Consultant – Conduct an Assessment of the Behaviour/Habits of Migrants regarding Remittances At International Organization for Migration

Request for Expression of Interest GE/CON 003-2023

Qualified Expert Consultant (International or National) to conduct an assessment of the behaviour/habits of migrants and their households regarding remittances – saving, spending and/or investing

Estimated Start Date: 15 June 2023

Closing Date for applications : 25 May 2023

Location: Remote

Duration of the Contract: 15 June – 31 December 2023

1. Duty Station of the Consultancy: Home-based.

2. Duration of Consultancy: part time (delivery based) assignment which is expected to last during the period from June to December 2023

3. Nature of the consultancy: Category B

4. Project Context and Scope:

IOM Georgia has started a new project (“Promoting Sustainable Reintegration of Return Migrants Through Holistic Approach to Migration Management in Georgia), which is intended tocontribute to the sustainable reintegration of return migrants in Georgia by fostering an environment that enables them to contribute to social stability and economic well-being of the local community.

The project is an inception phase which will produce recommendations for a successful model of well-rounded provision of support and assistance to returning migrants, their communities, and the authorities. To achieve this, in the inception phase, IOM plans to conduct a number of assessments and studies to thus ensure that the recommendations are based on robust data and evidence.

Within this context, IOM Georgia seeks to contract a researcher to conduct an assessment of the behaviour/habits of migrants and their households regarding remittance sending, receiving, saving/spending and/or investing, and their knowledge and use of available saving products and services, and offer recommendations related to enhancing the development impact of remittances.

Findings of this assessment will allow IOM to inform the design of future IOM interventions aiming to contribute to enhancement of the development impact of remittances, that will be aligned with the financial needs and savings capacities of labour and returning migrants and remittance receiving households.

The duties and responsibilities of the researcher will include:

• Develop the methodology (qualitative and quantitative methods), which includes mapping the research questions, which would be relevant to the areas of expected recommendations, design questionnaires accordingly, advice the Project Manager on the demographic and geographical scope of the studies and sampling methodology and contribute to the list of key informants to be interviewed.

The following aspects should be reflected in the design of the methodology:

• Use and availability of remittance channels (formal – informal)
• Use and availability of financial saving products and services as well as a Startup Ecosystem
• Bank habits of remittance senders and receiving households.
• Specifics of remittances transfer and usage patterns in rural urban regions as well as patterns considering social status, age, gender and education including, financial and digital literacy.
• Review and take into consideration relevant surveys conducted in Georgia on the banking sector, particularly on the available saving products which consider the needs of remitting migrants and recipient households.
• Level of financial and digital literacy among remittance sender and recipients.
• Influence of social norms and regulations influencing and shaping remittance habits.
• Collect information on the services and mechanisms in the country for leveraging the development potential of remittances and provide analysis and recommendations.
• Train and provide ongoing methodological support to the local service providers that will be conducting the data collection on administration of questionnaire as per the field protocol, and data collection/management protocols provided by the researcher in collaboration with IOM.
• On the basis of the primary data collected by the service provider, produce draft report of the study, inclusive of findings and recommendations on enhancing the development impact of remittances.
• Ensure compliance of with IOM’s Guidelines on research report writing and the IOM House Style as well as SDC’s approach to incorporating elements of Political Economy Analysis.

For more information, please refer to a previous assessment conducted by IOM in 2015. The consultant is not required to utilize the same tools, however, the methodology should be comparable in order to achieve comparability of results. The assessment should contain clear, substantiated and feasible policy recommendations, based on the findings.

5. Organizational Department / Unit to which the Consultant is contributing:

Organizational unit: Labour Migration and Social Inclusion Unit, IOM Georgia

6. Tangible and measurable outputs of the work assignment

• A full report on the remittance habits, priorities regarding savings, spending and/or investment, knowledge of available financial/ savings products and services provided by the financial sector for the population in general and migrants and remittance receiving households, in particular.
• An executive summary report, summarizing the main findings and expanding on the recommendations.

The researcher will be expected to undertake the following tasks and present draft deliverables for review by IOM according to the timeline, as follows:

Deliverable 1 – Methodology design and preparation of tools. To be delivered by: 30 June 2023 Task duration: 11 days

Deliverable 2 – ToR for the local data collection service provider, in accordance with the design methodology, clearly describing the responsibilities of the service provider.To be delivered by: 30 June 2023 Task duration: 1 day

Deliverable 3 – Training of the data collectors working or the local data collection service provider. To be delivered by: 30 July 2023 Task duration: 3 days

Deliverable 4 –Task duration: 25 days

• Initial draft of the report highlighting the main findings-To be delivered by: 15 September 2023
• Advanced draft of the full report-To be delivered by: 15 October 2023
• Final version of the full report-To be delivered by: 15 November 2023

Deliverable 5 – Summary report focusing on main findings and policy recommendations. To be delivered by 30 November 2023, Task duration: 1 day

Deliverable 6 – Participation in a stakeholder consultation and validation workshop.To be delivered by 15 December 2023 ,Task duration: 1 day

Payment will be processed in two instalments. The first instalment will be completed following the delivery of the first three deliverables, while the second and last instalment will be completed following the delivery of the final versions of the last two deliverables.

7. Performance indicators for the evaluation of results

Delivers the listed deliverables on time and with good quality.

8. Required Qualifications / Work Experience

Education

• Master’s degree in Economics, Finances, Development studies, Law, Public policy, or similar field or a related field from an accredited academic institution with at least five years of relevant professional experience; or
• University degree in the above fields with four years of relevant professional experience.

Experience

• Thorough experience in designing, conducting, and delivering quantitative and qualitative research as well as elaboration of policy making recommendations;
• Experience in research coordination roles;
• Significant previous experience in the field of migration;
• Proven ability to deliver high quality research reports in English;
• Strong statistical background;
• Good analytic and computer skills, including MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access);
• Experience using STATA, SPSS, Epi Info, or R is desirable;
• Proven ability to liaise with stakeholders at all levels;
• Demonstrated ability to transfer knowledge to diverse audiences through training, mentoring and other formal and non-formal methods.

9. Competencies

Values

• Inclusion and respect for diversity: respects and promotes individual and cultural differences; encourages diversity and inclusion wherever possible.
• Integrity and transparency: maintains high ethical standards and acts in a manner consistent with organizational principles/rules and standards of conduct.
• Professionalism: demonstrates ability to work in a composed, competent and committed manner and exercises careful judgment in meeting day-to-day challenges.

Core Competencies – behavioural indicators

• Teamwork: develops and promotes effective collaboration within and across units to achieve shared goals and optimize results.
• Delivering results: produces and delivers quality results in a service-oriented and timely manner; is action-oriented and committed to achieving agreed outcomes.
• Managing and sharing knowledge: continuously seeks to learn, share knowledge and innovate.
• Accountability: takes ownership for achieving the Organization’s priorities and assumes responsibility for own action and delegated work.
• Communication: encourages and contributes to clear and open communication; explains complex matters in an informative, inspiring and motivational way.