Survey Consultant

Section: Social Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Date: 26/08/2015Title: SURVEY CONSULTANT Duty station: BeirutReporting to: Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Contract type: Individual SSADuration: 3 months Start date: ASAP Section ContentObjectives  The UNICEF survey Consultant will support UNICEF Lebanon Country Office (CO) for the preparation, implementation, and completion of the household survey in Lebanon. The consultant will work closely with the implementing agencies, especially the private company and NGO, during questionnaire finalization, sampling, training, fieldwork, data processing, data analysis, and reporting, ensuring that UNICEF protocols and recommendation are being followed at all times. The consultant will communicate effectively between the UNICEF CO and implementing partners, responding promptly to related needs and issues as they arise. The consultant will be engaging with and supporting the work of other resource persons hired by UNICEF to provide technical assistance to the survey process. He/she will work in close collaboration with the survey team, the stakeholders, and other relevant governmental counterparts as relevant.Background Since late 2011, there has been a massive influx of displaced persons who have fled violence in Syria, seeking safety and refuge in Lebanon. In the fifth year of the Syria crisis, with more than 1.2 million displaced persons, Lebanon hosts the highest relative concentration of Syrian refugees in the world. An estimated 270,000 Palestinian refugees are also residing in the country. The actual number of hosted refugees is estimated to be higher, as those unwilling or unable to register are not a part of this figure. The presence of such a large proportion of refugees — one in five people living in the country — has dramatically affected Lebanon’s social, economic, political and security conditions and strained the already fragile Lebanese public services and infrastructure. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate declined from 2.2 per cent in 2012 to 0.9 in 2013.  In the absence of social safety nets, up to 1.4 million poor Lebanese (living on under 4 USD per day) are affected by the economic impact of the crisis. Given the magnitude of the crisis and the drastic scale of the influx in country, it is essential that information on the situation of children and women is available across the different population cohorts and across different governorates. Deeper understanding of situation is important to help plan policies and programmatic response. In addition, there is a need for a baseline to track the dynamics in the situation of children and women.   There has been no representative level survey that assesses the situation of children and women since the last UNICEF supported MICS (Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey) was conducted in 2009. Although other initiatives have been presented in the last couple of years, like the yearly vulnerability assessment of the situation of Syrians in Lebanon (VASyR), this has limited coverage on themes relevant to the situation of children and women and does not cover the Lebanese or the Palestinians. Given this overall gap of information on the situation of children and women in Lebanon across different population cohorts and geography, a comprehensive assessment is proposed to cover these gaps. The main objective of the assessment is to provide an overview of the situation of children and women in Lebanon, with the aim of having to provide information comparable at governorate level and by different cohorts of population. Scope of work Main Tasks Related to the Job1. Provide technical and managerial support to the survey;2. Oversee each stage of the survey process and ensure that the UNICEF survey protocols and standards are followed by the implementing partners;3. Participate and train the relevant teams;4. Provide progress reports on survey activities to the UNICEF CO on a monthly basis on progress;5. Support the M&E specialist in coordinating the work of implementing partners and UNICEF hired experts and other resource persons assigned by the UNICEF CO to support different survey stages as required;6. Participate in relevant meetings;7. Ensure that lessons learned, problems, and good practices are documented throughout the survey process. Deliverables and Schedules Specific Activities In consultation and collaboration with the UNICEF M&E specialist and implementing partners, the consultant will be responsible for ensuring the following activities have been undertaken following the survey guidelines and will contribute to the coordination of these activities: 1. Survey Planning:- Support the finalization of the survey Plan and Budget, including timetable is finalized and shared with all stakeholders;- Survey supplies are procured and distributed in time for training and data collection;- Sample design:o Support that the Sample design follows global standards in maintaining a representative and probabilistic sample selection across the different population cohorts and governorates;o Coordinate with relevant stakeholders in designing representative samples for the different population cohorts at governorate level, where relevant. - Questionnaires:o Appropriate UNICEF programme staff and relevant stakeholders are consulted in reviewing the customization of relevant sections of the questionnaire;o Ensure that final version of the questionnaires in English and Arabic versions are commensurate;o Questionnaires are pre-tested and a pre-test report is produced;o Coordinate with CSPro expert to ensure that the final version of the questionnaires are installed on all data collection tabletso Pre-test the CSPro version on tablets and troubleshoot any structural and technical issues by liaising with the consultanto Ensure that CSPro data collection application for tablets have the finalized version of the questionnaires installed without any bug - Manuals:o Supervisor and Interviewer Manuals are customized for the country specific context and translated. - Data processing:o Support the setup of the data collection system to be done with android tablets and CSPro application. o Support the training of supervisors and their verification menus with CSProo Ensure that the file system of the data files are used coherently across the data collection o Coordinate with the relevant implementation partners and help produce daily field check tables and follow up on inconsistencies 2. Household Listing and Mapping, Training, Fieldwork, and Data Entry: - Contribute to the fieldwork training and monitor its quality- Train enumerators where required- Fieldwork and fieldwork monitoring visits are planned and performed;- Field Check Tables are produced on a daily basis, and the results and comments shared with relevant supervisors and teams. - Participation of UNICEF IM staff is organized to assist in monitoring data collection;- UNICEF Regional Data Processing Consultant is timely provided with necessary information and country visits are well managed and coordinated;- Monitor secondary data editing. 3. Data Analysis and Report Writing:- Support the tabulation plan and standard SPSS syntax are used in generating dataset and tables.- Coordinate and contribute substantively to the writing of the Summary Findings Report and Final Report, using standardized templates; Timing Duration: 3 months, starting as soon as possible. Reporting Requirements 1. Monthly Progress Report of activities;2. Specific reports at the end of each of the following survey activities: Questionnaire finalization on CSPro, Listing and Mapping, Pre-test, Fieldwork training, Data collection and editing, Data processing and tabulation, Report writing, Dissemination;3. Field trip reports;4. Presentations and training materials used in trainings, workshops, and other meetings. ProfileRequirements Advanced university degree (Master) in Social Sciences, Demography, Statistics, Computer science, Epidemiology or any other related technical field, with at least two years of relevant work experience in quantitative household surveys in Lebanon.A first university degree (Bachelor) with at least four years of relevant experience can also be considered. Other skills: - Strong computer skills and strong expertise in statistical analyses (familiarity with data processing and data analysis software, particularly SPSS);- Training experience and ability to organize and facilitate training and presentations;- Experience in data analysis and survey report writing;- Excellent oral and written communications in English and Arabic;- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.- Familiarity and previous experience of working in Lebanon highly desirable and/or in the region.- Ability and willingness to travel extensively in-country and to attend regional workshops.