Consultant – Data collection firm to support qualitative formative research on the livelihoods of young women and young men in Rwanda at IFPRI – International Food Policy Research Institute: (Deadline 23 May 2023)

Background

The International Food Policy Research Institute with support from the Mastercard Foundation and in collaboration with the UN World Food Programme have begun a five-year partnership titled Strengthening food systems to promote increased value chain employment opportunities for youth. This initiative aims to strengthen local food systems and make them more efficient, sustainable, and inclusive for youth, in particular young women, and is being implemented in eight countries: Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal Tanzania, and Uganda. This work falls under the Young Africa Works Strategy, which aims to create dignified and fulfilling work for 30 million young people in Africa, with a specific focus on jobs for young women.

With these goals in mind, IFPRI is seeking an experienced data collection partner with expertise in qualitative methods to collaborate on a formative qualitative study that aims to examine the barriers and opportunities for young women and young men in agricultural value chains.

Overview

IFPRI aims to conduct a qualitative formative study with the goal of answering the following research questions:

• How do young women and young men define and experience dignified and fulfilling work?
• How are young women and young men currently participating in agricultural value chains?
• What obstacles do young women and young men face to participating in the processing and marketing of agricultural products?
• How do gender or social norms limit the involvement of young women and young men in processing and marketing activities? How can these norms be addressed or accommodated?
• What types of financial services are young women and young men currently using? What obstacles do they face to accessing capital and safeguarding resources to enable their participation in AVCs?
• What aspects of the Farmer Service Center (FSC) model (coaching, capacity building, materials distribution) can be strengthened to specifically ensure opportunities for young women?

To this end, we will conduct in-depth qualitative data collection in six communities (to be identified in consultation with the selected data collection firm and WFP-Rwanda. The in-depth data collection will take approximately 4 days in each community. During this time the data collection team will collect data using the following elements: 8 semi-structured individual interviews (with 4 young women and 4 young men active in agricultural value chains), 4 focus group discussions (1 with young women active in agricultural value chains, 1 with young men active in agricultural value chains, 1 with young women not active in agricultural value chains, 1 with young men not active in agricultural value chains), 3 key informant interviews (with FSC leads and financial service providers), and 2 structured observations (in FSCs and processing centers). They will also guide 8 young people in each community on data collection via photo voice methodologies.

Activities

·Finalize sampling plan; assist in identifying respondent households.

·Assist in submission of study protocol to the national (Rwanda) committees for research approval and permits.

·Provide input into the discussion guides and translate the interview guides and other materials into Kinyarwanda as needed.

·Identify and select all interviewers, including both women and men so that interviewers and interviewees can be matched on gender.

·Lead training of the field team, jointly with an IFPRI staff member (approximately 5 days).

·Pilot test the discussion guides and other data collection materials.

·Supply materials for data collection (e.g., paper copies of interviews guides, recorders (rented) and cameras (rented)

·Take primary responsibility for the logistical aspects of fieldwork (e.g., renting transportation, lodging, recruitment of respondents, seeking community-level approval as appropriate).

·Provide regular communication on data collection and data processing throughout the duration of the project.

·Transcribe and translate audio recordings of interviews and focus groups into English and respond to questions on the clarification of the content of the transcripts.

·Deliver final data and a field report that incorporates IFPRI’s feedback.

Required Qualifications:

·Demonstrated experience conducting qualitative studies.

·Demonstrated ability to provide adequate logistical resources to recruit, train, deploy, and supervise facilitators.

·Ability to conduct interviews and focus groups in Kinyarwanda while providing data and documentation in English.

·Experience in building trust and good relations with village leaders, interviewees, and program staff.

Preferred Qualifications:

·Experience working with international and national researchers.

·Experience co-authoring reports and other publications.

Application

To apply, the following items should be submitted:

·Letter of intent describing the capacity, experience, and availability to conduct this work

·Budget

·Examples of the applicant firm’s previous qualitative work

CVs of primary researchers

All supporting documents should be uploaded as one pdf to the application section indicating “CV or Resume”.

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