Consultancy at Norwegian Refugee Council Myanmar

Terms of Reference for Research Consultant

Post-Covid-19 Household Economy Analysis – Kayin and Kayah States

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) intends to engage a consultant (individual or

organization) to perform a Household Economy Analysis in Kayin and Kayah States.

Background: NRC Livelihoods (LLH) programs assist displaced populations, those returning
from displacement, and communities hosting significant displaced populations, to gain skills
toward the goal of finding employment and/or building small businesses. The NRC LLH
Program operates in Kayin and Kayah States and the Thanintharyi Region in the Southeast,
and Shan and Kachin States in the Northeast. At some point NRC may also initiate
Livelihoods programming in Rakhine State.

The context of NRC’s Livelihoods programs is generally rural and in the informal sector,
occurring in villages among beneficiaries whose literacy skills are sometimes limited and
who have often been separated from the “regular” economy for extended periods.

Assessment Goal

The objective of the present consultancy is to provide information on disruptions caused by

the Corona virus and its control measures to the economic status of sample households within
the population served by NRC in the Southeast area of Myanmar.

The survey to be undertaken should include:

 A retrospective depiction of the targeted households’ pre-Covid-19 economic

activities, sources of livelihood, market context for items purchased, consumed,
produced, and sold, connections to distant labor markets through migration, etc.
The analysis should show the breakdown of reliance on different support sources and
coping strategies prior to March 2020.
 This description should include any effects of recent or past conflict such as
displacement status, restrictions on movement related to conflict, disruptions to
livelihoods, etc.
 A listing of Covid-19 control measures put in place since March 2020, such as
community isolation measures, business or market closures, travel restrictions, or
others.
 Impacts of these control measures on the livelihoods of target households, in the form
of loss of access to markets, loss of revenue, changes to the prices of goods, reduced
agricultural production, loss of productive assets.
  Information about migrant family members and their employment, unemployment,
repatriation;
 Estimates of the scale of household-level economic impacts, in the form of changes to
revenues and expenses of the different sorts experienced by families. This should
include both local income and migrant remittance income.
 Community-level estimates of the numbers of people quarantined and returned
migrants; proportions of returned migrants intending to migrate again, remain in
original communities, work with their families, seek other work, start businesses, etc.
 Estimates of whether the economic effects of Covid-19 reported are temporary,
medium term, or permanent.

Methodology

The HEA will be implemented by a consulting organization with documented experience in

rural economic assessments in Myanmar. It is expected that the firm will use a balanced
range of qualitative and quantitative methods which includes but not limited to the below list.

 Desk Review: Review of the NRC LLH program and the cultural, economic, and
political background of conflict-affected communities in Kayin and Kayah States.

 Quantitative data collection: This will include interviews with key informants and
other stakeholders, field visits in the implementation areas for sampling, data
collection and observations, structured household interviews with sampled project
stakeholders.

 Qualitative data collection: Focus group discussions and interviews with field staff
and with sampled potential beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries;

 Household Economy Approach (HEA) Analysis; to be undertaken by analyzing

unique livelihoods in the designated areas and helping develop a clear and accurate
representation of the effects of Covid-19 on community household economies in the
project areas. The main aim of the HEA analysis will be to help NRC design
interventions to help households to cope with changes in economic conditions, such
as return from displacement inside or outside Myanmar, loss of productive assets,
separation from traditional markets, etc.

Survey Design

The contractor will design a survey instrument in collaboration with NRC. NRC will provide
the content of its tablet-based community needs assessment questionnaire, which includes
Covid-19-related questions, as a starting point.

Sampling Plan

The HEA should include the districts of Kayin and Kayah States in proportion to their
populations of people affected by conflict, as well people returning from such displacement,
as well as communities hosting significant numbers of displaced people. Information on these
populations will be provided by NRC.
An indicative coverage would be something like the following (with details to be proposed by
candidates):

 A total of 10 villages covered in Kayin and Kayah States;

 At least 60 households interviewed individually regarding their household economy
and livelihoods; more households as time allows;
 A focus group discussion (FGD) in each village with participants not included in the
individual household interview;
 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with community leaders, relevant government
officials dealing with economic, agricultural, migration, and borderlands issues, staff
of NRC and other NGOs active in the villages, and relevant actors in the private
sector such as agro-shops, buyers of farm produce, etc.

