ThaiNGO

Terms of Reference (ToR)

For

BASELINE SURVEY

For

Enhanced Capacities for Migrant Advocacy (ECMA) Project

in Mae Sot District, Tak Province, Thailand

 

 

EU project Reference No.: DCI-NSA-PVD/2015/370-329

Co-funded by EU and ADRA-UK

 

Introduction

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is an international non-government, independent, humanitarian agency established in 1984 by the Seventh-day Adventist Church for the specific purposes of individual and community development and disaster relief.  Through a variety of projects, ADRA supports the dignity that is inherent in each person and is committed to improving the quality of human life. ADRA helps people in need, especially those most vulnerable such as women, children, and minority communities. ADRA serves people without regard to their ethnicity, political affiliation, or religious association.

With funding from the European Union (EU) and co-funding from ADRA-UK, ADRA Thailand began implementing the  “Enhanced Capacities for Migrant Advocacy” project - which aims to strengthen capacities of local CSOs (Thai and Migrant Worker led) to effectively advocate for improvements in labor/human rights and working/living conditions for vulnerable migrant workers in Mae Sot. The implementation of this project began in January 2016, when funding was received and will run for 36 Months (3 years), ending in December 2018.

 

Overview of the project

 

The project's goal is to strengthen and empower marginalized and vulnerable migrant workers in Mae Sot, Tak Province, Thailand. The specific objective of the project is the strengthened capacity of local CSOs (Thai and Migrant Worker led) to effectively advocate for improvements in labor/human rights and working/living conditions for vulnerable migrant workers in Mae Sot. The project’s purpose is to improve the labor/human rights and working/living conditions for vulnerable migrant workers.  ADRA will achieve this by building the capacity of local CSOs through sub-granting and technical support. ADRA will provide sub-grants to 8 CSOs to provide a range of support to migrant workers, such as legal casework support, financial support for CSOs to attend network meetings, outreach activities on occupational safety, health, and hygiene, provide basic 500 sets of basic safety equipment and manual, etc.   The CSOs will be strengthened through a variety of training programs, such as Training of Trainers on occupational health, work safety, and hygiene, financial management training, and organizational capacity building training.  It is envisaged that these trainings and financial support will enable the CSOs to effectively implement the project activities, as well as to help them to better advocate on behalf of migrant workers to relevant Thai government agencies for improved access to legal entitlements. Furthermore, ADRA will enhance collaboration between CSO’s and government stakeholders to bring about improved health and safety conditions for migrant workers.

 

The idea for this initiative came from consultation with migrant communities, CSOs, NGOs, local, and national government entities, as well as ADRA’s own needs assessments and experience in working with migrant communities in Northern Thailand. The project will address these issues by: (I) improving the capacities and work implementation of local grassroots CSOs to advocate for and protect the rights of migrant workers, and supporting and participating in advocacy through migrant rights advocacy networks to influence change and enforcement of policy and (ii) enhancing collaboration between CSOs, employers, health care institutions and government.

 

Problem identification

Thailand’s rapid economic growth in the past few decades has created a high demand for low-skilled and low-cost labour, attracting a large number of migrant workers from the three neighbouring countries, namely Myanmar, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Cambodia, to fill the gap of labor shortage. An estimated 3 million migrant workers from these three countries hold either regular or irregular status in Thailand[1]. As located in a bordering province - Tak, Mae Sot has eventually become a transit and destination of Myanmar migrants because of its high concentration of factories. According to statistics from the Tak Provincial Office, there were 27,059 Myanmar migrant workers registered at the Mae Sot District’s One Stop Service Center during the migrant registration process in 2015. Migrant workers are employed in factories in textiles, garments, food processing and ceramics.  The majority of migrant workers are from Myanmar, with Burmese representing the largest ethnic group, along with other ethnic groups such as Karen, Mon and Arakanese.

 

The major problems facing Burmese migrant workers include: i.) lack of awareness about their rights due to language barriers and accessibility to information. Importantly, a limited human resources of the local Labour Protection and Welfare Office compares to a large migrant population in the area; ii.) factory owners do not follow Thai labour law by registering their factories, leading migrant workers to become vulnerable in terms of working in unsafe, unhygienic conditions; iii) a major health concerns of migrant workers included skeletal or muscular illnesses due to heavy workloads and poor occupational health and safety standards; iv.) lack of capacity of CSOs to engage in the dialogue process, at national level - little effective coordination, limited resources and travel restrictions, which are among major factors that limit the ability of CSOs to engage directly and actively in policy advocacy dialogue; and v) poor living and unhealthy conditions since migrants are often housed in overcrowded accommodation with inadequate facilities; some factories restrict their workers to the factory premises giving them no opportunity to find other accommodation.

