Terms of reference – Consultant – Research support and data collection

Terms of reference – Consultant – Research support and data collection

Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation

1. Background

The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (the Alliance) is a public-private partnership for trade-led growth, supporting governments in developing and least-developed countries in implementing the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement. Our projects cut through red tape and end costly delays at borders by bringing together governments and businesses of all sizes as equal partners to deliver targeted trade reforms.

We are led by the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Economic Forum and the Center for International Private Enterprise, in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). We are funded by the governments of the United States, Canada, Germany and Denmark. The Alliance’s Steering Committee is comprised of representatives from the private sector, including, BASF, DHL, Toyota, UPS et Walmart.

2. Description of the mission

The Alliance is implementing a project in Thailand aimed at enhancing the phytosanitary certification system, reducing the time and costs associated with the import/export process for consignments of plants, plant products or other regulated articles requiring a phytosanitary certificate.

To measure the time and cost reductions associated with the project, the Alliance will use a methodology derived from the Total Transport and Logistics Costs (TTLC) approach. The objective of the mission is to support the project to conduct the interview-based data collection with public and private sector stakeholders of the project.

3. Tasks of the consultant

During the data collection phase, the consultant will:

• Finetune / tailor existing questionnaire to Thai context in cooperation with the project team.
• Plan and schedule interviews with project stakeholders.
• Conduct structured in-person interviews with project stakeholders using the survey instrument developed by the Alliance.
• Validate the data and procedures with the respondents, when necessary.
• Systematically collect qualitative information relevant to the phytosanitary process throughout the assignment.
• The consultant will be required to participate bi-weekly calls with the Alliance M&B team to report on the progress of the data collection.

4. Deliverables

The consultant will deliver the following outputs:

1. 50 questionnaires completed through in-person interviews with exporters and freight forwards. In-person interviews are conditional on local COVID-19 health restrictions at the time of data collection. Activities may be conducted virtually or paused depending on the prevailing situation. Target samples are from 20 durian, 20 rice and 10 fruit exporters and freight forwarders. These should include SME at least 25% or 13 companies.
2. A summary, containing all information from the interviews in a single source.
3. A report summarizing the qualitative findings of the data collection phase.
   Interviews will be completed using the questionnaire developed by the Alliance (to be tailored to Thai context). Interviews should last approximately one hour.

5. Confidentiality clause

The data collected will remain confidential and will be used exclusively in this project

6. Required profile

The Alliance is seeking to retain an Individual Consultant or Consultancy Firm to complete this assignment. Bidders will have to prove:

• The researcher or research team has demonstrated experience conducting complex face-to-face interviews with private businesses.
• The researcher or a member of the research team must have demonstrated experience managing logistics around setting up interviews with private sector stakeholders.
• The researcher or a member of the research team must have at least 5 years of experience working on trade, supply chains and logistics.
• The researcher or team must have the ability to travel within Thailand.
• The researcher has excellent knowledge of English and Thai.

7. Contract and selection process

The Consultant will be chosen based on her/his technical qualifications and competitiveness of the financial proposal to ensure high quality outputs and deliver value for money. In terms of the financial proposal, to participate in the bidding process, bidders will have to propose a per survey cost.

The table below highlights the scoring criteria.
Candidates are requested to submit the following by March 4, 2022, 11:59pm (CET) to Mr. Jean-Francois Trinh Tan (jean-francois.trinhtan@weforum.org):

• A brief description (max 2 page) on how the candidates meet the required profile described in section 6.
• An up-to-date Curriculum Vitae (CVs) or company profile.
• Financial Proposal (in USD).

Only applications in English will be accepted.

Technical score (max 60)
The researcher or research team must have demonstrated experience conducting complex face-to-face interviews with private sector stakeholders.	15
The researcher or a member of the research team must have demonstrated experience on setting up appointments for interviews with private sector stakeholders.	15
The researcher or a member of the research team must have formal training, or at least 5 years of experience working on trade, supply chains and logistics.	20
The researcher or team must have a demonstrated ability to travel within Thailand.	5
The researcher has excellent knowledge of English and Thai.	5
Financial score (max 40)
Per survey proposal	40