ThaiNGO

TERMS OF REFERENCE

RESEARCH TEAM FOR THE FOSTERING ACCOUNTABILITY IN RECRUITMENT OF FISH WORKERS

1. Project Background

The Intervention: Plan International (Plan) will implement a four year project, Fostering Accountability in Recruitment for Fishery Workers (FAIR Fish) to reduce forced labor and human trafficking (FL/HT) in the recruitment of women and men in the seafood processing sector in Thailand to support the Department of Labor (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs’ (ILAB) Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking (OCFT).

Plan will work with the Food School Program to develop and pilot a responsible recruitment model with a small number of SMEs in the seafood processing sector, while also supporting training, advocacy, and communication efforts in this regard.

Pre-Situational Analysis: A Pre-Situational Analysis (PSA) is required by the donor.  The purpose of the pre-situational analysis (PSA) is to provide detailed, in-depth information about recruitment practices that can lead to FL/TI among migrants working in the Thai seafood processing sector. The data collected will help refine the design and content of project interventions that contribute to the ultimate development objective of reducing FL/HT in the recruitment of women and men in the seafood processing sector in Thailand.

Of primary interest will be a description and analysis of the current systems and procedures used to recruit foreign workers entering Thailand, including the MOU system, the pink card system, nationality verification, and informal recruitment practices.     Changes in the MOU system, due to come into effect in November, 2019, are of particular interest as these will affect recruitment, given the additional costs that will be incurred by firms in the form of fees paid to government for permits and payments to recruitment agencies for workers, as are the effects of these costs on SMEs and the implications these changes will have on migrant workers.

The PSA is focused on the following questions: 

1. Who are the recruitment actors, and what are the strategies, hiring procedures, routes, stages and processes of movement and migration of workers from place of origin to worksite?

2. What are the gender dimensions in the recruitment of fish processors? How does the treatment of women workers differ from their male counterparts?

3. To what extent do current recruitment practices contribute to the exploitation of seafood processors? 
   1. How effective are Thailand’s laws, policies, and mechanisms in reducing abusive recruitment of migrants for work in the fish processing industry?
   2. To what extent are private sector recruitment policies and practices encouraging or discouraging FL/HT and how willing are companies to combat FL/HT within their own businesses and the fish processing industry as a whole?

4. How is the new MOU system expected to affect recruitment of foreign fish processors?  Will the increased fees and regulations related to recruitment reduce labor exploitation or encourage informal recruitment that is more prone to worker abuse?

5. What are the promising recruitment practices that can or have reduced FL/HT in fish processing and other similar industries and how could they be adapted to SMEs and integrated into the project strategy?

6. What are the factors that have influenced private sector companies to reject exploitive recruitment and labor practices and adopt and implement fair recruitment principles with their migrant fish processing employees?  What are the benefits and costs in adopting fair recruitment practices?

7. What are the level of awareness and understanding on FL/HT among seafood processing workers, recruiters, business owners and management staff?

Since women often are highly vulnerable to exploitation[1], the PSA will strongly focus on the experiences of migrant women and the effects unfair recruitment has on them and their families in their home communities and at the company location.

The PSA will use a desk review, 20 Key Informant Interviews, 10 in-depth interviews, and 12 Focus Group Discussions to answer these six questions. 

A Research Team is required to conduct the 12 Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with migrant workers and the 10 in-depth interviews with female migrant workers in the seafood processing sector. 

2.  Objectives of the Assignment

The objectives of the assignment are to obtain high quality data from Focus Groups and in-depth interviews to inform the research topics listed in Questions 1-6 above.   

3. Scope and Methodology

3.1 Scope: The Research Team will conduct 12 FGDs and 10 in-depth interviews over the two project sites simultaneously as follows:

1. 1. 1. Samut Sakorn Province
1. FGDs with Migrant workers at the Tey Seng pilot company

• 3 groups (1 male group and 2 female groups)
• 1 group of family members of migrant workers from the pilot company

2. FGDs Migrant workers at a non-target company

• 2 groups (1 male group and 1 female group)

3.  In-Depth interviews with 5 Burmese-speaking woman migrants

3.1.2 Rayong Province

1. FGDs Migrant workers of the pilot company

• 3 groups (1 male group and 2 female groups)
• 1 group of family members of Rayong Fish Sauce workers (all family member will be over the age of 25).

2. FGD with Thai workers of the Marine Fine Food pilot company 

• 1 group (female)

3. FGD Migrant workers of a non-target company

•    1 group  (female)

4. In-depth interviews with 5 Cambodian-speaking woman migrants.

Note that Plan International will supply the data collection tools.   