 

It is envisaged that these identified problems will be tackled through the “Enhanced Capacities for Migrant Advocacy” project. The stated objective will be achieved by three expected results and proposed activities as described below.

 

 

Intervention

This project is being implemented from an ADRA project office in Mae Sot, along with support (including human and material resources, monitoring/guidance, technical trainings/ support) from the ADRA Thailand Country Office in Chiang Mai. The project aims to achieve the following:

 

Result 1: Improved awareness of, and adherence to, labor law in factories employing migrant workers;

Result 2: Strengthen and develop the capacity of 8 CSOs to engage in policy dialogue through the INGO platforms and engagement with the private sector, and government duty bearers.

Result 3: Enhanced collaboration between CSO’s and government stakeholders to bring about improved health and safety conditions for migrant workers.

 

 

Scope of Work

The consultant will be tasked to conduct a thorough Baseline Survey to capture accurately the current migrant worker situation in Mae Sot (Tak Province).  In general by the beginning of the project (Within the first 6 months of the project).

 

The purpose of the Baseline Survey is to build on current statistics and secondary data available on the migrant workers situation in Thailand and the Mae Sot area in particular. The baseline will collect, organize and analyze information for project planning that will contribute to the effective delivery of the specific objectives, and ultimately help to ensure an improvement in  the legal and working conditions for migrant workers who inhabit the Mae Sot area. The study will inform the project about the beneficiaries profile in targeted areas in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Information obtained will be incorporated into the project activities, advocacy and training resource materials and will also be used to enrich project indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies and activities planned. At the beginning of the Baseline Survey process a log-frame review together with key project stakeholders should be conducted as it will help to clarify and outline for everyone what needs to be measured and how.

 

ADRA Thailand aims to contract a specialized team of researchers for the Baseline Survey that will be conducted in coordination with the project team and will work closely with the Contractor to assure the data collection is of highest possible quality. The survey will serve as a useful tool for guiding the project activities and to allow for meaningful comparison with an EoP survey to assess the project’s impact.

 

The Baseline Survey will help in achieving the following objectives during the course of the project implementation:

 

Establish a pre-intervention snap shot against key logframe indicators for comparison with

subsequent reviews and studies including the Midterm and End of project evaluation (EoP) of Impact Assessment.

Establish concrete benchmark and recommendations for replication of the action. The evaluation will be carried out at the end of the project against the identified benchmarks and recommendations will be given for the potential action within the area.

Establish benchmarks and indicators for monitoring and evaluating of the activities.

Provide factual information and knowledge for designing, planning and implementing project activities efficiently and effectively by reviewing and analyzing the current situation of the target population.

Make recommendations on possible changes/modifications to projection design and implementation.

Assess employers’ perceptions and understanding on labor law and their adherence to labor

      laws.

Assess the current working, living and social conditions of migrant workers in Mae Sot.

Assess the current activity level of NGO’s / CSO’s in Mae Sot and on a national network

      level in addresseing the issue.

 

 

 

The specific objectives of this baseline survey are:

 

 

Objective 1. Context analysis: To provide detailed context analysis (with quantifiable data), that reflects the situation of migrant workers in the Mae Sot area, in general and in the following specifc areas:

 

 

Work place situation

Daily wages and payment security

Working conditions / hours/protection equipment

Access to health facilities/services

Legal security

Employment security

Access to their registration cards (if registered)

 

Factories and Employers

Appreciation and enforcement of Thai labour rights

Social assistance and services to employees

Access to (visitors) and from (workers) factories

Fair and safe housing situation for employees (if located on factory area)

 

General living, security and social situation

Living situation (inside factory area and outside)

Mobility

Cross-cutting issues: Gender, elderly, people with disabilities, children and young people, those with HIV/AIDs

Interaction with local Thai authorities

Interaction with local CSO’s/access to services of CSOs

 

Existing networking platform and local CSOs’ services for migrants

Activity level of national and regional Pro-Migrant Network Groups

CSOs’ service provision to migrant communities

 

General situation of CSOs working in the Mae Sot area, partner CSOs’ organisational capacity and training needs assessments:

General situation of CSOs working in the Mae Sot area.

CSOs’ collaboration with Thai government duty bearers.

Review the applications from CSOs for sub-grants through the “call for proposal” initiated by ADRA and recommend the 7 CSOs that qualify to receive sub-grants.

Assess the organisational capacity of 8 selected CSOs that will be entitled to sub-grants and identify their training needs.

 

Objective 2. Benchmarking against baseline indicators: Establish a pre-intervention snap shot against key log-frame indicators. Baseline data will need to be collected against all log-frame indicators (overall objective, specific objective and expected results level).

 

Recommendations on possible changes/modification to projection design and implementation.

