Support to Civil Registration Reform in Tajikistan
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TERMS OF REFERENCES (TOR) UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME Country: Tajikistan Title of the Assignment: Ethnographic and Behavioural Insight Research for Civil Registration Description of Assignment: Conduct Action Research to review the barriers to Civil Registration in Tajikistan and who is affected most. Programme title: “Support to Civil Registration System Reform in Tajikistan” Period of assignment/services: The estimated duration of the assignment is 60 days, including at least 30 days in country (1 country mission with possible missions to the field) over 5 months. I. BACKGROUND The ‘Support to Civil Registration Reform in Tajikistan’ project builds on the outcomes of the Functional Review of Civil Registration Offices initiated by UNDP Tajikistan in 2014 under the ongoing ‘Access to Justice in Tajikistan’ project funded by SDC, and also based on extensive consultations with the state institutions at the national and local levels, UN Agencies, international and local NGOs, as well as the population. The project is in line with the Judicial and Legal Reform Programme of the Government of Tajikistan (2015-2017) and directly contributes to implementation of the ongoing reform of civil registration offices (ZAGS). The functional review of the notary and civil registration systems in Tajikistan reveals important capacity gaps in the implementation of the ZAGS Reform Programme in general and in service delivery in particular, resulting from the weak implementation of policies and laws and lack of procedures and mechanisms for evidence based planning and decision making. These problems are especially prominent in remote and hard to access areas of Tajikistan whereas the service provision is complicated by different accessibility factors, such as distance to the district centre, variable capacities of ZAGS and Jamoat officers to provide high quality services and lack of awareness among the population, further making the service unavailable and/or unaffordable, in particular for women, children, persons with disabilities, stateless persons and else vulnerable population groups. The Civil Registry System covers all vital statistics; however, large numbers of people in Tajikistan struggle with access to services and protection of their rights as a result of lack of access to registration. One of the biggest issues is considered to be in the area of birth registration. UNDP’s baseline study found that around 16.8% of children up to the age of 2 did not have a birth certificate, which was corroborated by an innovation mission by UNDP IRH in March 2018 – whereby a representative of the Health Statistics Institute stated that the gap between registered births and deaths in the health system was around 20%. According to the baseline study, about 40% of people do not register their children because the process is too time-consuming, and over 30% do not have the necessary financial resources to do it. The study found that in order to attend school, 1 children cannot be issued certificates of school completion without being registered. Registering a child after the first year of their life is a rather cumbersome process - requiring multiple travels to state institutions which carries associated costs. This further disenfranchises families that struggle with the financial burden of accessing civil registration service in the first place. From existing background documents and the above-mentioned innovation mission, an innovative action research initiative is planned to improve the targeting, efficiency and effectiveness of the civil registration project’s interventions. These include: a) Re-defining the problem statement with a new data-set (traditional /existing data combined with new non-traditional data). The potential to use existing data sources to understand the depth and characteristics of the problem on non-registration and the impact this has. This will require identifying existing datasets within the civil registry, household book, health information system, legal aid database, baseline study & socio-economic indicators. The data should be triangulated to understand geographic, urban/rural and socio-economic differences in the use of civil registry systems. These then should be matched with satellite imagery, using lights & terrain (subject to availability and access to data) as complementary sources of data for development and geography, respectively. b) Once the geographical differences have been identified based on the quantitative (data) analysis, there is a need to compare the results with qualitative analysis and observations (ethnographic research) to understand if the demographic infrastructures are in place or accessible to all groups and how different groups of population experience and perceive their limitations with regards to accessing these services. Ethnographic research into user-journeys, of people who have registered, others who have not registered their children, or some who have registered their children late, would provide insights into access for different parts of the population (i.e. women whose husbands are labour migrants, families in remote areas of the country) and an in-depth understanding of the type of constraints faced by different parts of the population and how future interventions could be tailor-made to address these issues. c) Applying behavioural insights to nudge registration of children and conducting randomized control trials to assess what type of interventions work better. The Behavioural Insights methodology will not only enable identifying the behaviour we would like to change for our policy challenge, but also help define targets that is specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related. The application of behavioural insights has brought significant results in a diverse range of policy areas (i.e. council tax collection, organ donor registration, etc), and testing out some of these methods could generate insights into the most effective ways in raising the numbers of registrations. d) Working closely with UNDP staff to build in-house capacity to design, manage, carry out, and evaluate high quality impact evaluations and apply behavioural perspectives onto the project. The operationalization of the Strategic Plan calls for reformed core teams trained in hands-on application of analytical methods for policy design and evaluation. Through the close collaboration and learning opportunities, the capacity of UNDP Tajikistan staff will be enhanced with knowledge in applying behavioural insights onto policy design and impact evaluation relevant to civil registry reforms. Following these 4 main steps UNDP is seeking to engage a company or companies to conduct this innovative action research to unlock the problem of low birth registration in Tajikistan. II. SCOPE OF WORK The overall objective is to increase the effectiveness of efforts of the Government of Tajikistan in improving civil registration and birth registrations. The goal is to lower the birth registration gap by 20% in 5-6 jamoats (see below for preliminary list of jamoats) which register the highest discrepancy between official registration 2 and the health database by using a combination of ethnography, data innovation and nudging. In particular, the interventions seek to answer the following two-part question: What specific constraints different parts of the population feel and experience, and what are the most effective means of addressing them? Ethnographic Research The research company shall: • Develop a final methodology and workplan, review the defined problem statement (Scoping specific constraints different parts of the population feel and experience, and the most effective means of addressing them) and the target setting with proposed deliverables, consult with the relevant partners (Ministry of Justice); • Review existing documentation around the project, investigate potential data sources and data-sets (some data subject to availability), conduct at least two virtual consultations with the in-country project team to understand the context of the problem, gather inputs (virtual consultations or online surveys) from the different partners to comprehend the political economy of the problem on non-registration; • In-depth analysis of historic and cross-sectional data (quantitative and qualitative data) to understand trends, mostly at local and regional levels and identify factors that might influence target behaviours; • Adopt a combination of ethnographic research and ‘design thinking’ to understand the context and the perspective of the individuals whose behaviour we seek to change, engaging in field-work & prioritisation of at least 5-6 jamoats where field-work will take place; • Provide quality assurance and remote support to the ethnographers in the process of conducting the research; • Compile the findings of the research into a draft report, to be reviewed by the Project Team; • Design and finalise the report with the findings from the research, as well as prepare a dissemination workshop for government and concerned stakeholders. Behavioural Insights • Develop a methodology, combined qualitative and quantitative data analysis report, final workplan and conduct consultations with the ethnographic research and Project teams; • Share concept for possible behavioural change insights and intervention options with Project team; • Review existing documentation, coordinating closely with ethnographic data innovation specialists to develop pilot interventions in selected jamoats; • Conduct field mission