Background

With the support of Government of Japan (GoJ), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) will provide solar-powered water pumps across some villages in Upper Egypt to address smallholders’ access to renewable energy and improve irrigation efficiency in Egypt. Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems (SPIS) are particularly appealing in the context of Egypt, where irrigation has been widely used for the production of various food items as well as for household water needs, while many smallholders are not yet connected to electric grids. IFPRI aims to study the impact of introducing solar panels to farmers by looking into the potential improvement of the smallholders’ production and livelihoods after depending on renewable energy for irrigation. This impact evaluation entails a Randomized Control Trials (RCT) experiment to quantify the impact of this intervention.

Scope of work

The survey firm will be responsible for collecting data through baseline and midline face-to-face surveys from an estimate of 600 households in Fayoum and Beni Suef. The selected survey firm will work closely with IFPRI and the implementing company in finalizing and translating the questionnaire to Arabic. Data collection will be conducted through a face-to-face survey. Each survey takes about 1.5 hours. The baseline data collection should start late December 2023 and the endline survey will be collected in 2024. Once the baseline round of data collection is completed, IFPRI and the implementing local NGO will start the intervention implementation in the two governorates. The endline data collection is expected to take place after the completion of the intervention.

The assigned firm will be expected to conduct the following tasks:

• • The questionnaire will be developed in English and the selected survey firm will be expected to translate it into Arabic. Translated questionnaire will then be checked by IFPRI staff.
  • The assigned survey firm will be responsible for obtaining approvals for conducting all fieldwork activities.
  • Recruiting enumerators, supervisors and quality controllers and training them. The training will be scheduled in consultation with IFPRI, to allow their staff to attend and respond to questions as necessary.
  • The assigned survey firm is expected to deliver copies of all training materials used in preparing for the survey (i.e., enumerators training).
  • The assigned survey firm is expected to use a CAPI system for data-entry and would be responsible for programming the questionnaire, including basic consistency checks.
  • The assigned survey firm will lead piloting the survey. The pilot will be conducted to provide a final check on the questionnaires’ design and CAPI programming, as well as length of the interview.
  • Report any issues or questions that arise during the survey to the IFPRI contact person and documented in the fieldwork report. Conduct quality checks.
  • The selected survey firm will be expected to submit the raw data (as originally entered into CAPI at the time of the interview), a cleaned and labeled dataset, and full documentation of how the raw data was processed. This will ensure the cleanliness, completeness, and consistency of the data collection, coding, and entry, as well as to facilitate further tabulations and analysis.
  • Perform any other tasks related to making the phone survey a success as well as the ensuing data collected from it.

Required qualifications of the survey firm

• • Experience in leading fieldwork required for large scale economic surveys.
  • Experience in dealing with international development organizations
  • Familiarity with Egyptian governorates’ context (e.g. Fayoum and Beni Suef)
  • Ability to report to the management team effectively on progress of the work, including the submission of entered data and the identification of noticeable difficulties.

Application Deadline: November 29, 2023