Call for consultancy service to undertake primary quantitative data collection in Amhara Region – RTI International
Agriculture, Consultancy and Training
RTI International
In the international education sector, from our longstanding work in post-apartheid South Africa to innovative work in Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), including recently in Ethiopia, RTI works to improve education quality, relevance, access, and efficiency around the world.
RTI is recruiting for the USAID Ethiopia READ-TA education project, focused on curriculum revision and textbook development. We are looking for proven performance in a variety of areas, with knowledge and experience in implementing evidence-based approaches to instructional improvement. These positions will be a long term, overseas assignment in Ethiopia. Local candidates preferred. Females are strongly encouraged to apply.
Research Triangle Institute (RTI) has over 30 years’ experience assisting governments, communities, and the private sector. As a not-for-profit, independent research institute based in North Carolina, USA, RTI has roughly 5,000 employees with global experience implementing international development projects. RTI’s Sustainable Growth & Resilience (SG&R) technical unit within the International Development Group brings together RTI experts and capabilities across food security, agriculture, energy, environment, water, governance, and economic opportunity. SG&R will leverage RTI’s experience designing and delivering multisectoral programming and technical solutions to respond to climate change, build resilience, and promote economic growth around the world.
RTI is recruiting consultant firm to collect primary data for a project in Ethiopia, Poverty Reduced Sustainably in an Environment of Resilient and Vibrant Economy (PReSERVE). It is a consortium of Food for the Hungry (FH) Ethiopia and its partners, RTI International (RTI), Professional Alliance for Development (PADet), Amhara Development Association (ADA), Bahir Dar University, Dimagi, and iDE. PReSERVE is an integrated activity to improve food security of vulnerable households in targeted Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) communities in the Amhara Region and contribute to a sustained reduction in rural poverty.
PReSERVE will reach 224,454 direct PSNP participants in nine contiguous woredas in Wag Hemra, South Gondar, and Central Gondar zones in Amhara Region. FH Ethiopia will build on its previous work in seven of the nine woredas to implement a prioritized portfolio of evidence based, catalytic interventions with potential to push the needle on graduation of ultra-poor PSNP households from poverty. Grounded on the PSNP design, PReSERVE will improve the effectiveness and accountability of core PSNP activities and test evidenced solutions through livelihood deepening (LD) interventions. LD interventions will be implemented in four of the nine woredas that were selected due to evidence of potential for market-related improvements and overall impact. Targeting one third of the total PSNP caseload, with special focus on the social groups of interest (women, youth, and people with disabilities). LD activities will target 13,100 PSNP HHs and 24,045 youth (50% female).
Scope of Work
The consulting firm is responsible for undertaking household level primary data collection pertaining to the research objectives and activities related to Youth Employment and Labor Market from selected three woredas from Amhara region.
A total of 500 households from Lay Gayint and Tach Gayint woredas from South Gondar zone and Sahila woreda from Wag Hemira zone will be interviewed using a tablet-based survey instrument uploaded on ODK or other related tools. The selected households will be distributed into LD targeted kebeles for each woreda.
The household questionnaires to be used for data collection will include information on the key outcome variables identified in the overall research questions: food security, household expenditures as a proxy for income, household consumption and productive assets, access to markets and services, household livelihoods and sources of income, labor availability and labor demand.
- Household composition,
- Access to financial services, extension, information, electricity, internet, productive asset,
- Household asset and income
- Group participation
- Social capital (Bonding, Bridging and Linking Social Support)
- Job-related migration patterns and related safety risks
- The effect of the conflict created to male and female youth enfranchisement and agency
- Factors affecting active participation and employment of youth living with disabilities
Consultant qualification
Consultant should:
- Have team members with an appropriate qualification in Agricultural Science, Development Studies or other related fields for data collectors and post-graduate qualification for supervisors
- Have excellent knowledge and appropriate research experience of at least two years in Amhara region
- Have a roster of fully trained and qualified male and female enumerators in the target zones
- Be a consultant under the set of legal provisions or under any valid legal cover
- Have a commitment to meet the deadline
- Strong interviewing, discussions, analytical, and research skills
- Prove and References for successfully conducting assignments of similar nature
Deliverables
- Household sample based on sampling frame
- Contextualization of the survey instruments and translating in Amharic
- ODK programming of the data collection/ survey instrument(s) for both kebele-level and household-level instruments
- Training of data collectors and supervisors as well as pre-testing/ rehearsal of the instrument
- Data collection and cleaning
- Quality control and supervision of data collectors
- Uploading the filled questionnaire to server
- Consider feedback and make corrections
- Data collection and COVID 19 prevention protocols
- Field report detailing operational issues, adjustments to protocols, and contextual observations
