SUMMARY: The survey firm will be responsible for the field data collection of household and community surveys in selected governorates of southern Yemen under the control of the internationally recognized government, including obtaining necessary permits or clearance, piloting, recruitment, training, and contracting of experienced field staff, and data quality checks.
Survey Firm to Support the International Food Policy Research Instituteโs surveying of fish consumers of the Sustainable Fisheries Development and Resilient Coastal Livelihoods in Southern Yemen Project
Request for Proposal (RFP) and Terms of References (TOR) for Survey Companies
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Yemenโs marine ecosystems are highly productive. Yemen was the second-largest fish-producer on the Arabian Peninsula prior to the political crisis beginning in 2014. Most of the countryโs fish landings are from artisanal fisheries. Prior to the crisis, Yemen pursued progressive fishery policies that prioritized access to marine resources by small-scale fishers in preference to building up an industrial fleet or licensing fishing rights to fleets from abroad. Yemen produced more than 220,000 tons of fish annually before the crisis, generating 2-3% of GDP. Much of this catch was exported, providing Yemenโs third largest source of export earnings. Since this time landings are estimated to have fallen by nearly half. Catches have declined due to crisis-related factors including the destruction of fishing vessels and port infrastructure by airstrikes, marine minefields, sea blockades and border closures restricting vessel movement and fish trade, and damage to power supplies needed for ice production and refrigeration. Average fish supply per capita has fallen from 5.5 to 3.2 kg/year since the crisis, which is far below the global average of 20.5 kg/year.
Marine fish is a common food especially in coastal Yemeni diets (but regular consumption is often unaffordable for poor households). Fish is a particularly nutrient-dense food, so any reduction in supply has negative implications for human nutrition. Poor diets are a particularly urgent concern in Yemen where almost half of children were stunted even before the current crisis, suggesting high levels of nutrient deficiency in childhood.
Many of Yemenโs fish stocks are likely overexploited, demanding more sustainable management to maintain their contributions to Yemenโs economy and food system, as well as resilient household livelihoods, over the long term. Most research on Yemenโs fisheries to date has focused on the Red Sea and the Socotra Archipelago. Comparatively little is known about fisheries in southern Yemenโs Gulf of Aden.
As highlighted at the recent conference โThe Role of Yemenโs Fisheries Sector in Fostering Livelihoods, Food Security and Economic Empowermentโ in Amman, there is an urgent need for better data and rigorous evidence to understand the potential of Yemenโs fisheries sector in contributing to economic development and to guide the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Fish Wealth (MAIFW), other public sector agencies, development partner organizations, and the private sector in making investment and policy decisions.
To address this data and knowledge gap, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) proposes a research and knowledge exchange project designed to: First, provide a comprehensive diagnostic of the status and sustainability of fisheries in contributing to coastal household livelihoods and food and nutrition security in southern Yemen, and derive recommendations for promoting sustainable fisheries development, strengthening resilience of household livelihoods, and improving food and nutrition security from the research findings. Second, foster exchange of on-topic knowledge and information with the Fisheries Sub-working Group (FSG) and other relevant stakeholders to support coordination among actors in southern Yemenโs fisheries sector, and promote utilization of the evidence generated by the project including in planning and implementation of fisheries development policies and programs.
METHODOLOGY
The selected survey firm will survey 1600 individuals in 40 locations in Hadhramout about their consumption of fish. The 40 locations will be randomly selected by IFPRI for geographic representation, including 10 rural coastal locations, 10 rural inland locations, 10 urban coastal locations, and 10 urban inland locations. Within each location, a quasi-random sampling methodology may be proposed by the survey firm for identifying respondents. The survey length will be a maximum of 20 minutes with an average of 10 minutes and may be administered either in person or by phone. Approximately half of the respondents do not consume any fish and hence the survey length will be only 5 minutes for collection of demographic data.
Additionally, the survey firm will provide 4 highly skilled data collectors to work in close collaboration with IFPRI and a fisheries expert consultant to support the collection of value chain and price data from fishermen, customers, and ice producers at selected markets and landing sites near Mukalla during a period of 2 weeks in October. IFPRI and the fisheries consultant will provide training and quality supervision for this portion of the work.
Questionnaires
The selected survey firm will work with the research team under supervision of IFPRI to finalize the design of the questionnaire to make sure it fits the Yemeni context.
SPECIFIC TASKS
3.1 Obtaining necessary permits or clearance for the survey
Acquire all permissions necessary for conducting the survey, including relevant permissions from national and/or local authorities as needed for conducting in-person surveys.
Adhere to local formalities and obtain any required permits related to the survey implementation, as well as survey team health and accident insurance, salary, taxes, and others as necessary.
3.2 Questionnaire finalization
The survey firm is expected to use a computerized system for data entry that will enable remote real-time monitoring by the research under supervision of IFPRI. IFPRI will provide the coding in Kobo format. Final review of the Kobo tool and testing will be carried out jointly by IFPRI and the survey firm.
After developing the questionnaires and receiving approvals, the selected survey firm will implement a pilot test under supervision of IFPRI with 20 respondents to provide a final check on the questionnairesโ design and data entry system as well as length of the interview.
3.3 Recruitment and training
The main data collection involves several activities that are described in some details below:
Recruiting enumerators
Enumerators should drawn from a pool of experienced data collectors.
Training and Testing
Training sessions may be conducted in-person or remotely but must encompass a full review of the questionnaire with sufficient space with clarification of the purpose and meaning of each question, supervised practice with partners in going through the full questionnaire and using the CAPI, and assessment of interviewer readiness for fieldwork.
All data collectors must demonstrate good understanding of the survey instrument and consistent coding of responses through a standardized test, the results of which will be shared with IFPRI. Interviewers who do not perform well will be excluded from the remainder of the training and main data collection.
3.4 Main Data Collection
Quality Controllers Mechanism
The survey firm is expected to propose an appropriate and well-tested quality control mechanism. One of the main quality control mechanisms is to have a random back-checks component for 10 percent of the sample which will be shared with the research team under supervision of IFPRI to verify acceptable level of confidence that interviews took place according to the study criteria.
At the end of the training sessions, interviewers are ranked based on an overall evaluation of their performance. The best performing interviewers will be selected to participate in the main data collection. Ranking results will also be considered in team creation to ensure a balance of interviewer levels.
Documentation
Any issues or questions that arise during the data collection should be communicated to the IFPRI contact person and documented in the data collection report.
Data monitoring
During the period