Consultancy for Final Evaluation (SWITCH Asia), Re-advertisement

Terms of Reference

Consultancy for Final Evaluation

“Consumers and Retailers Driving Sustainable Food Market in Thailand in the Seafood, Chicken and Banana Supply Chains” Project

***Proposals are invited from individuals and organizations who meet the profile described below
until 10 January 2022 ***

Duration: 17 January – 19 March 2022

Background: Oxfam Thailand envisions a world where everyone lives free from inequality and poverty. As part of achieving the country’s goals, an emphasis has been placed on sustainable agricultural food production and food security. Through strategic partnerships, Oxfam in Thailand empowers marginalized men and women and urban population by enabling equitable sharing of natural resources, scaling up of sustainable food systems and advancing gender justice.

Towards this goal, Oxfam in Thailand has partnered with BioThai Foundation and the Foundation for Consumers, under the EU-funded project “Consumers and Retailers Driving Sustainable Food Market in Thailand in the Seafood, Chicken and Banana Supply Chain.” This four-year project runs from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2021. The project’s overall objective is to enable an overall food market transformation in Thailand that requires environmentally sustainable and socially ethical production and food safety as standards of production. The project’s specific objective is that urban consumers and retailers in Thailand drive the development of a food market system that increases sustainable food consumption, particularly in the seafood, banana and chicken chains.

Purpose of the Study:

To conduct final evaluation of the project in terms of its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. The study will use qualitative methodology. The findings and key lessons learned will be used by the project team, Oxfam and alliances to inform future works.

The Project’s Theory of Change:

Thailand has one of the highest levels of income inequality in Southeast Asia, with a Gini coefficient between 0.48-0.53 over two decades. The country is one of the world’s top food exporters, with the food sector (particularly fishery, chicken meat and fruits) contributing 23% of GDP; yet evidence increasingly shows that the food system has become critically unsustainable, with the industry coming under strong criticism owing to its negative impact on the environment, human rights and inequality. Intensified agricultural production and growth in industrialization has relied extensively on the country’s natural resources.

For instance, forest cover fell dramatically from 53% in 1961 to 25% in 1998. Highland maize production, a major ingredient in feed production for chicken and shrimp, has also been blamed for deforestation, smog, water contamination and public health hazards. Banana has been termed as a promising cash crop for highlanders but issues of water seize, land grab and conflict with downstream communities are emerging. Thailand’s seafood supply has also become insecure, with illegal, unregulated and unreported fisheries depleting the Thai sea and reducing the Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUI) from 300 kg/hour in 1961 to 17.8 kg/hour in 2010. The seafood industry has also been targeted for criticism owing to reports of human trafficking and forced labour. Concentration of power in the food industry in the hands of large food companies and retailers has hurt small fishers and farmers by driving cost cutting measures throughout the supply chains without adequately assessing consequences for the environment and inequality. Despite small producers growing 80 percent of raw materials used by the food industry, a recent government registration of the poor showed 2.9 million farmers earning less than $277/month. The food industry has also faced the threat of export sanctions from the EU due to labour trafficking and human rights abuses. While there has been some policy recognition of such excesses in the food industry and acknowledgement of the need to move toward sustainable consumption and production (SCP), implementation remains sluggish, with a general absence of concrete action points.

In response, the project adopts an integrated approach to address deficits in both consumption and production of sustainable and ethically-sourced food products in the seafood, banana and chicken supply chains by working to stimulate both demand and supply in a complementary and mutually re-enforceable way. It does so by building a consumer campaign for a sustainable and equitable food system; incentivizing retailers to change their sourcing policies through a sustainability scorecard which will rank retailer policies and practices on environmental sustainability, producer and worker welfare and food safety; improving retailers’ capacities to implement ethical and sustainability voluntary guidelines; enabling and capacitating small producer MSMEs to access retailers and wet markets; strengthening and expanding MSPs on sustainable production to influence agribusiness practices and develop a consensus on sustainability voluntary guidelines that will be used to lobby the government for improved policies and enforcement.

**

The project targets: 5 million consumers in Bangkok, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai and Hat Yai cities characterized by an urban middle-and-upper middle class background and active use of internet, who will benefit from enhanced information regarding SCP of food and enhanced means to ensure sustainable food availability; 10 big food retailers, covering hypermarkets to convenient stores, who will benefit from improved knowledge and capacity to implement sustainability and ethical voluntary guidelines to respond to changing consumer preferences as well as enhanced access to sustainable food products; 20 wet markets, which will benefit from improved linkages with sustainable producers and improved sustainability profiles to attract sustainability-oriented consumers; 20 medium and small food enterprises of producers and 80 traditional suppliers who will benefit from improved technical expertise in sustainable production, enhanced access to retailers and alternative wet markets and increased opportunities for productive engagement with consumers. Some of these MSMEs are also part of small producer CBOs and networks that will benefit from improved capacity to participate in MSP decision-making i.e. the Fisherfolk Enterprise; and 5 government agencies who will have better knowledge and tools at their disposal to achieve sustainability targets and enforce existing targets for SCP.

The project has 4 main components:

• Result 1: Women and men urban consumers in the target cities and online platforms increasingly demand target food products that meet sustainable and equitable sourcing standards from retailers.

• Result 2: Retailers introduce more sustainable and equitable sourcing standards in the target food supply chains.

• Result 3: MSMEs of food producers and suppliers strengthen production capacities and sustainable sourcing for supplying retailers and traditional wet markets.

