Quantitative Study to Collect Baseline Gender-disaggregated Quantitative Data on Water-Energy-Food-Environment NEXUS and Innovations for Efficient, Inclusive and Climate-Resilient Agrifood Systems in selected provinces (Ferghana Valley, Tashkent, Kashkadarya, and Khoresm)

IFPRI is seeking a FIRM as a survey implementer to conduct household survey in Uzbekistan. This requisition is open to FIRMS / ORGANIZATIONS situated in Uzbekistan only.

Background:

This quantitative research study supports the the CGIAR Initiatives “NEXUS Gains: Realizing Multiple Benefits Across Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystems (Forests, Biodiversity)” and “From Fragility to Resilience in Central and West Asia and North Africa (F2R-CWANA).” The implementer will conduct an intra-household survey and a community survey to understand (1) how agriculture, water and energy systems affect water, energy, and food security and rural livelihoods and (2) how smallholders adopt innovations and what factors affect their decision-making. The main research questions for the study are:

1. What are the main drivers and constraints to innovative farming, water, and energy technologies?

2. What are gendered energy source, access and use portfolios?

3. What are determinants of uptaking subsidies for advanced irrigation technologies?

4. What benefit streams are rural men and women deriving from innovative technologies and alternative energy access portfolios? (income, food security and nutrition, empowerment, climate action, environmental sustainability)

5. What are the determinants of adopting alternative agriculture, water, energy and food security strategies and innovative technologies?

6. How does climate change intersect with water, energy and food security strategies and innovation policies?

7. Does innovations and energy access improve women’s empowerment?

Statement of Work:

The selected firm will be responsible for coordinating and conducting a face-to-face quantitative survey of women and men farmers in selected provinces of Uzbekistan. The survey will last approximately 120 to 150 minutes and will be conducted via computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and needs to be completed by February/March 2024.

The activities of the survey implementer are detailed as follows:

1.Translate survey instrument and interview guide into local languages (as needed).

2.Obtain local ethics clearance, research permits, and/or other local approvals

3.Provide tablets for CAPI data collection.

4.Develop, test, and finalize the CAPI data entry program that will be used to conduct the interviews in the field.

5.Together with IFPRI and IWMI staff, prepare the field implementation manual prior to enumerator training. The field manual will be the basis for quality assurance of the data collection process.

6.Organize the selection, hiring, and payment of enumerators to conduct the required data collection work. This will include hiring both male and female interviewers with the necessary language skills to ensure respondents for the individual interviews are matched on sex.

7.Facilitate and ensure the smooth operation of the enumerator training and survey pretest in collaboration with IFPRI and IWMI staff. It is expected that there will be a 5-day training, followed by a 2-day pretest and debrief, for the quantitative survey.

8.Develop a field schedule for the quantitative data collection teams and community surveys, and provide regular status updates during fieldwork

9.Develop spot- and back-check protocols and share these with IFPRI for feedback prior to the start of data collection.

10.Participate in weekly meetings with IFPRI throughout data collection.

11.Share the data generated from the spot and back-checks and additional data collection concerns with IFPRI in a timely manner so that issues can be promptly resolved.

12.Share the data generated from CAPI (in Stata format) with IFPRI during data collection, as and when the data is uploaded to the servers. These data will not be the cleaned data sets (except for variable and value labels, checking and correcting skip patterns, formatting the data in long format as required), but the raw data sets as sent to the firm from their survey teams.

13.Conduct data cleaning to ensure consistency and range-checks; share the error check do-files with IFPRI.

14.Provide responses to queries from IFPRI in relation to data cleaning (as needed).

15. Deliver cleaned data sets (in Stata format) from the households in long format. The dataset should include translation of any open-ended questions from local languages to English if necessary.

16. Provide a brief report covering quantitative survey fieldwork, as well as any issues related to data management and cleaning.

Period of performance: December 1, 2023 to March 30, 2024.

Required Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience conducting quantitative survey fieldwork in Uzbekistan within the past 5 years.
• Demonstrated experience conducting survey-related trainings.
• Expert knowledge of local context and language/s in the target areas.
• 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.
• Excellent computer skills and experience using CAPI and statistical software packages.
• Demonstrated experience with obtaining appropriate local ethics review and permits

Application: Please upload a proposal outlining the approach, human resources, timing, and costs (including details of staff time, training of trainers, field data collection, overhead, etc.), along with CV/resume (including details of previous related experience) for individual(s) leading the work. We expect that the applicant will be a local survey firm able to handle a contract with IFPRI and source the required human resources to fulfil the scope of work themselves.

Please also submit with your application submit a financial proposal to interview 1500 households (that is 1500 women and men separately) as well as a financial proposal for 2000 households (that is 2000 women and men separately)

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*We are unable to respond to every applicant individually; only selected applicants will be contacted*