REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
SAINT LUCIA
OECS DATA FOR DECISION MAKING PROJECT
Assignment Title Technical Support Officers
Reference No.: SLU-DDM-TECHSUP-CS-24
The OECS Data for Decision Making (DDM) Project is a regional project that seeks to improve the capacity of participating Eastern Caribbean countries to produce and publicly disseminate statistical data for country and regional level analytics. It will be implemented by Saint Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the OECS Commission. The project seeks to achieve its objective by strengthening both national and regional level capacities and fostering regional coordination. At the national level, Component 1 and Component 2 of the project will strengthen national statistical systems through (i) statistical modernization and capacity building, and (ii) data production, analysis, and dissemination, with a focus on the population and housing census, living conditions surveys, labor market surveys, and agricultural census. At the regional level, Component 3 of the project will support the OECS Commission’s mandate for regional integration and the strengthening of the regional statistical system. Component 4 will support project implementation, and Component 5 will provide a contingency option for immediate surge funding in the event of a national emergency. The project is to be implemented over a five-year period commencing in 2022.
Five (5) core data collection activities are expected to be undertaken under Component 2 of the Project. Those include the Population and Housing Census (PHC), the Enterprise/ Establishment Census (EC), the Census of Agriculture and Fisheries (CAF), the Survey of Living and Household Budget Survey (SLC-HBS) and a harmonized Labour Force Survey (LFS). The CAF and the SLC-HBS are expected to be undertaken from September 2024-April 2025 and October 20204- September 2025 respectively.
The CAF will provide key information for understanding the dynamics of possible future developments of the country, such as: agricultural area operated, farm management methods, characteristics of holders and farm managers, farm workforce etc. Comprehensive information on fisheries activities will be collected as well. The SLC-HBS will provide key information and indicators on the standard of living conditions and will provide policy makers and researchers with crucial socio-economic and demographic information on the characteristics, extent, geographic conditions of the poor, but also the determinants of poverty.
Both the CAF and the SLC- HBS will be conducted using Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) technology. CAPI is a face to face data collection method in which the
enumeration exercise is administered through the use of a handheld device (a tablet) to input the information from the respondent. The questionnaire will be upload onto the tablet for ease of access by the field contractor to administer to respondents. The data collected will then be upload through the software programme Survey Solutions and stored on servers managed by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for all data collection activities under the Project. The field contractors must have access to wifi to upload the completed questionnaires onto the software. However, the interviews can be administered off-line and uploaded after, once wifi is available. Both data collection exercises are expected to utilize approximately 150 tablets each.
The Technical Support Officers will be contracted to provide information technology support to both data collection initiatives; the CAF and the SLC-HBS. The Technical Support Officers will firstly provide support to the CAF and subject to the consultant performance on the CAF, will be further engage to provide support to the SLC-HBS.
The Technical Support Officers will be responsible for the following:
a. Support the implementing agencies Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security, and Rural Development (MOA) for the CAF and CSO for the SLC-HBS in uploading the questionnaires and other relevant field documents on the tablets and ensure that all tablets are in working condition before distribution to field contractors;
b. Support the distribution of tablets to field contractors and maintain a database of all tablets assigned to field contractors as well as the location of those tablets;
c. Maintain an inventory of all tablet devices and daily assignments. Update this inventory on a weekly basis;
d. Ensure that all tablets are synchronized and install/configure appropriate software updates on devices when necessary;
e. Facilitate the maintenance of the electronic data collection database;
f. Provide assistance to enumerators, when necessary, by troubleshooting in order to diagnose and resolve problems with devices. Assistance should be provided within 30 minutes (where possible) of reported incident;
g. Inspect tablets assigned to enumerators bi-weekly to ensure that tablets are operating well and free of damage;
h. Notify the lead for the implementing agency verbally and in writing, of any damage, loss or theft of tablets during the data collection period;
i. Attend and participate in training workshops;
j. Contribute to the content presented during training sessions;
k. Support the implementing agencies in retrieving all devices after completion of the CAF and the SLC- HBS, check their functioning, and return all devices to the CSO;
l. Prepare monthly reports on activities including a register of reported faults
The CAF will run over a period of ten (10) months and the SLC-HBS over a period of nine (9) months.
The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be requested from the following email address: vernecia.badal@govt.lc
The Department of Economic Development now invites eligible individual consultants (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested Individual Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services; (Curriculum Vitae with supporting certified copies of qualifications, description of similar assignments, etc).
Interested Consultants should have the following requisite minimum qualifications and professional experiences listed below for undertaking the assignment.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS FOR SELECTION OF AN INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT ARE:
Mandatory
• At least five (5) Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) or Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) passes
• At least a certificate in Information Technology or a related field
• Experience on at least three (3) censuses/surveys using Survey Solutions, including questionnaire design and upload, synchronizing and managing data, troubleshooting survey solutions issues, tablet and application configuration.
• At least three (3) years of experience in the conduct of national Censuses or Surveys
The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 3.16 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers (Procurement Regulations) fifth edition, September 2023, setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.
The consultant will be selected through the “Individual Consultant Selection method” in accordance with the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers (Procurement Regulations), September 2023.
Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (0800 to 1600 hours).
Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by e-mail) by Monday October 21, 2024.
OECS Data for Decision Making Project
Department of Economic Development
Attn: Project Coordinator, OECS Data for Decision-Making Project
2nd Floor, Finance Administrative Centre
Trou Garnier, Pointe Seraphine
Castries
Tel: 758-468-5817
E-mail: oecsddmproject@gmail.com
Subject Line: SLU-DDM-TECHSUP-CS-24