TERMS OF REFERENCE

Baseline Survey for the Tonle Sap Poverty Reduction and

Smallholder Development Project – Additional Financing
I. Objective
1. This Terms of Reference (ToR) is for a consulting firm to design and support the
implementation of a Baseline Study for the Tonle Sap Poverty Reduction and Smallholder
Development Project - Additional Financing (TSSD-AF).
II. Background
2. The (TSSD/original project) was co-financed by a loan (L2599) of US$ 3.40 million and
a grant (G0186-CAM) of US$ 27.30 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Special
Fund Resources (SFR), together with a loan (L8243) of US$ 6.69 and a grant (G0192-CAM)
of equivalent amount by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a grant
of US$ 1.59 million from the Government of Finland and total contribution of US$ 5.50 million
made by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC). The TSSD was designed to foster
community-driven development for improved small-scale infrastructure and livelihood
improvement. Its outcome was increased agricultural productivity and improved access to
markets in 196 communes in the Tonle Sap Basin. It had three outputs: (i) community driven
development through block grants; (ii) enabling environment for increased agricultural
productivity and diversification; and (iii) effective project management. The coverage area was
five provinces: Banteay Meanchey (BMC), Siem Reap (SRP), Kampong Thom (KPT),
Kampong Cham (KPC) and Tboung Khmum (TKM). It was completed in December 2017, with
notable achievements in the enhancement of productive infrastructure and livelihood
improvement. There was a baseline survey conducted in 2014 and an end-line survey was
done in Q1 2018.
3. The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), ADB and IFAD reached agreement that
successful TSSD activities should be scaled up to broaden the benefits of increased rural
incomes and economic development. The Additional Financing (TSSD-AF) enables an
expansion of the activities on climate-responsive productive infrastructure from the existing
196 communes in the five provinces (BMC, SRP, KPT, KPC and TKM) to 270 communes in
seven provinces (including the two additional provinces of BTB and PVG and in KPT (by
expansion into one extra district and new communes in three existing districts). The number
of beneficiary households has increased from 430,000 to 650,000. The TSSD-AF aggregate
impact will be livelihoods in target communes and climate resilience in seven provinces in the
Tonle Sap Basin improved; and the aggregate outcome will be agricultural productivity
increased, climate and disaster resilience strengthened and access to markets improved in
270 communes in seven provinces in the Tonle Sap Basin.
4. The TSSD-AF is to be implemented for five years (April 2018 - February 2023). The
three main outputs of the overall project are described below:
Output 1: Rural productive infrastructure and livelihood improved with capacity in
disaster risk management (DRM) enhanced.
Output 2: Enabling environment for increased agricultural productivity, diversification
and climate resilience created.
Output 3: Project management strengthened.
5. Within these seven provinces, the project will target a total of 270 communes/sangkats
located in 37 municipalities/districts. The selection of the communes/sangkats is based on
poverty incidence, agricultural development potential, donor interventions (synergizing and
complementing without overlapping), and geographic focus. The Project is working specifically
with the households that are classified as ID 2 Poor following the methodology adopted by the
Ministry of Planning (MoP).

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 Figure 1: Distribution of TSSD-AF target communes

6. The TSSD-AF will continue to assist the RGC in supporting:

 Improved rural infrastructure to increase agricultural productivity and market access
alongside improved capacity in Disaster Risk Management (DRM).
 Strengthened and expanded network of LIGs under self-financing management by the
Farmer’s Livelihood Improvement Association (FLIA).
 Effective engagement with the private sector for value chain strengthening and
marketing and establishment of a network of MIGs and the introduction of brokerage
services to improve value chain efficiencies.
 Strengthened agricultural support services, through a network of commune mobile
extension workers (CMAWs) including information delivery services for extension and
marketing to support increased agricultural productivity by smallholder farmers.
7. The TSSD-AF will address the three key constraints to poverty reduction and
smallholder development namely (i) low productivity resulting from inefficient use of land,
water, labour and capital; (ii) weak productive infrastructure resulting in high production costs
and restricted access to markets; and (iii) limited access to rural financial services.
8. The TSSD-AF will assist the RGC to achieve the outcome by supporting:
 Community driven livelihood improvement managed by the commune councils (CCs)
through the provision of block grants to (a) improve rural infrastructure including Disaster
Risk Reduction (DRR) rural roads, irrigation rehabilitation and other facilities identified by
the MIGs.
 Continued strengthening of the LIG network under the management of the Farmers
Livelihood Improvement Association (FLIA), and expansion into the 74 additional
communes and the formation of Livelihood Improvement Groups (LIGs) in 759 new target
villages with the establishment of revolving funds.
 Creation of service teams using a proven market-based model for climate resilient rice
production and crop diversification in rainfed areas where labour shortages exist.
 Recruitment of 270 CMAWs to deliver mobile access interactive media services at the
community level and to act as a mobile access intermediary transferring information to
farmer groups and project related data back to project managers.