• Result 4: Existing and new multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) are strengthened to influence large agribusiness’ practice and government policies for SCP in target food supply chains.

The Final Evaluation

The final review will answer these questions, through a series of guiding questions listed below to assess relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the project, as well as measuring against the indicators in the project’s Logical Framework. It will also look at cross-cutting issues such as human rights, gender, environmental sustainability, and youth engagement.

Key questions: To what extent has the project achieved results, and is relevant to the needs of stakeholders, effectively implemented, efficient in project management, and creating impact and sustainability?

Sub-questions: ‘

1. Relevance: To what extent is the project relevant to the needs of consumers, small-scale producers, workers, supermarkets, fresh/wet markets and other stakeholders in the food system? To what extent has the project been able to adapt and react to the COVID19 pandemic in meeting the outcomes?

2. Effectiveness: To what extent has the project achieved results and outputs? Are there unintended results, and are those unintended results negative or positive to the goal? What are best practices that are recommended for scaling up? What are not going well, why did they not go well and what can be improved?

To what extent has the project contributed to the increased awareness and demands of consumers for “good” food? To what extent has the project contributed to the changes in the policies of supermarkets and key private sector actors in the agri-food business towards more sustainable and equitable production/sourcing standards? To what extent has the project contributed to MSMEs of food producers’ and suppliers’ strengthened production capacities and sustainable sourcing to supply retailers, traditional wet markets, and other sales venues? How have the existing and new multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) been strengthened to influence large agribusiness’ practice and government policies for SCP in target food supply chains?

1. Efficiency: To what extent is the project management efficient in supporting the partners to fulfilling the implementation? To what extent is the project efficient in terms of value for money?

2. Impact and sustainability: To what extent outcomes achieved area likely to be sustainable in terms of maintained commitment and engagement of the CSOs and their networks in keeping the government and private sector accountable beyond the programme period?

*** The questions can be added, changed, or adjusted upon discussion and context.

Methodology

The final review is recommended to use qualitative methodology. Methods can include:

• Secondary research as a baseline source of information
• Desk review of the project documents i.e. proposal, annual reports, notes of advocacy meetings, project publications, researches.
• Consultations and discussion with Oxfam team as well as partner staff involved with the implementation

• Visits to key project locations as relevant and if possible

• Key informant interviews (KII) / Focus group discussion (FGD) /interviews with stakeholders and/or alliances (both primary and secondary)

All data and information will be checked or discussed with all Oxfam staff and partners in case of any clarification. The consultant will present the developed methodology and work plan to Oxfam team before finalising the methodology and process.

Application:

Please send a letter of interest with some research ideas, limitations of conducting research if any, questions, and quotation, as well as CV with 2 names of referees, and 2 samples of research papers or reports as lead writer by 10 January 2022 to Oxfam Human Resource Department, at hr_thailand@oxfam.org.uk

The proposed costs should include fee, travel costs, field interview and meeting costs, translation costs, report printing costs, VAT and other related taxes. Please provide the breakdown of costs. When approved, the costs will be considered as a lump sum.

Deliverables:

1. Field research plan and questions for approval by 28 February 2022.
2. Draft report and presentation to Committee on 10 March 2022.
3. Final report in Thai and English by 19 March 2022.

Oxfam Team:

Project manager

Nipatta Quamman

NQuamman@oxfam.org.uk

Food Justice Programme Coordinator

Terms of payment

This is a lump sum agreement. Payments will be made into 3 installments as follows:

• 1^st payment: 30% after contract signing and invoice received
• 2^nd payment: 40% upon approval of field research plan and questions for approval
• Final payment: 30% upon submission of satisfied final reports (Thai and English)

Qualifications and Criteria of selection

• Relevant postgraduate university degree and at least 3 years of experience in project evaluation or social research.

• Good knowledge of the project context, consumer campaign and public communication, food system and agribusiness sector, private sector engagement and influencing works, policy analysis and social development.

• Ability to communicate effectively and independently in Thai language.

• Time and resource management**.**

General Terms and Conditions:

• Confidentiality of information:
  • All documents and data collected will be treated as strictly confidential and used solely to facilitate analysis.
  • Consent should be collected prior to interview recording or photographs.
  • Interviewees will not be quoted in the reports without their permission.
• All soft and hard copy of the assignment will be treated as the property of Oxfam
• In any circumstances consultant shall have no opportunity to alter the timeline and planning of data collection and submission of first draft and final report.
• The consultant/consulting organization must maintain the standard quality in data collection, processing and reporting.
• The consultant shall have the responsibility to rewrite the report, modification of sections until the satisfaction of quality required by Oxfam.
• In case of any deviation, Oxfam shall have the right to terminate the agreement at any point of the project.

• Consultant/consulting organization shall be bound to pay back the full money to Oxfam given as advance of payment in case of any deviation, dissatisfaction of quality and other point mentioned in the agreement.

• Oxfam GB will deduct withholding tax from the consultancy fees which will be in conformity with the prevailing government rates.

• Consultant should follow Oxfam’s code of conduct, policies (i.e. Safeguard policy, Child Protection Policy).
  Please refer to the timeline and full TOR at this link.

Annex 1: Outline of report

• Acknowledgements
• Glossary/Acronyms
• Introduction
• Executive Summary
• Methodology
• Scope and Limitation
• Findings as questions (20 pages)
• Update value of relevant indicators
• Conclusion and recommendations

Annexes