The Consultant’s enumerator team may be deployed accordingly, i.e. one to conduct FGDs,
one to conduct KIIs, and several to interview households individually; details to be proposed
by candidates.

Since NRC’s focus is on refugees, internally displaced households, those returning from
displacement, and communities hosting displaced people, the villages chosen will have
populations of displaced or recently returned households. The household sampling for
individual interviews and FGDs should take care to include as many of these as possible.

The household members interviewed individually should include both male and female, older
and youthful respondents in as equal proportions as possible; surveyors should deliberately
include migrants and people with disabilities. The households should be chosen randomly, so
that they accurately represent the economic profile of each village. The consultant shall
propose its sampling method and discuss with NRC LLH staff. If informant availability is a
challenge, due to agricultural work or social obligations, the Consultant can plan adaptation
strategies, such as visiting workers in their fields, interviewing female household leaders, or
scheduling interviews around the convenience of informants. Whatever the adaptation
strategy used, it should not result in a skewed selection of informants, i.e. a bias toward those
not involved in agriculture.

Before launching, the survey questionnaire should be pre-tested on a small sample of

households.

Covid-19 procedures

Focus groups and other activities should include no more than 10 people at one time. Face
masks must be used by NRC consultants, who must also wash hands at the beginning and end
of each activity. Consultants should encourage, but not require, participants to do the same.
During meetings, consultants and participants must maintain a distance of at least 2 meters
between individuals.

Inception report

All reports are to be submitted in English language.

After discussions with NRC LLH staff regarding the sampling plan, survey questionnaire,
data tabulation, and field deployment schedule, the consultant will produce a short inception
report containing an overview of their understanding of the assignment, time schedule, travel
schedule, planned activities, suggested methods and potential interviewees. The Consultant
must demonstrate that all required topics for the research are covered in the plan. NRC’s
signature on this report will be the signal to launch the field survey.

Data Collection

The HEA field survey shall be carried out by a team of enumerators hired and managed by
the consultant. The data collection team must have required technical and localized
knowledge, experience and integrity. The Consultant is responsible for ensuring that the data
collection process not feature leading or suggestive questioning, guesswork, exaggeration,
information suppression, or other common survey tendencies that can skew data. Where
informants are not forthcoming with information after several differing attempts, the surveys
should simply note “data not available” with a likely explanation for the reason, such as fear
of taxation, lack of record-keeping, social apprehension, etc.

Data should be tabulated and stored in digital format each day during the survey, to permit
the Contractor to detect and resolve any issues that arise in short order. The Contractor may
consult with NRC regarding such issues during the survey, and modifications may be
proposed to resolve such issues. Any modifications must be agreed by NRC. A data mask
will be developed for entering the completed questionnaires after finalization following pre-
testing.

Note: Because the HEA research asks for participants’ income information, sensitivity must
be shown and assurances given that the information gathered will remain confidential and
that no informant’s personal information will be given to anyone outside NRC. If informants
show reticence, Consultant enumerators should offer the chance for anonymity, letting the
informants choose a number or a nick-name instead of giving their real names.

Subcontracting: If the Consultant hires a subcontractor to supply the survey enumerators, the
details of the proposed subcontractor must be included in the Consultant’s proposal, and the
subcontractor must be approved by NRC. The Consultant will retain full responsibility for the
implementation of the research, regardless of the behavior of a subcontractor.

Analysis

When the data set is complete, the Consultant will perform statistical analyses to elicit
conclusions regarding the income sources, both cash and in kind, and their relative
importance in surveyed households. The results should be shown in the aggregate as well as
disaggregated by geography, gender, and ethnicity.