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  Improved capacity for DRR by CCs through capacity building training support to enable
CCs to identify and their Disaster Risk Management Plans (DRMs).
9. The Project has two Executing Agencies (EAs) - the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries (MAFF) and the National Committee for Sub-National Democratic Development
Secretariat (NCDDS) located at the Ministry of Interior. The Council for Agriculture and Rural
Development (CARD), which through its regular meetings will fulfil the function of the Project
Steering Committee (PSC), will continue to play a central role in supporting this coordination
and maintaining effective support to the EAs and IAs. The EAs will also work in partnership
with two other agencies - the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) and the
National Committee for Disaster Management Secretariat (NCDMS), who will be engaged
through Letters of Agreement (LoAs) with the EAs - i.e. MPCT for ICT related activities and
NCDMS for DRR/DRM activities. A project implementation consultant (PIC) team has been
recruited to support the EAs to ensure effective overall project implementation, monitoring and
coordination of services and to assist the EAs in producing consolidated project progress
reports.
10. The Baseline Survey will be designed to provide a measure of the present socio-
economic and agricultural productivity status and examine the impacts of the overall project
on agricultural productivity, income and income (diversified) sources, household assets, use
of inputs, cropping systems diversification, market access, income-generating activities and
food security.
11. The ADB funded Climate-resilient Rice Commercialisation Sector Development
Program (RiceSDP) is being implemented in BTB, KPT and PVG provinces in 90 communes
which overlap with the communes being supported under the TSSD-AF. A baseline survey in
these areas was conducted during 2018 and this data may be used to cross reference the
results from the TSSD-AF baseline survey. The results of the TSSD end line survey may also
be useful in some respects and reduce the need for collection of some basic data where there
is overlap with the target communes/villages selected for this baseline survey.
III. Objective
12. The objective of the consultancy is to design the tools for and guide the collection and
analysis of the baseline household data which will be used to measure the overall Project
impact through regular M & E activities during the implementation period. The survey must be
designed with reference to the TSSD-AF design and monitoring framework and it is essential
that data is gathered to provide
13. The specific tasks of the consultant will be required to perform are as follows:
 Prepare inception report.
 Develop the Baseline Survey household questionnaire and pilot test the survey instrument.
 Develop the survey sample design and sampling method.
 Train field staff who will be deployed as Field Supervisors and Survey Enumerators.
 Recruit Data Encoders and train them for data entry.
 Identify and locate households to be interviewed following the sample design and sampling
method.
 Undertake the collection of the baseline data from households in the Project
communes/sangkats as well as other communes/sangkats.
 Establish a data entry template/format using an agreed social science software package
that can detect errors during data entry and includes double entry of all questionnaires in
order to achieve a clean baseline dataset according to standard methodologies.
 Conduct analysis of data and present the major findings in terms of descriptive statistics
in a final report.
 Conduct data entry and cleaning.
 Prepare progress reports and a final report.

