Urir Char and Char Ziauddin. The coastal zone is notable for both substantial land accretion, due to sediment deposits, and erosion. Newly accreted land belongs to the government, but it is often settled quickly once thought sustainable for settlement.

The project can broadly be described as working on infrastructure investments meant to both reduce erosion and link the char areas to markets, and to help improve smallholder productivity through improved land rights, extension, and social forestry interventions. The data collection is to be designed as a retrospective impact evaluation including both participants and non-participants, to attempt to understand project impacts against a counterfactual. An extension of the initial project, taking place between 2019 and 2024, conducted activities beyond the initial five chars, including some included in the chars targeted during the first rounds of the project (CDSP I, CDSP II, and CDSP III) as well as some that were targeted for a future project (CDSP V). While the control group will likely come from the CDSP V areas, it is important to understand first what activities took place in those areas before selection.

The endline survey will take place in a selection of communities that participated in the project (the “treatment group”) and similar communities in which the project did not take place (the “control group”).

We seek an organization to conduct the ex post impact assessment survey. The survey should begin as soon as possible, as the project ended at the end of June 2024 and only a skeleton staff for support of data collection continues to exist. The target sample size is 2000 households, and the final sample size will depend upon calculations we are conducting to understand potential impacts of the project on key outcomes. The survey will include modules on household demographics, agricultural production and practices, livestock holdings, employment, non-farm business, shocks, nutrition and food security, and project participation. We project the survey should take between 90 and 120 minutes to field in most households. The survey is expected to be concluded by October 31, 2024.

The survey is expected to be conducted in person.

A. The selected organization would be expected to perform the following tasks:

1. Provide comments on the survey developed by the IFPRI team.
2. Translate the English survey into Bangla, and conducted a back translation to check for accuracy.
3. Programming the survey into Survey Solutions, which will largely imply adapting current programming for some small changes to a standard survey form.
4. Assist with obtaining IRB/research ethics approval from a Bangladeshi ethics committee.
5. Test the survey program extensively. Additionally, provide the program to the IFPRI team for testing, and respond to comments provided by the IFPRI team.
6. Develop a training plan to be approved by the IFPRI team.
7. Hire and train enumerator team according to the training plan.
8. Conduct survey piloting prior to or as a part of the training. Allow for survey changes in response to the survey pilot.
9. Develop a logistics plan for survey implementation to be approved by IFPRI.
10. Conduct the survey among target households. Sample list will be developed by IFPRI in conjunction with IFAD and the survey team. IFPRI and IFAD will agree upon the list and the method of targeting households for survey. If households on the list cannot be interviewed, IFPRI team will provide a backup list for those households to be replaced. The goal is 2,000 households completed surveys; we may ask to attempt to survey more households may be attempted in order to ensure the cleaned data contain at least 2,000 households, due to the shifting land situation.
11. Provide regular updates via email during implementation. IFPRI should have access to raw data as it is collected.
12. Audit at least 10% of surveyed households.
13. Conduct data cleaning and provide final data and report of completed survey.

B. Deliverables

1. Translated survey instrument
2. Programmed survey instrument
3. Survey training plan
4. Survey implementation logistics plan
5. Short report on survey piloting
6. Regular updates during training and implementation
7. Raw dataset following survey conclusion
8. Cleaned baseline dataset
9. List of households attempted, all attempts to contact, and final outcome

C. Firm Qualifications

1. The firm must have the ability to collect data in Bangladesh.
2. The firm must have experience collecting household survey data using electronic data collection, preferably with experience with agricultural households in the central part of Bangladesh’s coastal zone.
3. Experience collecting household surveys for research projects is preferred.

D. Response to TOR

Please send a short proposal that includes plans for undertaking the survey work, an estimated timeline, a proposed budget, and qualifications of the main team members in response to this Terms of Reference.

Application Deadline: August 9, 2024