Preliminary report of findings

The Consultant will present the first draft of the Household Economy Analysis at the close of
the research phase. It will include the following elements:

 An introduction/executive summary of the purpose, context, and general conclusions

from the research;
 Methodology section detailing the procedures used during the research (as outlined
above);
  Statistical summary of the research data, exhibiting notable findings such as general
household livelihoods characteristics overall and disaggregated by geographical area,
ethnicity, status as displaced, returned, or host community households, male/female-
headed households, age, etc. This section should include graphic presentations of
data, color-coded maps, photographs and/or other visual supports that contribute to
the clarity of the findings;
 Narrative analysis of both the qualitative and quantitative data, focusing on the
economic effects caused by Covid-19 and its control measures;
 Conclusions, summarizing the detailed results above;
 Annexes containing the datasets, field research schedules, list of persons included in
the KIIs, locations of FGDs and numbers of participants, maps, and other information
generated during or used for the research.
 Photographs of relevant sites, economic activities, and interviewees if they agree to be
photographed;

The Preliminary Report will be submitted in electronic format (Word or PDF) to NRC, along
with any physical results (other than the surveys, which are not required to be submitted).

Client review of the Preliminary Report

NRC will take up to five business days to review the Preliminary Report and return it to the
Consultant with questions, edits, suggestions, and comments for the Consultant. Gaps found
in the research that do not conform to the Terms of Reference or Inception Report will be the
responsibility of the Consultant to cover.

Final Report

The Consultant will then have three business days to amend the Preliminary Report according
to the questions, edits, suggestions, and comments returned by NRC. If gaps in the research
need to be filled, additional time may be requested by the Consultant. This does not imply
any additional financial cost to the Client.

Consultancy Period

Research Stage Events Timing

Initial preparations
Submission of Inception
Report
Field survey
Data analysis and
preparation of narrative
report
Submission of Preliminary
Report of Findings
Development of 3 business days
methodology and finalized
survey questionnaire;
questionnaire pre-testing
NRC will respond within 3
business days
Implementation of 3 weeks
questionnaire, daily
recording of survey results
Statistical analyses, 5 business days
generation of graphical
representations, writing of
narrative
NRC will respond within 5
business days
 Preparation of Final Report Incorporation of NRC 3 business days
of Findings reactions
Total Consultant days: 30
Total time frame: 7 weeks

Qualifications of the Consultant

The Consultant must have demonstrated experience in conducting economic surveys in rural
areas of Myanmar; experience in the Southeast is preferred; the Consultant should furnish
contacts and examples of work performed in the past; Myanmar-based organizations are
preferred;

Consultant leadership must have graduate training in planning, food security and livelihoods,
monitoring and assessment, economics or social sciences and other areas relevant for the
assignment;

The Consultant should have on staff an experienced statistician able to analyze quantitative
survey results and present findings in a clear fashion, accompanied by graphic
representations;

Writers of reports must have excellent English language writing ability; candidates are
encouraged to name any external translation and/or editing resources they intend to use;

Experience working and collaborating with diverse sets of stakeholders, such as program
beneficiaries, local NGOs, government officials, INGOs, local and international staff is
essential;

The Consultant must have access to a team of field enumerators able to converse in Burmese
and/or the local languages of the study area; these enumerators can be hired as itinerant
workers, or be Consultant permanent staff, or hired through a subcontractor; in any case, the
qualifications of the enumerators should be shown in the Consultant’s proposal, especially
their experience with rural surveys and their command of relevant languages. Any
subcontractor must be clearly presented and approved separately by NRC; evidence of
enumerators’ local language abilities should be shown through their location of origin or birth
place;

Proposals should explain how travel to the different parts of the study area is to be
accomplished;

Proposals should contain a detailed budget for implementation, including salaries and wages,
transport, per diems, material costs, office and administrative costs, contingencies or
unforeseen expenses, overhead or profit margin, and any other costs, and a total charge to the
Client.

Intellectual Property Rights

All documentation related to the assignment shall remain the sole and exclusive property of
NRC. In consideration of informant confidentiality, none of the reports or data are to be
shared without written consent from NRC.
Application Process

Applicants should submit proposals containing technical plan, methodology, time line, and
budget by 10th June 2020, to steev.lynn@nrc.no and nan.min@nrc.no. Applications should
list previous work done including subject and client.