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14. It is anticipated that each survey will take approximately a maximum of 1.5 hours per
household.
IV. Staffing1
The consultant will be required to provide at least the following staff:
 Team Leader/Senior Social Science Expert - 3 months
 Deputy Team Leader/Social Science Expert - 5 months
 Statistician - 3 months
 Provincial Coordinators (1 per province) - 3 months each
 Data Encoders (8) - 2 months each
 Field Enumerators (4 per province - 2 months each)
V. Responsibilities of consultant
15. The primary responsibility of the consultant will be to work with MAFF and NCDDS, as
well as the PIC, during the design of the survey, the supervision of data collection for the
household surveys and the analysis of the datasets. The expected tasks for the consultant will
be performed in accordance with a mutually agreed schedule.
Survey Questionnaire
16. The tasks of the consultant will be as follows:
 Developing, finalizing and translating (into Khmer) the household survey
questionnaire;
 Pilot testing of survey questionnaire in one commune per province;
 Finalising and printing of survey questionnaires.
17. The consultant will be provided with copies of household questionnaires that were used
for the original baseline survey that was done that should be used in developing the final
survey instrument. The survey questionnaire should cover at least the following themes:
 General information about the households - including basic information on the
household composition, age of the members, educational status, proximity to roads and
markets and travel time, etc. It should also include information on whether any of the
household members belong to other farmer groups or cooperatives and the duration of
their membership.
 Household assets - covering such factors as types of house, size and status of tenure of
landholdings, ownership of household assets as well as farm equipment, and other
productive assets.
 Irrigation facilities - including the areas of land that are supplied with irrigation water, the
regularity of the water supplies, charges that are paid for the water, membership of water
user groups and the accessibility of irrigation to and use made of it by the sampled
households.
 Rural roads - condition of roads providing linkage to markets, whether open all year round.
 Disaster susceptibility - frequency and dates of natural disasters in recent past and
impact on sampled households.
 Livelihood improvement groups - current status of LIGs in sampled villages with number
of members, improvements in livelihoods, and measures of reduction in poverty from
present numbers of ID poor households compared with the level at formation.
 Agricultural production - current cropping patterns, yields over the last year (quantified
objectively), volumes of production and quantities that were sold or retained for household
consumption. Crop data should differentiate between irrigated and rainfed production.

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For the field teams KPT and TKM will be supported by one provincial team.

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 Information on improved technologies that have been adopted and pest management
practices will also be collected including types and quantities of inputs used (seed, fertiliser
and pesticide). Agricultural production data should also include livestock and aquaculture
and measure the levels of marketable surpluses.
 Agricultural Marketing - information on current marketing practices identifying the main
market for each of the agricultural products and the farm gate prices obtained. Collection
of date on activities of existing agri-business enterprises (selected in consultation with the
district extension staff who have completed surveys on exiting ABEs in each district).
 Off-farm activities - including income generation activities of all household members such
as food processing, weaving, production of farm inputs, household based industries and
sale of labour.
 Extension services - an assessment of the type, quantity and quality of the services
delivered from both public and private service providers relating to supporting
technological change for increased productivity, including a measurement of the impact of
the CMA program and the numbers of farmers who have benefitted.
 Gender issues - detailed information on gender will be required to be integrated into all
aspects of the survey.
Field Enumerator and Field Supervisor Training
18. The consultant will be responsible for the preparation, organization and
implementation of enumerator training activities. The specific tasks of the consultant will be as
follows:
 Preparation of training materials and detailed Field Enumerator Manual (and Field
Supervisor Manual if necessary).
 Training of Field Enumerators and Field Supervisors, who are recruited by the consultant,
in the use of the questionnaire?
19. The consultant will conduct 1 - 2 weeks of training for the household interviews after
the preparation of the detailed training manuals for the survey field teams in Khmer. The pilot
testing of the survey questionnaire should be done using 20 households selected from one
village in one commune in each province. This will also be used as a training exercise and will
be an integral part of the training of the survey enumerators and field supervisors. After pilot
testing of the survey questionnaire, the consultant will debrief with the field enumerators and
field supervisors and send an electronic copy of survey responses to MAFF with proposals for
change in order to improve the survey questionnaire.
20. The survey data collected from the pilot communes will be entered by the Data
Encoders at a facility provided by the consultant to allow for field checking of unclear or
incomplete responses and to assist in the identification of areas of weakness in the
questionnaire.
Sample Selection
21. The design of a robust sampling frame will be the responsibility of the consultant, and
the proposed sampling design will be subject to the approval of the EAs before the
commencement of any field work. The sampling frame for the beneficiary households should
be designed to provide population estimates at district level with at least a 90 per cent
probability of a confidence limit of ±10 per cent and aim for an overall design effect of between
1.5 to 2 within both the target domain (TD) and control domain (CD). On this basis the average
population of the targeted households per district should be calculated as well as the number
of villages and communes to be sampled.
22. The sampled households for the TD and control domain (CD) must be randomly
selected from the commune lists of ID2 poor households who are the main beneficiaries. The
consultant will be required to determine the need for weights and powers in order to improve
the precision of the sample estimates and provide recommendations to the EAs on their use.

