Better Diets for Nutrition (BDN):

Area of Work 3 (AoW3)

Collection of dietary data in the Philippines

Background

Poor diets are a primary cause of malnutrition and the leading cause of diseases worldwide. Improving diets, including increasing fruit and vegetable intake, could save one in five lives lost annually. Micronutrients and dietary fiber are essential for health; micronutrients obtained from fruit and vegetables have a lower environmental footprint than from other foods, making fruit and vegetables essential to healthy and sustainable diets. Globally, fruit and vegetable intake is far below recommended levels, however, the extent and nature of the problem is poorly understood due to insufficient dietary data, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Increasing fruit and vegetable intake will require starting with consumers, understanding dietary patterns, and addressing desirability, accessibility, affordability, and availability barriers through cost-effective solutions. Solutions must take a holistic end-to-end approach that starts from intake and works back through the food system to improve accessibility to fruit and vegetables and increase year-round supply of a diverse range of safe, affordable, nutrient-dense vegetables.

With coordination among CGIAR centers and external partners, the CGIAR Science Program on Better Diets and Nutrition includes an Area of Work (AoW3) on end-to-end solutions, that aims to use an innovative approach to increase fruit and vegetable intake, improve diet quality, nutrition and health while also improving livelihoods, empowering women and youth and mitigating negative environmental impacts.

Under BDN, IFPRI will partner with the Asian Development Bank, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the World Food Program and the Agence Française de Developpement to develop and implement a survey to understand impacts of a national e-voucher program on dietary intakes in the Philippines. The survey will be conducted alongside a household survey, implemented by another collaborator, that will collect socioeconomic characteristics of the sampled households. The survey firm will collaborate with IFPRI to collect and analyze dietary intake data for this project in November 2025-July 2026.

Overview of the survey

The survey will be conducted in five locations: San Mariano (Isabela), Garchitorena (Camarines del sur), Tondo I and II (city of Manila), Dapa (Surigao del Norte) and Parang (Maguindanao) of the Philippines between February and March 2026. Data will be collected for up to two household members within each household level. The households are part of a panel data collected by another survey firm in the Philippines. The collaborator would need to work closely with the other survey firm to find the correct households for the dietary assessment survey. The total number of individual dietary assessments may vary between 7000-9000.

Activities

The collaborator will coordinate the survey work that will be conducted as part of the project. The collaborator will make payments and provide all necessary supplies and services for survey preparations, data collection, and data processing for the study. This will include the following:

A. Survey preparation

1. Provide experienced enumerators and supervisors as required to carry out the 24-hour recall multi-pass dietary assessment for 1-2 household members within each household. To this extent the collaborator will organize the selection, hiring, and payment of enumerators.

2. Participate in survey design and preparation, which will include:

   1. Developing standard operating procedures, protocols, and manuals for conducting enumerator training and data collection. All documents should be prepared prior to enumerator training, in English and translated in regional language. These documents will serve as the basis for quality assurance of the data collection process. The Collaborator will develop SOPs, manuals, and protocols with assistance from the IFPRI team.

   2. Obtaining local IRB approval and appropriate clearance/authorization documents to conduct fieldwork.

   3. Providing questionnaire translation services.

   4. Pre-testing the survey questionnaires. The data will be collected via Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). IFPRI will develop the CAPI data entry programs for the different types of interviews. The Collaborator will test and finalize (in consultation with IFPRI) the data entry programs for all interview types.

   5. Facilitate enumerator training in collaboration with IFPRI staff.

3. Develop a field schedule for the data collection team, which should include contact details for the field managers and supervisors so that IFPRI can conduct field visits.

B. Data collection and data entry

1. Coordinate with the survey firm collecting the household data to identify households within the sample.
2. Conduct the 24-hour recall dietary data collection for the eligible household member(s). Eligibility of the household members will be determined in consultation with IFPRI.
3. Document in appropriate detail and keep records of field activities. Field activity records should be developed to update the number of eligible households interviewed.
4. Assure data quality through ensuring availability of well-trained field supervisors and regular field visits to conduct quality checks, assure data quality and completeness, and adequate progress with the survey.
5. Share weekly progress of data collection and data entry (electronically).
6. Share data generated from CAPI with IFPRI every 2 weeks during data collection.

C. Data cleaning

1. Ensure data completeness and validity.

2. Prepare all household listing, household interview, key informant interview, and food environment datasets with variable labels and value labels in English following naming and labeling convention provided by IFPRI.

3. Provide responses to queries from IFPRI in relation to data processing or cleaning, as needed.

4. Provide a baseline data collection report including data collection, management, and cleaning process.

Timeline of activities

The proposed timetable for the work is below:

Required qualifications

1. Company, NGO, or organization with proven professional experience in leading large-scale household dietary assessment data collection in the Philippines.
2. Track record of submitting deliverables on time.
3. Experience working with international and national researchers or research organizations.
4. Experience in building trusting and cordial relationships with local authorities, community leaders, and respondents.
5. Excellent communication skills in English.
6. Experience conducting fieldwork while observing preventive measures to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Application

The following items must be included in the application:

1. A presentation of the firm and previous experience in conducting quantitative studies

2. Detailed CV of people who will be involved in the study

3. Budget breakdown/proposal