Company Profile

SFMP is a 5-year (2014 - 2019) food security project, headquartered in Accra. It seeks to support the government and civil society organizations to rebuild targeted marine fisheries stocks that are a critical food souce in Ghana but current are reaching crisis level of depletion. To address this national food security issue in Ghana, SFMP supports the adoption of sustainable fishing practices and exploitation levels. The project contributes to the Government of Ghana’s fisheries development objectives as well as the US Government’s Feed the Future development objectives of poverty and hunger reduction. The project works closely with government agencies, fisheries authorities, policy makers and fisher folk in the entire coastal area of Ghana to achieve project goals. 

Job Description

1.  Background

The main purpose of the household survey conducted in Year 1 of the 5-year USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) is to establish a baseline on specific impact indicators of the SFMP.  A mid-term and end of project survey will also be conducted to assess changes in key output and outcome variables the project expects to influence as a result of project activities. 

USAID is increasingly interested in evidence-based assessments of project impacts.  Therefore, the design for the impact assessment must aim at obtaining empirical evidence that changes in key impact variables are in all likelihood the causal result of project interventions, as opposed to the counterfactual that changes would have occurred regardless of the project. 

In this regard, a difference in difference quasi-experimental design is proposed that obtains data at three time intervals and collects data on project and non-project households and communities.  There are approximately 10 specific communities in the Central and Western Regions where there project will undertake activities on livelihood improvements, mainly through improvements in the value chain that are expected to increase net margins of fish processors and marketers businesses.

Other activities are geared towards reducing the incidence of child labor and trafficking in targeted communities in the Central Region through both livelihood interventions and communications campaigns.  In addition, the project will work coast wide (4 regions) with stakeholders and the Fisheries Commission to implement management measures to reverse the decline in catches of the small pelagic fisheries. 

While stock assessments will be undertaken to assess impact of management measures on the biological stocks, we are also interested in whether improvements in stocks will then result in increased catches and profitability of fishing operations. We also need to assess whether management measures put in place to control fishing effort are complied with by fishers. 

Without high compliance, changes in stock status and resulting yields of catch are unlikely to occur.  Other variables that the project hopes to change are degree of empowerment in fisheries management decision making and control over the local fisheries resources.

Secondary questions that the assessment will be designed to answer are comparisons between selected FtF baseline parameters on poverty, food security/accessibility and per capita consumption, and women’s empowerment, as well as degree of diversified livelihoods and dependence on fishing related livelihoods/income versus other sources of income.

The survey should also be designed to answer questions concerning household expenditures and food security variations seasonally (bumper harvest season versus lean fishing season).  The survey should also be able to gauge differences in independent variables at the community, district and regional scales and degree to which they vary based on individual characteristics.

2. Objective of the Consultancy

The objectives of this assignment are to assist SFMP to:

• Conduct a robust baseline survey
• Coordinate and manage field survey activities
• Supervise enumerators during and after data collection
• Conduct data quality assessment during field work

3. Responsibilities

The assessment would involve carrying out the following components:

1. Oversee and review all aspects of fieldwork on a daily basis
2. Assist in hiring enumerators
3. Supervise enumerators on a daily basis
4. Ensure equipment’s are  working properly during and after surveys
5. Establish timeframe for field work
6. Coordinate field work with local representatives/community members
7. Secure permission from local community leaders for data collection in selected clusters with help from implementing partner  staff
8. Prepare all materials in advance to be used in fieldwork, which includes developing and pre-testing data collection forms, obtaining maps, and ordering all
9. Plan and implement the training of the field teams
10. Plan the logistics of field work collection
11. Resolve administrative issues relating to travel, accommodation, behaviors of field teams, security issues etc. through appropriate channels 
12. Resolve questions from  enumerators
13. Review all data collection forms for consistency and completeness
14. Supervise data entry
15. Troubleshoot any problems with fieldwork

4. Deliverables

During the entire project period the consultant will work closely with officials of SFMP. Following deliverables will be submitted.

• Training of enumerators report
• Day to day summary briefing of activities  on the field
• Final activity report
• Completed dataset loaded in the cloud app and a downloaded Excel format file of the same dataset of all household surveys and a file Word version of the codebook for the survey form.

5. Coordination and reporting

The day to day activities will be coordinated by SFMP -Accra office. All correspondence should be addressed to Bakari Hardi Nyari, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. The summarized reports in the required format have to be emailed periodically.

6. Time frame

After contract signing, a period of about 6 weeks will be given to complete the task and submit the final report

Required Skills or Experience

• BSc or MS in Statistics, Social Sciences, Fisheries or related field
• Proficiency in Microsoft office software
• Prior experience in conducting baseline surveys with writing experience
• Experience working with a wide range of research methodologies including participatory research methods
• Ability to speak at least one and preferably two of the following languages:  Twi, Fante, Ga, Ewe
• Experience facilitating multicultural and multilingual groups
• Excellent spoken and written English,
• Organizational and analytical skills