SCOPE OF WORK

Project Summary

The USAID-funded West Africa Trade and Investment Hub (hereinafter referred to as the Trade Hub) is a five-year, $140 million trade and investment facilitation activity that seeks to improve private sector competitiveness in West Africa through a market-based approach. By working in partnership with the private sector and fostering co-investments, the project will generate new private-sector capital investment into key sectors to create jobs and increase trade between the U.S. and West Africa, including through increased utilization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The project comprises of three main components:

• Design and administration of a Co-Investment Fund for private sector partnerships, including a portion for partnerships in Research and Development (R&D) towards innovating and modernizing practices in Nigeria across five targeted value chains.
• Technical assistance (TA) that directly supports, coordinates, and engages with qualifying recipients (i.e., partners and grantees) to achieve the USAID’s trade and food security objectives.
• Urgently respond to the secondary economic impacts of COVID-19, notably to 1) increase access to working capital with financial actors, 2) prevent and mitigate job losses, and 3) help respond to local and regional supply chain disruptions and shortages of critical medical supplies and services as well as for agricultural inputs and food staples.

Through this Co-Investment Fund and technical assistance, the Trade Hub will improve companies’ abilities to expand business operations, increase productivity, and create jobs that build on the talents and aspirations of West Africa’s growing population. The Trade Hub will collaborate on specific commercial opportunities with firms, service providers, research organizations, as well as other business network actors to access private capital that will contribute to large-scale jobs, exports, and investment, particularly with strong demonstrated or potential links to the U.S. companies and investors.

Through its co-investment partnership, the Trade Hub provided support to 154,440 smallholder farmers in the 2022 farming season to increase their productivity and improve their livelihoods across seven targeted states (Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kebbi and Niger state) and 5 value chains (Aquaculture, Rice, Maize, Cowpea and Soybean). Support provided includes training, input financing, extension services and market access.

Objective

The Trade Hub seeks to conduct a farmers’ survey to determine the outcome of its initiatives on smallholders’ productivity and profitability in Nigeria. The results will be compared with the baseline and the FY21 surveys’ results to help measure progress towards achieving the project outcome indicators (see Table 1 below) and will help understand the project’s achievement and identify potential issues. The survey  will also collect data that will complement and or update existing studies on gender empowerment and social inclusion. The survey should be able to generate information on gender and age gaps, and barriers that could limit the project’s ability to meet its intended goals. For example, this study will focus on understanding the role of women, men and youth in the value chains as well as identifying the opportunities for participation, barriers and constraints hindering their participation and inclusion in the various chains supported by the Trade Hub Activity. The results of the study will be used to further planning and

improve the implementation of the project interventions and will provide, throughout its implementation, the Trade Hub with the appropriate tools and information to tell its story more effectively.

Table 1 Trade Hub list of Indicators to be measured in the Farmers’ Survey

Methodology

Conduct a mixed-method research design consisting of:

• A quantitative survey in seven target states in Nigeria, among smallholder farmers, to measure smallholders’ agricultural productivity, , and profitability of supported smallholder farmers as well as assess the gender and youth status and conditions (challenges, barriers, opportunities, and comparative advantage) in the Nigerian agricultural sector with a focus on aquaculture, maize, rice (wet and dry season), soybean, and cowpea value chains.
• A qualitative component: Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with key supported agribusiness owners’ and other representatives’ perceptions on support received from the Trade Hub and its impact on the productivity of farmers in the targeted states and value chains.

Quantitative part

Sampling Methodology

The survey will capture data from a representative sample of the target population of smallholders using an existing beneficiary-based household questionnaire, to be updated by the consultant with technical oversight from the Trade Hub MEL Team. The questionnaire will address and collect information on productivity, sales, adoption of improved technologies and management practices, employment, access to finance and gender and youth roles (challenges and barriers) amongst the farmers and within the farming communities. The subcontractor will be responsible for determining the sample size using an acceptable sampling frame provided by the Trade Hub. However, stratified sampling methodology is envisioned given the availability of an updated sample frame and the spread of the supported farmers across value chains and locations to mitigate risks of sampling bias and other forms of errors on the validity of findings. The interviews will be administered using smartphones/tablets and the data collected uploaded to an online platform with all data properly geocoded. In total, the Trade Hub team expects the sample size for the quantitative survey to not surpass 1,867 respondents (smallholder farmers). The sample will need to be representative of farmers’ presence within the value chains, gender and age of farmers.
Below is a breakdown of the population for the survey as well as recommended sample size;

Table 1: Value chain distribution

It is expected that an appropriate controlling mechanism will be included in the software, which will not allow the entry of incomplete questionnaires and wrong data format.