3.2 Scheduling: The FDGs should take place simultaneously over the two locations.  The FGDs however should take place before the in-depth interviews as the results of the former may impact the content of the interview guidelines for the latter.  The field work must be completed by July 31, 2019. 

3.3 Recruitment of Respondents: The Research Team will be introduced to the two pilot companies by Plan International to facilitate the composition and scheduling of the FGDs but will be expected to recruit appropriate participants from non-target seafood processing companies operating in the research sites.  Potential respondents for the in-depth interviews should be profiled and their participation in the study approved by Plan before the interviews are conducted.  The Research Team is expected to meet Plan International’s respondent consent requirements in both instances. 

3.4 Data Collection Teams: Each FGD data collection team should comprise: 1. a FDG facilitator 2) interpreter (from Thai into Burmese/Cambodian language as appropriate and back again), and 3) note taker who is able to document the discussion in Thai and/or the language of the participants.   For the in-depth interviews, the interviewer should be accompanied by an interpreter, if needed, and a note taker who are, to the extent possible, matched in terms of demographic characteristics (sex, age) to the respondents.  

3.5 Recording and Documentation: Every FDG and interview must also be recorded using voice recording devices, provided this is acceptable to the respondents and doing so will not affect the validity of the results.  Full and detailed notes must be taken for both FGDs and in-depth interviews.

3.6 Reporting: Immediately after each FGD, the FGD data collection teams must collaborate to review and finalize the notes taken by the note takers to ensure that any gaps are filled and that any potential inconsistencies and/or misunderstandings arising due the translation process are resolved.  For one of the locations (TBD), the Plan International representative who will be in the field to support logistics and for quality control purposes, should attend these meetings.

 A summary of the FGD notes should then be prepared and translated into English and submitted in an on-going fashion to Plan International for review and comments.  Thereafter the FGD notes and the related audio files should be submitted to Plan, again in an on-going fashion.

The same procedure should be followed for the in-depth interviews, except that no summary is required but rather a translated set of detailed interview notes.

4. Deliverables

The Research Team will submit the following at the conclusion of each FGD and in-depth interview:

4.1 Raw notes

4.2 List of focus group participants and in-depth interviewees

4.3 Focus Group summaries in English and in-depth interview notes translated into English

4.4 A brief report (not more than 5 pages) in English summarizing the research process, how respondents were recruited, challenges, and data limitations for each of the FGD and in-depth interview streams of work

4.4 Audio files of the FGDs and in-depth interviews in MP3 or other agreed format

5. Qualifications and Experience of the Research Team

The following are the required positions on the Research team and their minimum qualifications. The proposer is free to suggest other positions. 

5.1 Research Team Leader

• At least a Master’s degree in the social sciences or development studies
• At least 5 years’ experience in conducting social research, preferably qualitative research
• Subject matter expertise with any or all of FL/HT, migration and migrants, and recruitment of foreign workers highly desirable
• Good English writing skills

5.2 Focus Group Moderators

• Demonstrated experience in moderating FGDs, preferably with disadvantaged groups on sensitive issues

5.3 Note takers

• Demonstrated experience in note taking for FGDs and interviews

5.4 Interpreters

• Demonstrated experience in interpreting from Thai to Cambodian or Burmese and back again

6. Work Plan for the Research Team

Below is a table of the expected tasks to be undertaken by the Research Team:

7. Schedule of Deliverables and Payments

8. How to apply

The following are required:

8.1    Detailed response to the TOR, which includes brief technical proposal showing how you would carry out the assignment (the proposed methodology) – not exceeding five pages

8.2    In the technical proposal, applicants must address ethics and child safeguarding approaches, including any identified risks and associated mitigation strategies, particularly the following:

Plan International is committed to ensuring that the rights of those participating in data collection or analysis are respected and protected, in accordance with Ethical MERL Framework and our Child and Youth Safeguarding Policy. All applicants should include details in their proposal on how they will ensure ethics and child protection in the data collection process. Specifically, the consultant(s) shall explain how appropriate, safe,        non-discriminatory participation of all stakeholders will be ensured and how special attention will be paid to the needs of children and other vulnerable groups. The consultant(s) shall also explain how confidentiality and anonymity of participants will be guaranteed.

8.3 Proposed timeline

8.4 Detailed budget to conduct the work, such as daily fee rates, expenses as per the following template.

8.5 CVs of the Team Leader/s and, where possible, the Focus Group Moderators/interviewers.

8.6   1-2 samples of previous work of this nature performed by you.

Interested person please submit all the above documents to the Plan International Thailand at kanoknit.tankulratana@plan-international.org and supornchai.nawataweeporn@plan-international.org by this July 04 2019.