Statement of Work

Survey firm for Tajikistan Rural Household Survey

Request for Proposal (RFP) and Terms of References (TOR) for survey firm.

1. Objectives

The Tajikistan Rural Household Survey aims to survey households and household members in rural Tajikistan, in- person and by phone. The intention of this effort is to create a panel dataset that consists of two-yearly in-person household survey data and half-yearly phone survey data collection in-between these in-person data collection efforts. The data that is being collected intends to fill pertinent evidence gaps on the livelihoods and the resilience of rural households in Tajikistan. This SOW pertains to the first year of data collection, which includes one round of in-person data collection and one round of phone survey data collection.

2. Specific Tasks

A total of 4,008 households will be interviewed in three regions, distributed proportional to the population size in these regions: 1000 households in Sughd Region, 864 households in DRS, and 2144 in Khatlon Province. The sampling frame will consist of the list of enumeration areas (EAs, in this case these will be natural villages) covering all rural areas of the three study regions. In a first stage, EAs will be drawn with probability proportional to size within each region. In a second stage, households will be randomly selected from the household lists in each village. In each EA 12 households should be interviewed, thus interviews will take place in a total of 334 EAs.

The in-person household survey will interview the most knowledgeable household member(s) for the main part of the survey, focusing specifically on the following topics:

– agricultural production, agricultural technology adoption and agricultural investments

– land use and tenure practices

– employment and non-farm enterprises

– migration and remittances

– household and natural shocks

– livelihood and food coping strategies

Moreover, this main survey will be followed by an interview with one individual household member. This household member will be randomly selected among the available male adult household members in 50% of the sample, and among the available female adult household members in the other 50% of the sample. The individual interview will be focusing on the following topics:

– water insecurity (HWISE, https://hwise-rcn.org ) and energy insecurity

– food security and diet quality

– gender-based inequalities (WEMNS, https://weai.ifpri.info/wemns/ )

Administering the household survey is expected to take approximately 2 hours in each household: 1.5 hours for the main component with the most knowledgeable household member(s), and 0.5 hours for the individual component with one individual household member.

A community survey aimed at understanding the food environment and access to rural infrastructure and markets in the ZOI will complement the in-person household survey. The community survey can rely on different knowledgeable respondents, specifically implemented with the aim of obtaining the most accurate information at community-level.

The half-yearly phone surveys are intended to capture seasonality in key indicators of interest, including:

– diet quality and food insecurity

– water and energy insecurity

– employment and remittances

– migration

– any emerging topics of immediate interest

The phone surveys are expected to take approximately 20- 30 minutes per household.

The consultant firm is expected to contribute to the successful completion of the project as follows:

(i) Questionnaire improvements through feedback and pretesting. The questionnaire itself will be coded for CAPI and translated by IFPRI.

(ii) Household listing in randomly selected EAs.

(iii) Organizing all relevant logistics related to direct implementation of survey activities related to the in-person household and community survey:

a. Enumerator recruitment and contracting. The enumerator teams are requested to consist of both male and female enumerators to ensure that individual respondents can be interviewed by a person of similar gender.

b. Enumerator training: we suggest minimum 5 days training and 1 day of pretesting, to be conducted with relatively small groups of enumerators yet simultaneously in four different locations (in/near Dushanbe, Bokhtar, Kulob, and Khujand). Each training will include minimum one IFPRI staff, but requires also minimum 1 trainer provided by the survey firm.

c. Survey implementation: this includes all necessary actions to successfully collect the data. It requires providing tablets for data entry, facilitating all logistics for enumerators (lodging, transport, planning, etc.), deployment of enumerators to interview households and communities …

d. Quality control: during and upon completion of the data collection

(iv) Organizing all relevant logistics related to direct implementation of survey activities related to the phone survey.

3. Timeframe

The timeframe for the survey implementation is outlined in Table 1. The in-person household survey should be implemented in January-February of 2025. To ensure timely completion of the project, preparations should start latest in November 2024. All necessary materials and actions should be taken such that the enumerator training will take place at the beginning of January 2025. The data collection will take place from mid-January to end of February, and should end prior to start of Ramadan. IFPRI, jointly with its local partners, will ensure necessary approval will be obtained from relevant government authorities. The community survey will be implemented during the same period as the in-person household survey.

Any impeding unexpected circumstances – including likely cold and harsh weather conditions during January and February – may cause delays in this timeline. Enumerator teams will therefore be asked to first prioritize visiting the most remote villages, to ensure reaching them while weather conditions allow. If selected villages are not sufficiently accessible to interviewers during January and February (potentially in Aini, Kuhistoni Mastchoh and Shahriston districts, among others), enumerator teams will be asked to attempt to interview them in April.

The phone surveys should be conducted with the same households, six months after the in-person data collection.

4. PROPOSAL

With this announcement, interested survey firms are requested to submit a technical and financial proposal to be considered by IFPRI. Proposals should be submitted by November 5, 2024.

Table 1. Tajikistan Rural Household Survey: time planning for the survey firm, November 2024-November 2025

5. SELECTION CRITERIA

Consultants or consultant firms will be selected based on their experience in conducting household survey data collection, based on familiarity with the region, and expertise in the research topic.