TERMS OF REFERENCE

Baseline quantitative data collection for an assessment of the integration of the Gender Transformative Mechanism (GTM)
into the Participatory Agriculture and Climate Transformation (PACT) programme in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

With support from the Gates Foundation, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is evaluating the integration of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)’s Gender Transformative Mechanism (GTM) into the Participatory Agriculture and Climate Transformation (PACT) programme in two regional states of Ethiopia, Amhara and Oromia.

Implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), PACT interventions will support the increased local production of food, sustainably improve the income and food and nutrition security of poor and vulnerable households and their resilience to climate and other shocks. Through its interventions, PACT will target rural households in select woredas from nine regional states. IFAD’s GTM approach will pair gender-transformative, climate-smart programming with robust monitoring and learning. GTM interventions will be integrated into PACT from inception, providing an opportunity to evaluate impacts on women’s outcomes.

STATEMENT OF WORK

In the two regional states of Amhara and Oromia, IFPRI will assess the impact of the PACT-GTM interventions on outcomes of interest to MoA, IFAD, the Gates Foundation and IFPRI. These include (but are not limited to) (a) participation in PACT training, programming, and interventions; (b) changes in the adoption/use of recommended climate-smart practices and technologies; (c) changes in access to climate finance via microfinance institutions (MFIs); (d) changes in beliefs and perceptions about climate-smart practices and technologies, as well as related social and economic indicators of interest; (e) changing market engagement and inclusion; (f) variation in productivity and income; (g) changes in uptake of climate adaptation strategies; and (h) changes in gender equality and women’s empowerment.

We are looking for a highly experienced firm to conduct the baseline quantitative household surveys in Amhara and Oromia. As part of the baseline, the firm will coordinate and conduct the survey with approximately 2100 households in 104 landscapes in 52 woredas in these two regional states—20 woredas in Amhara and 32 in Oromia. A landscape is the unit of implementation identified by the MoA. One landscape is typically contained within a kebele, but in fewer than 10% of the overall cases a landscape touches two kebeles. Each woreda will have one treatment and one control landscape, the shapefiles (boundaries) of which will be provided to the survey firm. In the treatment landscape, we anticipate receiving a list of households from the implementing partners. However, in the control landscape, the survey firm will need to complete a listing of households.

In each household, a primary male and primary female respondent will be interviewed. We estimate that each individual interview will last about 2 hours. In addition, the firm will conduct 30-minute kebele-level interviews with key informants. If a landscape is included roughly equally in two kebeles, two such interviews might have to be conducted. We expect this to be the case for only a handful (~5%) of landscapes at most.

The survey firm is expected to carry out the following tasks:

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

2. Translate survey instruments in Amharic and Oromiffa. Conduct a 2-day pretest and provide a brief report.

3. Data will be collected via Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) on tablets. The firm will be responsible for providing the tablets needed for this purpose.

4. Develop and test the CAPI data entry program based on the questionnaire provided by IFPRI. The firm will incorporate IFPRI’s feedback on the CAPI program.

5. With assistance from the IFPRI team, prepare a field implementation manual in English and Amharic and Oromiffa 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 and supervisors 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 the enumerator training in collaboration with IFPRI staff. It is expected that this will entail approximately 10 days (all inclusive) of classroom training, in-field practice sessions and debriefing.

8. Make changes in the CAPI and the paper questionnaire based on the in-field practice sessions and feedback from IFPRI. The firm will provide IFPRI with the final versions of the CAPI and paper questionnaires used to collect data.

9. Develop a field schedule for the data collection team so that the IFPRI team can conduct field visits.

10. Develop spot- and back-check protocols and a survey dashboard that will present real-time survey information that can be accessed by the IFPRI team. Share these prior to the start of data collection.

11. Make necessary logistical arrangements for the survey (travel, accommodation, materials etc., as applicable).

12. Conduct the listing of households in the control landscape.

13. Conduct the required number of individual-level surveys.

14. Participate in weekly calls with the IFPRI team to share information on survey progress, including whether households could be interviewed and the outcomes of the spot- and back-checks.

15. Share the complete data generated from CAPI with IFPRI during the data collection, as and when the data is uploaded to the servers and no less than once in two weeks. These data will not be the cleaned data sets, but the raw data sets as sent to the firm from their survey teams.

16. Conduct routine data cleaning to ensure consistency and range-checks, following a data cleaning protocol that IFPRI will share. Share the error check do-files with IFPRI.

17. Deliver cleaned electronic data from the individual-level surveys with three weeks of the close of data collection along with the cleaning do files. The dataset should include translation of any open-ended questions from local languages to English if necessary.

18. Provide a short data collection report including data collection and management and cleaning processes, the template of which will be discussed with IFPRI.

19. Throughout this process, demonstrate responsiveness to IFPRI communications, especially around any urgent data collection or cleaning issues.

R REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

· · Demonstrated experience conducting surveys in Amhara and Oromia in the last 5 years.

· Demonstrated experience working in conflict-afflicted areas, and a clear demonstrable ability to deploy quick solutions to overcome associated field challenges.

· Demonstrated experience conducting survey-related trainings.

· Expert knowledge of local context and languages in the study areas. Written and spoken proficiency in Amharic and Oromiffa is a must.

· Prior experience with quantitative surveys on agriculture and gender.

· Demonstrated experience in successfully coordinating large field teams and managing deliverables.

· Experience in building trust and good relations with local administration, village leaders, interviewees and communities.

· Strong program management skills.

· Excellent computer skills and experience using CAPI and statistical software packages.

· Demonstrated experience with obtaining appropriate local ethics review and permits

Application: Please submit a letter of interest highlighting the qualifications mentioned above; a technical proposal outlining prior experience, team composition and timelines; and a detailed budget. Materials should be submitted in English.

Deadline for the application: March 10, 2025.

**This requisition is only open to firms. **

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