Qualitative Methods

To get more in-depth information, Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) will be conducted with agri-businesses owners supported by the Activity. Trade Hub considers the qualitative methods to be highly important for analyzing changes in attitude, behaviour and practice, perception, and knowledge of target beneficiaries. The KIIs will gather information on respondents’ use and knowledge of technologies, access to finance, perception and attitudes on gender and youth access and control to productive resources as well as household power dynamics. The subcontractor will develop key informant interview protocols for this assignment with technical oversight from the Trade Hub. In all cases, a gender lens will be applied to each of these topics to better understand the roles and responsibilities of both men and women and how their perceptions differ. The Trade Hub envisions conducting at least 20 KIIs in the course of this activity.

Survey Design

The subcontractor, with technical oversight from the Trade Hub MEL team, will use the existing instrument that was designed during the FY21 farming season and conduct a pretest and pilot of the questionnaire with at least 30 respondents from the farmers within the sample frame. Following the pilot, the subcontractor will work with the Trade Hub MEL team to finalize the survey instrument if there are any.

Data check

Upon the completion of data collection, 25% of all questionnaires will be checked by the consultant to ensure compliance with methodology, data quality, and other ethical standards.

Survey Team

The survey team should consist of one Team Leader, a specialist in agribusiness development and value chain development, with an excellent understanding of the context where the smallholder farmers were supported.

Field Officers: The number of field officers will be finalized based on the final sample frame. The field officers should have experience in field data collection exercises.

Subcontractor: Is expected to have the overall responsibility for the administration and supervision of the entire survey process. His/her responsibilities will include:

• With oversight from the Trade Hub MEL team, inform local authorities about the administration of the farmers’ survey.
  • Take charge of all the logistics related to the work, which includes the hiring of gender-balanced field officers.
  • Finalize the survey instrument with oversight from the Trade Hub MEL team.
  • Monitor the implementation of the field research phase.
  • Oversee the data entry process.
  • A final report that provides information about the:
    • sampling methodology.
    • field research approach implemented.
    • results of fieldwork completed including response rate (a table specifying targeted and number completing interviews per community), fieldwork logs, data quality checks, etc.).
    • challenges faced in carrying out the work and how these were resolved; and
    • other findings and or recommendations
  • Submit to the Trade Hub all the documents related to the study training materials for enumerators/others, completed questionnaires (if applicable), the final electronic database in SPSS (.sav and syntax file if created), and any other supporting documentation.
  • Participate in survey findings workshop/seminar to present key findings to relevant stakeholders of the project.

The grants field officers who will serve as the enumerator will hold the following responsibilities:

• Ensure that they follow all the survey implementation procedures and complete their allocated interviews within the allocated times.
  • Carry out and follow quality control measures, daily, through the entire course of the fieldwork.
  • Manage team logistics.
  • Review data for accuracy and completeness.
  • Conducting callbacks on respondents.
  • Provision of technical advice regarding the implementation of the sampling plan; and
  • Interpretation and coding of difficult field responses.
  • Send daily feedback and report to their supervisor

Main Tasks

 With oversight from the Trade Hub MEL team, the subcontractor will:

1. Design a research plan that includes a sampling methodology to collect responses from a representative sample of smallholders from the seven target states.
2. Code and upload finalize questionnaire to a Database server agreed with the Trade Hub MEL team.
3. Prepare a Field Procedure Plan, to include an approach to quality control for all aspects of work.
4. Conduct training of enumerators and field supervisors for the survey.
5. Produce training manuals for Enumerators.
6. Using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel, produce an electronic database housing data from respondents for analysis.
7. Write a final report.

