“IMPLEMENTATION OF A FACE-TO-FACE SURVEY ON FERTILITY ASPIRATIONS OF WOMEN AND MEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA”
This Request for Quotation is open to all legally constituted entities that can provide the requested services and products, and have legal capacity to perform in the country, or through an authorized representative.
I. About UNFPA
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is an international development agency that works to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA is also the lead UN agency that collaborates with statistical institutions across the world on population data collection, and that provides technical support to governments on development of evidence-based population policies.
Service Requirements/Terms of Reference (ToR)
Objectives and scope of the Services
Background information
UNFPA has been providing technical assistance to state and entity authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the mid-1990s. Focus of technical assistance was mostly on development of population policies and strategies, as well as capacity building of policy makers, statisticians and service providers operating within the UNFPA’s mandate. In order to provide substantive evidence for its policy development and capacity building work, UNFPA closely cooperates with statistical and public health institutions in the country on data collection and analysis (including the development of population projections and monitoring of Sustainable Development Goals). Besides them, UNFPA partners with all other government institutions within their mandates and fields of expertise, as well as non-governmental organisations and universities that are active in the fields of demography, statistics and population development.
Demographic trends in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been quite negative in recent decades causing a decrease in total number of population and significant changes in structure of the overall population leading to population ageing (currently estimated at over 20% of older persons with projections that their share in total population will increase to 43% by 2070 if fertility, mortality and migration factors remain as they currently are). This means that working age population will significantly decrease thus lowering the potential of human capital in the country and reducing the rate of socio-economic development. Furthermore, less working age population, if its productivity is not significantly increased, will also put public services at risk of being spread thin as taxes and contributions will be reduced while the demand for health and social protection will be increased.
Experiences from other countries worldwide have proven that attempts to increase the number of newborns to offset the population ageing is futile for several reasons, from high costs of child rearing to long period of investments in children until they reach adequate levels of human capital to join the labour market. Western nations have already recognised these limitations and largely adopted immigration policies that attract and support skilled workers coming from third countries. Although such approach has yielded significant results in terms of maintaining a steady pace of socio-economic development, there is little good will for its replication in Western Balkans due to ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic barriers that come with immigration. For this reason, UNFPA is interested in identifying barriers for people of reproductive age to achieve their desired fertility aimed at developing policies that will reduce those barriers.
Objective
The overall purpose of this assignment is to:
a) Conduct a face-to-face survey on fertility aspirations of women and men of reproductive age in Bosnia and Herzegovina in line with methodology developed by UNFPA and sampling design to reflect the target population of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be developed by the Bidder as part of the official bid (expected 2,122 male and female persons of reproductive age living in urban and rural areas in both entities (excluding Brcko District) according to the 2013 Census).
Outputs / Deliverable(s)
The main deliverable of the consultancy is a database (in SPSS format) with responses from at least 2,122 respondents in line with the questionnaire TO BE DEVELOPED by UNFPA and sampling design to be developed by the Bidder to reflect the above-mentioned population in BiH. The questionnaire is currently in its draft version and will be finalized by the time of selection of best bidder. Bidders should plan that the survey would take up to 30 minutes. Expected entity distribution of the sample will be 1,063 people of reproductive age in FBiH and 1,059 in RS (excluding Brcko District where the survey will not be implemented). In preparation for the survey, selected Bidder will participate in a training organised by UNFPA and consecutively train own enumerators for implementation of the survey. Selected Bidder will also ensure quality control throughout the survey. The Bidder may propose minimal changes to the questionnaire based on the results of the field pilot as long as the expected objectives of this survey are not significantly altered.
UNFPA is the sole owner of the collected data and no data or results could be shared or published without UNFPA’s written consent.
The Bidder is required to have full time staff or staff on hire with adequate experience in implementation of household surveys. The survey is to be implemented using CAPI methodology so the Bidder has to have tablet computers in possession for implementation of the survey.
As the official language of UNFPA is English, the selected Bidder will be required to translate any openended questions (if any) in the final database, before submission to UNFPA.
Timing / Schedule
It is estimated that selected Bidder will need up to sixty (60) calendar days since signing of an agreement for preparation of a script, training of enumerators, implementation of survey in the field and distribution of final database in English Language to UNFPA (or at latest by end of December 2025). This schedule could be altered only in case of force majeure that would prevent implementation of face-to-face survey in the field. II.
Questions
Questions or requests for further clarifications should be submitted in writing to the contact person below: Name of contact person at UNFPA:
Contact person: Zeljko Blagojevic, 061 892 991, blagojevic@unfpa.org