REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) for PROVISION OF COMPUTER ASSISTED TELEPHONE INTERVIEW SERVICES (CATI)

A.Background

1. The United Nations World Food Programme hereinafter referred to as the “WFP”, with its Headquarters located in Via C.G. Viola, 68/70, 00148 Rome, Italy is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience by assisting almost 100 million people in around 83 countries each year. About 17,000 people work for the organization, most of them in remote areas, directly serving the hungry poor.

1. WFP routinely carries out food security analysis to assess and track the need for humanitarian assistance. Under the mobile Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (mVAM) initiative, WFP’s Hunger Monitoring Unit has incorporated Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) to conduct surveys remotely. The purpose of CATI surveys is to track food security trends continuously, even in hard-to-reach areas, and to provide early warning of food security crises in a way that is quick, affordable and reliable.

1. WFP’s Hunger Monitoring Unit has rolled out CATI-based near real-time food security monitoring systems that provide daily updates on food security and other indicators in countries facing food crises (38 countries as of February 2021). More than 50,000 CATI mobile surveys are conducted every month and other programmatic information (nutrition and livelihood indicators, school-attendance) have been are being mainstreamed into existing monitoring systems. These systems are expected to be maintained and continually expanded to more countries in the coming years.

WFP is seeking Expressions of Interest from global, regional or national call centre service providers for the provision of Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) at predetermined rates in (i) Asia and the Pacific, (ii) Middle East and Northern Africa, (iii) Western Africa, (iv) Southern Africa, (v) Eastern Africa, and/or (vi) Latin America and the Caribbean.

WFP is seeking EOIs from companies that can provide the following services:

• CATI using respondent numbers from a mobile network operator’s (MNO’s) subscriber database. The service provider(s) would implement CATI surveys to respondent numbers that are randomly selected from an MNO’s subscriber database. The database needs to include respondent numbers from all main MNOs active in a given country, and needs to be sufficiently large for polling in order to produce representative data (e.g. at least 100,000 respondent numbers for a survey run on a sample of 1000 households).
• CATI using Random Digit Dialling (RDD). The service provider(s) would implement CATI surveys to respondent mobile numbers generated through RDD.
• CATI using respondent numbers provided by WFP. The service provider(s) would implement CATI surveys to respondent mobile numbers provided by WFP.

Each survey generally lasts approximately 20 minutes and includes questions on household food consumption and coping strategies, among others. Surveys are usually run on samples of 1000-2000 households per country, per round, or on smaller samples in the hundreds when required. Data would be transmitted to WFP through an Application Programming Interface (API) connected to WFP databases and in a consolidated spreadsheet (CSV) with anonymous IDs. At the end of a completed questionnaire, the service provider may transfer an airtime credit incentive to the respondents (usually equivalent to USD 0.50).

1. WFP invites eligible suppliers to express their interest in providing the requested services.

Interested parties should respond to this EOI with the following information:

B.The purpose of this EOI

1. The purpose of this request for EOI is to identify suppliers with verified technical and financial capacity to provide the above mentioned services. Eligible suppliers will be invited to participate in the bidding process for the proposed tender.
2. Eligibility to participate in the proposed tender will be determined on the basis of:

• Technical expertise in CATI data collection and management, with an established sample management system.
• Established data management system – including the ability to set up API and data encryption.
• Previous experience with CATI surveys for international organisations is a plus.
• Access to Mobile Network Operators’ subscriber’s database of phone numbers; in order to ensure a representative sample, the service provider should have access to respondent numbers database for all major MNOs active in a country.
• Experience in random digit dialling.
• The ability to provide the services in one or more regions or countries in (i) Asia and the Pacific, (ii) Middle East and Northern Africa, (iii) Western Africa, (iv) Southern Africa, (v) Eastern Africa, and/or (vi) Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Call centre operators fluent in the most commonly spoken local languages in the regions.

1. After the deadline for submission of responses has passed, WFP will evaluate responses received and will notify eligible participants of the outcome of the evaluation.