RFP for Field Research Partner for Focused Ethnographic Study in Hawassa, Ethiopia – The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)

Consultancy and Training, Research and Development, Social Sciences and Community

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)

Each day, 795 million people — one in nine — go hungry. Close to 2 billion people survive on diets that lack the vital vitamins and nutrients needed to grow properly, live healthy lives, and raise a healthy family. About 1.4 billion people worldwide struggle with overweight and obesity. That’s more than the number of people who are hungry worldwide.

In total, around 3.5 billion people — half the people on the planet today — are malnourished.

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is an international organization that was launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition.

GAIN is driven by the vision of a world without malnutrition. We act as a catalyst — building alliances between governments, business and civil society — to find and deliver solutions to the complex problem of malnutrition. Today we are on track to reach over a billion people with improved nutrition – a goal for 2015.

We focus our efforts on children, girls and women because we know that helping them have sustainable, nutritious diets is crucial to ending the cycle of malnutrition and poverty. By building alliances that deliver impact at scale, we believe that we can eliminate malnutrition within our lifetimes.

ABOUT GAIN

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with both governments and businesses, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver more nutritious food for all people. GAIN has been re-registered and accorded legal personality with re-registered and accorded legal personality with registry Number 2896 by Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Agency for Civil Society Organization. GAIN in Ethiopia is working on different project on nutrition. At GAIN, we believe that everyone in the world should have access to nutritious and safe food. We work to understand and deliver specific solutions to the daily challenge of food insecurity faced by poor people. By understanding that there is no “one-size-fits-all” model, we develop alliances and build tailored programmes, using a variety of flexible models and approaches. We build alliances between governments, local and global businesses, and civil society to deliver sustainable improvements at scale. We are part of a global network of partners working together to create sustainable solutions to malnutrition. Through alliances, we provide technical, financial and policy support to key participants in the food system. We use specific learning, evidence of impact, and results of projects and programmes to shape and influence the actions of others.

BACKGROUND

The EatSafe (Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food) programme aims to generate evidence and knowledge of the potential of increased consumer demand for safe food to substantially improve the safety of nutritious foods in informal market settings in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The five-year programme is funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and will be undertaken by a consortium led by GAIN and containing the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Pierce Mill Education and Media. As part of this work, GAIN seeks to undertake a Focused Ethnographic Study (FES) in Hawassa in Sidama Region. The FES is a qualitative study that will be conducted to understand how consumers and vendors perceive food safety, both as a concept and in their daily lives, and how food safety-related decisions are made. This will include examining how consumers and vendors understand, speak about, and recognize food safety; whether food safety is an issue or concern that enters into consumer or vendor purchase and 4 sale decisions; and how food safety risk, exposure, and ability to mitigate or manage it are influenced by gender. The FES will be deployed in two phases and will use in-depth interviews, semi-structured interviewing, market observations, and cognitive mapping techniques (e.g., free listing, rating, and pile sorting) to examine perceptions, knowledge, and experiences related to food safety among both consumers and informal market vendors. In Phase 1 of the FES, interviews will be done with ‘key informant’ consumers and vendors who will be asked to offer insight into beliefs and practices of their general population (of consumers or vendors). In Phase 2, the interviews will focus more in depth on individuals’ specific experiences, with the lines of inquiry guided by the results of Phase 1. GAIN seeks a research partner to undertake the field data collection, data cleaning, and transcription for this study.

SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

• The consultant, in coordination with GAIN staff in Ethiopia and elsewhere and with other project partners as needed, shall provide the following services:
• Work closely with GAIN to prepare a detailed workplan for the fieldwork, including deliverables and timeline
•  Provide expert input into the design of data collection methodology and tools, and customize them to local contexts
•  Translate all questionnaires from English into agreed-upon local languages
• Provide expertise on the local language, culture, and customs, as it pertains to the study activities and objectives.
•  Travel to study sites as needed to prepare for data collection activities.
•  Liaise with local government and other stakeholders as needed to prepare for data collection activities.
•  Prepare and submit the study protocol for ethical review to a relevant institutional review board (IRB) or research ethics committee (if not already obtained by GAIN); follow-up with the IRB to ensure review and approval, as needed.
• Pilot data collection tools (e.g. interview guides) and recommend improvements as needed;
•  Recruit experienced field data collection teams (interviewers and notetakers)
•  In coordination with GAIN, train field data collection teams through an in-depth and interactive training, including coverage of research ethics.
• Organize all logistics for field data collection, including team staff, supervision, transport, and necessary allowances; including local translators if required.
•  Recruit study participants (i.e., local consumers and vendors), in line with study inclusion criteria
•  Implement 2 phases of data collection (in depth interviews and market observations), with attention to both adherence to study protocols and resource efficiency. Ensure high-quality audio recording of 5 all interviews.
•  Undertake active and ongoing supervision of data collection
•  Safely and confidentially collect, store, and back-up the collected data using appropriate hardware and software.
• Transcribe all audio recordings of interviews into verbatim English-language transcripts (Microsoft Word documents)
• Enter demographic information collected during the interviews into an Excel database
• Enter any additional field notes and forms into Word documents
• Maintain communications with GAIN, local study site representatives, or other key stakeholders, in order to ensure smooth and timely field work operations; during and beyond site visits, maintain good relations with groups and individuals involved in the study directly or indirectly.
• Manage communications with study participants, e.g. to timely answer questions through a dedicated call number and/or email address;
• Conduct Quality assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) procedures on all collected data (audio files, notes, and transcripts).
• Securely transfer QA/QC-ed data to GAIN at agreed-upon intervals throughout the study.
• Participate in regular project meetings with GAIN and study partners.
• Be available for ad-hoc communications with GAIN or study partners, e.g, via email or zoom as needed to advance study objectives
• Produce interim and final deliverables according to the workplan, including providing detailed reports of all methods used for data collection, transcription and QA/QC.

The exact sample sizes of the study are to be determined, but for budgeting purposes the consultant should assume: 30 people are interviewed in the first phase, in interviews lasting about 2 hours each; 54 people are interviewed in the second phase, in interviews lasting about 2 hours each; and an additional 46 people are interviewed in the second phase in shorter interviews lasting only about 20-30 minutes. All data collection will be done face-to-face and in the Hawassa area.

DELIVERABLES 

EXPECTED EXPERTISE

The consultant organization must have significant (at least 10 years) of prior experience with:

•  Organizing and managing research projects that include rigorous field data collection of human behavioral data in scientific disciplines such as public health, social and behavioral sciences, applied economics, anthropology, sociology, food safety and nutrition.
• • Developing and implementing qualitative data collection methods, such as in-depth semi-structured or unstructured interviews and behavioral observations, with knowledge of the techniques needed to ask context-appropriate non-scripted questions and shift interview style as needed during interviews. • Experience conducting ethnographic research is an advantage.
•  • Track record of successful collaboration with NGOs and research organizations.
• • Experience in rigorous data management, such as properly recording data and metadata in the field using appropriate technology, transcribing, annotating, cleaning, storing and backing up, formatting, deidentifying, and safely transferring.
•  • Experience with preparing protocols for ethical clearance (IRB) at the state level.
• • Experience working in Hawassa city and familiar with government and institutional structures governing food markets in Ethiopia and Hawassa city.
• • Knowledgeable and oriented to understand study participants and their context in a nuanced way, and to be well received by study participants, the market population, and residents of the surrounding areas as respected organization and individuals.
• • Experience in recruiting field data collectors and have a network of experienced qualitative interviews on which to draw.
• • Experience with transcription and translation of qualitative interviews and have a network of experienced transcribers and translators on which to draw.
• • Team leaders must possess excellent project management, planning, organizational, time management, and communication skills.
•  • A track record of results published in scientific journals is an asset

Lien