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This could relate to the need to achieve a balance in the sample estimates in respect of female
headed households and households with small landholdings of less than 0.5 hectares.
23. The consultant will be required to work in close collaboration with the TSSD-AF
provincial support teams (PSTs) at district support teams (DSTs) in each target province, as
well as the commune councils in the selected communes. NCDDS will be responsible for
providing the introductions for the consultants to the local authorities. This will include
providing access to the inventories of ID2 poor households for all sampled communes (for
both TD and CD areas.
Data Collection
24. The consultant will be fully responsible for all data collection during the conduct of the
household surveys. The specific tasks of the consultant will be as follows:
 Mobilisation of the field enumerators and field supervisors to the selected target and non-
target communes for the data collection.
 Organisation of orientation meetings with commune councils and village leaders to
introduce the field workers and to explain the purpose of the household data collection.
 Completion of household interviews in a timely manner and payment of agreed level of
compensation to each of these households.
 Arrangements for the substitution of alternative ID2 Poor households, in consultation with
the commune council and village leader, in the case of household interviews that cannot
be completed due to absence of the household heads at the time of the survey in the
village.
 Delivery of the data forms to the province prior to data entry.
25. The household data collection will be managed by the field teams (Field Enumerators
and Field Supervisors) with support from the Provincial Coordinators based upon an agreed
specified schedule. As far as possible this will take account of the seasonal cropping calendars
within the project provinces.
Data Entry and Analysis
26. The consultant will be fully responsible for the entry of all data collected from the
household surveys. The specific tasks will be as follows:
 Development of an error checking system for data entry based upon acceptable ranges
for each parameter to minimise encoding errors;
 Verification and correction of errors detected through the assistance of the Field
Supervisors/Enumerators;
 Summaries of the baseline data will be prepared using a format for the tabulations which
is agreed to by MAFF.
27. The data entry will be done by the date encoders working at provincial level. The data
entry will be checked by the provincial coordinators and all issues rectified in the field before
the field staff move on to the next commune and/or district. Discrepancies in data entry should
be rectified by the data entry supervisors. The final data sets must be compiled, and
consistency checks performed to the approval of the MAFF and NCDDS. Data must be
submitted in STATA, SPSS or SAS formats.
Data Analysis and Reporting
28. The consultant will be responsible for the analysis of the baseline survey data and the
preparation of full report for submission to the EAs. The specific tasks will be as follows:
 Development of structure for the final report of the studies in collaboration with MAFF.
 Data analysis using an agreed social science software package.
 Presentation of the main conclusions in draft Final Report following agreed format.

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  Incorporate changes/supplementary analyses following comments on draft Final
Report.
29. The consultant will be responsible for preparing the format of the Final Report, based
on the objectives of the baseline study, which will be subject to the agreement by MAFF and
then used for the final report writing. The consultant will conduct comprehensive analyses of
the baseline survey data in order to generate the summary tables to be used in the compilation
of the draft Final Report. The consultant will submit the draft Final Report, which should also
include the summary of the survey methodology and the survey instruments as annexes within
two months of the completion of the field work. The draft Final Report will be reviewed by the
TSSD-AF team, and the consultant should then incorporate changes and conduct extra
analysis if required before submitting a final draft.
Equipment and Logistics
30. The specific responsibilities of the consultant will be as follows:
 Design/provision of all computer software used for data entry and for analyses of baseline
survey data.
 All transportation and logistical arrangements for the field staff during the conduct of the
household interviews within the target and non-target communes (no Project transport
will be available for the field work).
 Provision of computer equipment in each province for use by the data encoders.
 Secure storage of all household questionnaires upon completion of the baseline survey
in each selected commune.
 Provision of computer equipment for the final analysis and summarising of the baseline
survey data in Phnom Penh at the conclusion of the baseline survey.
VI. Responsibilities of client (MAFF)
Equipment and Logistics
31. The consultant will be required to provide all computer equipment for use in each
province for the data entry, data analysis and consolidation of the Final Report in Phnom Penh.
Administrative Approvals
32. The MAFF will be responsible for securing the administrative approvals for the survey
from the local authorities and will also ensure close support to the survey work by the provincial
and district authorities.
VII. Required Personnel
33. All team members, aside from the Team Leader, must be fluent in Khmer and have
some knowledge of English. The other minimum qualifications of the baseline survey team
members will be as follows:
 Team Leader/Senior Social Science: Advanced degree in Social Science or
related fields with specialisation in statistics. At least ten years relevant experience
in the management of large scale quantitative rural surveys, experience in
household and agricultural data collection and analysis and demonstrated ability
to coordinate teams and ensure timely reporting. Previous experience of working
in Cambodia in rural areas. Excellent report writing skills in English and with
knowledge of Khmer.
 Deputy Team Leader/ Social Science: Advanced degree in Statistics,
Econometrics or related field with strong background in rural survey
methodologies. At least five years of experience in the design of samples for
household surveys required in Cambodia. Good reporting skills in English and
fluency in Khmer required.

