Background

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is conducting a study to implement a survey of households in wildlife farming areas of Thai Nguyen province, Viet Nam.

The objective of the study is to collect data on economic and other aspects of the trade in wildlife species in northern Viet Nam to generate evidence to inform local policy approaches. The study will involve direct in-person interviews of individuals in households engaged in procuring, rearing or trading of selected wildlife species, alongside interviews with non-wildlife producing households in order to generate comparisons of the relative economic status of both types of household.

Household Sample

The project will build on a prior study which included a census of registered wildlife farming households in Thai Nguyen province. IFPRI will provide a list of these households across and the collaborator will work with local authorities to update this list to include any recent registrations and closures. IFPRI will select a list of 200 wildlife farmers across 40-50 communities on this list.

In each community, the collaborator will obtain a list of other households in the same village, hamlet, or neighborhood, from which IFPRI will draw a sample. If no list is available, a geographical sampling strategy to identify a representative group of households will be developed in consultation with IFPRI and implemented by the consultant.

The collaborator will then locate and administer a survey to the 200 sampled wildlife farmers, 50 traders and 50 trappers identified through these farmers, and 500 households in the same communities as the wildlife farmers who are not engaged in the wildlife trade. In addition, the collaborator will conduct 50 surveys with groups of 3-5 of key informants (administrative and political leaders, other knowledgeable community members) in each study community.

Survey Administration

Surveys for wildlife farmers, trappers, traders, and households not engaged in this sector will be approximately 60 to 90 minutes in duration and should be administered (where possible) to the member of the household directly involved in wildlife farming (for wildlife households) or an equivalent member engaged in agriculture or other economic activities (for non-wildlife households). The surveys will contain modules focusing on household composition and demographics, wildlife farming (including sourcing, practices implemented and sales), other income-generating activities and sources of income, household assets, and consumption. Interviews will be conducted in person, with responses recorded electronically using a tablet computer or phone.

The community-level key informant survey will include both qualitative and quantitative questions and is expected to take approximately 60 to 90 minutes to complete.

Survey Firm Tasks:

• Lead process required to obtain ethical clearance from an in-country Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent. Ensure that all required approvals are in place.
• Coordinate with local authorities to ensure all other needed permissions and consultations have taken place prior to any field work.
• Translate, adapt, and pretest the survey instruments to ensure linguistic accuracy and contextual relevance.
• Program the finalized survey instruments using data collection software such as SurveyCTO (or an equivalent platform) to be approved by IFPRI prior to implementation of survey activities.
• Provide IFPRI researchers with access to survey platform for survey testing and respond to comments from IFPRI team until IFPRI team signs off on final survey program.
• Develop plans for enumerator training, field work, and quality control to be approved by IFPRI team.
• Update lists of wildlife farming households provided by IFPRI.
• Develop plan for sourcing household lists in identified villages, and procure these lists to support survey sampling when possible. In consultation with IFPRI, develop sampling plan when lists are not available.
• Administer single-visit in-person surveys with 800 households and conduct structured interviews with 50 groups of key informants at the community level. Reasonable steps should be taken to follow-up in cases where a respondent is absent or unavailable on the day of interview. IFPRI will provide a list of replacement households for cases in which a household in the sample cannot be reached or declines to participate in the survey.
• Implement quality control plan throughout survey work. In addition, the IFPRI team should have access to data collection platform to perform additional data checks.
• Maintain administrative records of survey completion and reasons for non-completion for cases in which a sampled household could not be interviewed.
• Undertake data cleaning, validation, and formatting to ensure quality and consistency prior to submission to IFPRI.
• Provide original Vietnamese and translated English versions of text survey responses, including translated transcripts of qualitative portions of KII interviews.
• Provide regular (2-3 times weekly) updates during survey work.

Project Deliverables

• Updated list of all registered households currently or recently engaged in wildlife farming in Thai Nguyen province. This will be in the form of a spreadsheet or similar document listing individuals’ names, locations (hamlet/village/commune/district), species raised, and any other available pertinent information.
• Translated survey instruments (household surveys and KII instruments)
• Draft survey instrument in SurveyCTO or equivalent program in English and Vietnamese to be submitted to IFPRI for review prior to beginning survey data collection.
• Final survey instrument in SurveyCTO or equivalent, responsive to IFPRI comments.
• Survey training plan
• Survey logistics plan
• Survey quality control plan
• Community lists or replacement sampling plan for all included communities
• Final cleaned survey dataset following survey completion, with translation of opened-ended text questions into English. This dataset should include or be accompanied by a record of the status of all households in the sample, describing the reason for non-completion for cases in which the target household could not be interviewed.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive experience implementing quantitative household surveys using electronic data collection tools, preferably in rural settings.
• Strong track record of interacting with diverse stakeholders, including local government officials and community leaders
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and Vietnamese

Deadline

March 6, 2026