Background

IFPRI, in collaboration with partners, is conducting a study to test innovations that can improve the design of crop insurance product and accelerate varietal turnover in Ethiopia. The insurance component aims to strengthen Pula’s area Yield Index Insurance (YII) in the Amhara region that insures the value of purchased inputs against low yield due to a wide range of climate risks, including drought, excessive rainfall, pests and diseases, and several other peril. Specifically, the study tests whether YII can be strengthened by using smartphone images of insured crops as a mechanism to provide fail-safe insurance coverage. The component on accelerating varietal turnover promote recently released improved (drought-tolerant) teff and wheat varieties through trial packs. The study also aims to assess the complementary or linkage between insurance and access to new varieties that are more drought tolerant. Theoretically, newly released drought tolerant varieties can help farmers to manage moderate risks, whilst insurance can cover more severe/extreme risks. IFPRI is seeking a qualified consultant who will coordinate the qualitative assessment of the seed promotion/trial pack component.

Scope of work

The seed promotion component is being implemented in more than 80 kebeles in Amhara region and the qualitative assessment will be conducted in selected 10 kebeles/villages. The data collection will be conducted September/October 2024, and the consultant will be mainly responsible for the following tasks:

• Translation: The qualitative discussion guides will be developed by the consultant and the research team at IFPRI, and an external collaborator and the consultant will translate the guides/tools into Amharic.
• Recruiting, hiring, and managing facilitators and note takers: the consultant will be responsible for the recruitment of 12 discussion facilitators and note takers. The discussion facilitators and note takers should have a university degree and experience with at least three prior projects conducting and transcribing in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) on similar or closely related topics.
• Organizing training session to be led IFPRI’s external collaborator: the consultant will be responsible for organizing a 3-day training session (2 days in the classroom plus one-day pilot). This includes renting a training hall, availing all the necessary materials for the training, and arranging logistics for piloting.
• Organizing and conducting qualitative data collection: organize for data collection among approximately 20 FGDs and 30 key informant interviews (KIIs) with selected smallholder farmers and district and kebele level stakeholders. The organization of qualitative data mainly include:
  • Providing all relevant materials (printed consent forms, interview guides, enumerator IDs, voice recorders, etc.) for the collection of data and field team.
  • Organizing/developing the data collection plan/logistics.
  • The rental of 4×4 vehicles to be used for data collection and all vehicles shall be insured for all its occupants in case of any injury occurring during transport.
  • Conducting FGDs (with an interviewer pair) and KIIs (with one interviewer).
  • Checking the quality of the work performed by facilitators and note takers.
  • Transcribing and translating interviews and discussions from Amharic into English.
  • Conducting a debriefing session with the team and preparing a summary report.
• Supervise data entry and conduct analysis: the consultant will be responsible for supervising the qualitative data entry using software provided by the research team, conduct the analysis of the qualitative data, and provide a report addressing the key research questions in the project.

Required qualifications of the consultant

• PhD degrees in Social Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, or Masters degrees plus five years of professional experience in these fields.
• Demonstrated professional experiences in qualitative research (i.e., designing data collection instruments/guides, data entry and analysis using software package, and preparation of qualitative report).
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in agricultural economics, rural development, nutrition, and/or food security fields.

Application documents

Please upload your CV, recent qualitative research work (technical report or published research paper), and the estimated budget on the online application form.

Application deadline: September 3, 2024