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  Statistician: Advanced degree in Statistics or related fields with strong background
in the collection and analysis of agricultural survey data. At least five years of
experience in designing household and agricultural surveys required. Preferably
with experience in multi-topic surveys in Cambodia. Good report writing skills in
English and basic knowledge of Khmer.
 Provincial Coordinators (6): Degree in an agricultural science or in related fields
with post-graduate training in statistics or related field. Experience with supervision
of rural survey implementation in remote areas in Cambodia. Good level of English
language skills and fluency in written and spoken Khmer.
 Field Supervisors (12): Degree in agricultural science or related discipline and past
practical experience in the supervision of household surveys in rural areas in
Cambodia. Fluency in written and spoken Khmer essential.
 Data Encoders (12): Advanced training in computer skills and experience of survey
data entry. Basic knowledge of statistical software applied in the analysis of the
baseline survey data. Some English language capability required as well as
fluency in written and spoken Khmer.
 Survey Enumerators (24): High School Certificate and experience in the conduct
of collection of data at household level through the use of interviews.
Demonstrated experience of working independently in remote rural areas. Fluency
in written and spoken Khmer.
VIII. Required Qualifications
34. The selected consulting firm must have the following qualifications:
 Demonstrated track record in the organisation of large scale household surveys in remote rural areas
in Cambodia;
 In house technical capacity and experience for planning and organizing household survey and in
data management and statistical analysis;
 Experience in at least two of the following social science software programs: CS-Pro, SPSS, STATA,
and SAS.

IX. Deliverables
35. The implementation schedule for the Baseline Survey will be as follows:

Week
Milestone
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
1 Sampling Design

2 Preparation of Training Manuals

3 Training of Field Supervisors and Enumerators

5 Household Surveys 

6 Data Enry and Analysis

7 Data Analysis and Reporting

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36. The consultant will be required to achieve the following deliverables:
Deliverable Description Format Timing

Sampling Design/Household Questionnaires with

1 MS Word /Excel files Week 3
notes based on review/discussion with MAFF

Training Manuals for Field Supervisors and Field

2 MS Word /Excel files Week 5
Enumerators (Khmer & English)

Training Report/Final Household Questionnaires

3 including modifications from testing in Pilot Communes MS Word /Excel files Week 7
(in English and Khmer)

4 Progress Report - Household Interviews MS Word /Excel files Week 10

Completed and clean provincial data sets using agreed MS Word /Excel &
5 Week 14
social science software SPSS files

Draft Final Report documenting the results of the

6 Baseline Survey based upon agreed formats with MS Word/Excel Week 16
MAFF and NCDDS in electronic form

PowerPoint
7 Consultation Workshop Week 18
Presentation

MS Word/Excel
8 Final Report of the Baseline Survey Bound Hard Copies Week 20
(x5)

X. Reporting Obligations
37. The consultant shall report to MAFF for each of these deliverables. Final deliverables
should be submitted to MAFF according to a schedule agreed upon given the limits for the
contract duration (see maximum contract duration and tentative schedule for deliverables
below). All deliverables are subject to agreement by the MAFF and should therefore be
submitted by the firm in time (minimum of fifteen days) that allows for comments and if required
some changes to be introduced by the firm.
XI. Duration and Payment of the Consultancy
38. The budget for this project is a maximum of XXX,XXX USD. This will cover costs for
all activities described above. The consultancy should tentatively start in during Q3 2019 and
have a maximum duration of five months for completion of the Baseline Survey The payment
schedule will be specified in the final contract and should approximately follow the timing of
the deliverables.
XII. Future Use of the Data
39. The completed dataset will be the property of MAFF. The consultant may use the data
for specified research purposes after receiving written consent from both agencies.

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