 

 

Composition of the Baseline survey team, responsibilities and tasks

 

The Consultant (with his/her team including interviewers, dataset developers, data entry and etc) with extensive experience in conducting research and baseline surveys and evaluation will be hired. The expert consultant will lead the Evaluation Team.  The Research Team will work closely with the Project Team.

 

ADRA Thailand will ensure that the consultants have received all the project documents prior to the commencement of the work. The Project Team will make arrangements for field visits, meetings with local stakeholders and venues for field discussions etc. Further, as much as possible the Project Team and project partners (CSOs, network groups representatives, local authorities, etc) should be participating in this survey to also increase their ownership in this process.

 

Team Leader or Principal Researcher

Duties and responsibilities of Team Leader/Researcher:

 

Guide the data collection efforts and oversee its effective implementation.

Design and schedule all surveys.

Oversee technical aspects including sampling, interviewer training, data collection, data

entry and cleaning, and variable aggregation and descriptive reports.

Participate directly in the oversight of fieldwork, through site visits, review of progress

and review of primary data.

Maintain relationships with ADRA Thailand and other relevant data-collection entities.

Prepare and submit reports according to the agreed-upon timeline.

Ensure that appropriate resources are made available and managed in order to achieve   

           the objectives of the contract.

Other reasonable tasks and responsibilities in accordance with this role, as requested by        ADRA Thailand.

 

Methodology

 

The Baseline Survey process will employ both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect the necessary data. Samples will be drawn from the following primary and secondary beneficiaries: 

Migrant workers in Mae Sot:

In factories (if possible)

In migrant worker communities

The local Labour Protection Office

The local Public Health Department

Employers (particularly factory owners)

Local CSOs

Local, national and international studies and surveys on the migrant worker situation in

Thailand and Mae Sot in particular

National Migrant Worker Rights Advocacy networks

Relevant national government offices (e.g. the Thai labour council, etc.)

Others as necessary

 

The collected data have to be entered into commonly accepted statistical analysis programs (such as SPSS, etc) and thoroughly and adequately analyzed by a qualified and experienced professional, familiar with data entry and processing.

 

Reporting

 

The consultant will present preliminary findings to ADRA Thailand before a final version of the report is submitted.

 

The consultant will compile a report that will explain the methodology employed during the baseline process, analyze and convey the conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned.

 

The final report will include the following sections:

Table of Contents

Executive summary

Background

Purpose/objectives of the Baseline survey

Evaluation methodology

Findings

Recommendations/lessons learned

Appendices:

Evaluation tools (survey questionnaire, focus group discussion questions and etc)

Survey schedule including the places visited

List of documents reviewed

List of people interviewed/surveyed

etc

 

Competency and expertise required

Qualifications and Experience

 

The prospective Consultant firm/organization will require an appropriate balance of management, scientific and technical skills. Shared vision, good communication skills, strong interpersonal skills, adequate knowledge of the context, and experience on baseline surveys in the context of the project are also required.

Consultant firms/organizations should have demonstrated working experience in projects involving baseline surveys, demonstrated the ability to achieve specific and measurable results and to lead and manage a survey team.

Fluency in Thai and English, both written and oral (Burmese preferable).

 

Qualifications should include:

A Master's degree with specialization in social sciences preferably in development studies or related disciplines;

At least 5 years’ substantial experience in research and baseline surveys;

Knowledge of the policies, programmes and operating styles of the key local (Tak province) and national governments targeted by the project related to migrant rights;

A solid network of contacts or working knowledge of key stakeholders and actors on migrants rights issues at the national level including technical agencies, policy institutions, non-government and community-based organizations and private sector;

Working knowledge of Mae Sot would be an asset.

 

 

 

Estimated Timetable for Submission of Deliverables

 

#	Activity (Deliverables)	Week after the commencement of the contract	Payment Schedule (percentage of contract value)
1	Commencement of the contract after signature	Week 0
2	- Meeting with ADRA Thailand staff before starting to work - Provides implementation plan (including data analysis plan and confidentiality plan), work plan and receives comments - Prepares logistics with ECMA project team - Review applications of CSOs that will receive sub-grants and make recommendations (under survey objectives V, 3).	Week 1
3	- Submission of revised implementation plan, work plan and preliminary draft of the survey instrument - Final survey draft for pre-testing and focus groups	Week 2	10%
4	Pre-testing, interviewer training and focus groups and contractor submits recommended changes to the surveys and results of review of field conditions	Week 3	20%
5	Data collection begins	Week 4	30%
6	Data collection finishes	Week 6
7	Data collection completion report	Week 7
8	Meeting with ADRA Thailand staff before drafting the report -Draft and complete final report	Week 9
9	ADRA Thailand verifies that deliverables comply with the TOR	Week 10	40%