Project Work Plan and timelines

With oversight from the Trade Hub MEL team, the subcontractor will be responsible for the following tasks in the conduct of this assignment. It is understood that some tasks will occur concurrently.

1. Meet with The Trade Hub MEL team to discuss/ clarify deliverables.
2. Finalize the research proposal including sampling and the research methodology.
3. Prepare the Field Research Plan.
4. Conduct a pilot of the survey instrument.
5. Finalize the data collection instrument.
6. Develop and test the questionnaire in Survey Solutions.
7. Organize logistics for the fieldwork.
8. Recruit and train Enumerators and Field Supervisors.
9. Community sensitization for the survey.
10. Field data collection.
11. Submit weekly field progress reports.
12. Clean dataset housing survey data.
13. Report writing, and
14. Meet with the CoP and other relevant Trade Hub staff/team to discuss conclusions and final deliverables.

Participate in survey findings workshop/seminar to present key findings to relevant stakeholders of the project.

Quality control

Quality Control will be conducted by specially selected and trained professionals, using any standard CAPI data collection system using tablets/smartphone devices, who did not participate in the interviews.

The subcontractor will implement quality control measures to ensure a high level of Enumerator performance. A full description of these measures and the results of the quality control must be included in the proposal and final report. The subcontractor shall ensure that every respondent can be matched to a questionnaire and an Enumerator.

At a minimum, quality control measures will include verification of the:

• the fact that the interview took place.
  • proper application of the sampling plan in selecting the respondent.
  • approximate duration of the interview.
  • proper administration of the various sections of the questionnaire.
  • proper data entry based on interviewees’ responses; and
  • Enumerator’s general adherence to professional standards.

Each data record should include the following identification fields:

• Interview serial number.
  • Date of interview (MM/DD/YYYY format).
  • Beginning and ending time of each interview; and
  • Enumerator ID number (must be unique in the data file).
  • GIS coordinates of the location where the interview was administered.

N.B. For each verification conducted, a brief verification form should be completed.

Field Log:

Enumerators should, at all times, carry a field log in which they record relevant information on what happens in the field, such as contact and call-back details. The Enumerator logs must include geo codes for an independent observer to locate the selected household.

Observer:

The Trade Hub MEL team may assign an observer to accompany enumerators during fieldwork and/or training. The observer may select the interviews he or she wishes to observe in any part of the surveyed area.

Data analysis

All food insecurity and socio-economic data should be analyzed using SPSS or other analytical statistical software packages. It is expected that correlations and crosstabs (chi-squares) will be utilized to assist the Trade Hub MEL team in learning what factors may be most associated with the indicators of interest. This will help the team in better designing approaches to specifically address related factors.

Capturing Open Ended responses

All responses from open-ended items will be entered verbatim into the data set as is. During data cleaning, a postcode variable of the open-ended variable in the questionnaire will be developed and added to the dataset alongside the open-ended variable.

Key Deliverables

The subcontractor is responsible for providing five main deliverables:

1. Detailed Work Plan and Final Research methodology, including Field Research Plan
   1. Development of data collection instruments; questionnaires and guides, pilot research
   1. Clean data set with coded variables and value labels in SPSS, and syntax file.
   1. Field staff training agenda & relevant training materials
   1. Draft the Annual farmers’ Survey report
   1. The detailed electronic copy of the Final Annual Report. The quantitative results and qualitative information should be integrated into one main report. The analysis should follow the sample design and presents a comparison of results by state. In addition, the subcontractor shall also disaggregate the results by other key variables. For example, analysis of data by sex of HH head or age may reveal some interesting findings and help inform targeting and adjusting the project strategies.

The subcontractor will report directly to The Trade Hub MEL Director, in connection with the performance of the duties under this Agreement and shall fulfil any other duties reasonably requested by Company and agreed to by the subcontractor.

Proposed implementation schedule

We estimate the entire study will take a total of 35 days (Monday to Saturday) from November 10, 2022.

Complete this RFQ form here.