CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Poultry Production and Nutrition Baseline Survey
TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)
Title: Poultry Production and Nutrition Baseline Survey
Entity & Project Name: Palladium International LLC; Growth Poles Project
Location: Lilongwe, Malawi
Type of engagement: Consultancy
Estimated Duration: 3 months
Provisional Start Date: Within 2 weeks of award of bid, Provisional Start Date on or around 24 July 2026
Reporting to: Deputy Team Leader – Program Quality
Deadline to Apply: 8 July, by 17:00hrs CAT
How to Apply:
- Request a proposal template by 3 July 2026 from ProcurementGPMW@thepalladiumgroup.com with subject line “Request for Proposal Template – Nutrition Baseline”
- Submit email proposals to ProcurementGPMW@thepalladiumgroup.com with subject line “Proposal – Nutrition Baseline”
Required Qualifications and Experience: see “Required Qualifications and Experience” below
Proposal Requirements: Interested individuals and/or firms should submit:
- Technical proposal using template
- Financial proposal using template
Company Overview:
Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. With a global team and network of experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people’s lives.
Project Overview:
The Growth Poles Project 2.0 (GPP 2.0) is a five-year initiative (Oct 2023–Sept 2028) led by Palladium International and funded by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs. It aims to accelerate inclusive, sustainable, and resilient wealth creation in Malawi by mobilizing private sector investments in agriculture and natural resource management. Its development objective is to advance a more inclusive, diversified, and resilient private sector that drives sustainable wealth creation while enhancing environmental and ecological diversity.
Assignment Abstract:
This assignment involves conducting a comprehensive baseline survey to support evaluation of a medium-scale poultry production loan and nutrition pilot under the Growth Poles Project in Malawi. The service provider will implement data collection among poultry producers and community members, including phone and in-person surveys, followed by data cleaning, analysis, and reporting. The study will generate critical insights on poultry production systems, market dynamics, and household nutrition behaviors. Findings will establish benchmarks for measuring project impact, inform adaptive implementation, and assess the scalability of interventions aimed at improving farmer incomes and access to affordable, high-quality protein in rural communities.
Background and Context
The Growth Poles Project is working with a private sector partner to pilot an initiative designed to achieve both entrepreneurial and improved nutritional outcomes in Malawi through increased availability of affordable, high quality, and locally produced animal proteins. The project includes piloting a credit product to support medium-sized enterprise poultry production, and piloting nutrition education and marketing campaigns to promote increased poultry consumption in rural communities, particularly among vulnerable groups such as women of reproductive age, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and children under the age of five. The primary objectives of the pilot are to assess the (1) financial viability and scalability of the loan model, (2) improve farmer incomes by enabling profitable poultry enterprises, and (3) increase access to affordable, high-quality protein. Results will be measured through loan repayment performance, enterprise profitability, and changes in household poultry consumption, while generating lessons to inform future scale-up of the model.
To support evaluation of the pilot, the Growth Poles Project will carry out a baseline survey of medium-sized poultry entrepreneurs and households, including vulnerable group, in their clientele catchment area, to measure baseline outcomes of interest for the pilot.
Purpose of the Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to engage a qualified service provider to implement a robust baseline survey to support evaluation of the nutrition-sensitive agriculture-informed medium-sized enterprise broiler loan pilot in partnership with the Growth Poles Project. The service provider will carry out data collection, analyse the results, and produce a summary results report.
The baseline survey will specifically aim to:
- Provide contextual information on medium-scale poultry production businesses (producing 200 broilers in a cycle) and community nutrition and protein consumption to feed into implementation of the pilot
- Provide a baseline for key outcomes of interest for both medium-scale poultry businesses and nutrition for vulnerable groups in the business catchment areas, including women of reproductive age and children under 5, to be used in an evaluation of the impact of the pilot
The baseline survey will (i) collect data from existing smallholder poultry producers on baseline production, sales, clientele, costs, and other business model information, and (ii) collect data from poultry producers’ clients and client neighbours on household consumption patterns, nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours related to animal food proteins.
Key learning questions will include:
- What is the profile of a medium-scale poultry business? How many clients do they have, what are their production volumes, what are their markets, and what are their challenges?
- What is the profile of people who buy poultry from smallholder poultry businesses? How often do they buy poultry, from where, and where are they located?
- What are attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs about nutrition, particularly related to protein and poultry as a source of protein, among clients and non-clients in the areas where smallholder producers target for sales, including among women of reproductive age, women who are pregnant or lactating, and children under 5?
- What are the key barriers to buying poultry, and in particular, poultry from smallholder producers?
Findings will inform adaptive management, support accountability to stakeholders, and provide actionable insights on the potential for scaling the model to reach larger numbers of smallholder farmers and rural households.
Scope of Work
The service provider will manage and implement data collection, data cleaning and data analysis for the baseline survey; present findings for validation; and produce a report detailing the baseline findings. Please note that the draft questionnaire, evaluation design, and sampling approach and sample selection will be completed by the project. The service provider will not be responsible for developing these, but will be responsible for implementing the data collection in accordance with the evaluation and sampling design.
The baseline survey will include a 30 minute phone survey of 70 poultry producers (50 program participants and 20 comparison producers). It will also include a 1 hour in-person survey of 240 households, with 12 individuals in each of 20 clusters. These clusters will be market towns distributed widely across Malawi. The household survey will include modules collecting nutrition knowledge, attitude and practice data from at least two respondents within the household: the household head, and a woman of reproductive age. For both surveys, data will be collected electronically.
The final report will be a detailed document including summary statistics for all key baseline indicators, and comparisons between key groups including program participants and non-participants, poultry clients and non-clients, and demographic groups such as men, women, and youth. The report should also be written to be accessible to non-technical audiences, and should include plain explanations for key findings and an executive summary.
The service provider shall undertake the following interrelated components:
Component 1: Survey Design and Preparation
Key Tasks:
- Review draft poultry producer survey questionnaire and draft poultry clientele survey questionnaire provide by the product and provide feedback
- Program the two questionnaires in electronic data collection tools
- Conduct pilot testing and revise tools based on feedback
- Prepare enumerator manuals and field protocols
Deliverables:
- Final survey instruments and programmed questionnaires
- Enumerator training materials
Component 2: Data Collection
Key Tasks:
- Recruit and train enumerators
- Plan survey logistics
- Conduct phone-based surveys of poultry producers
- Implement client and non-client in-person surveys at selected poultry business locations
- Monitor response rates
- Ensure adherence to data quality assurance protocols including daily data checks, and spot check/back checks
Component 3: Data Management, Cleaning and Analysis
Key Tasks:
- Prepare and present a short data cleaning and analysis plan, including proposed report outline
- Clean and validate datasets
- Develop a data codebook/indicator guide
- Conduct descriptive and comparative analysis
Deliverables:
- Data analysis plan presentation in PowerPoint
- Cleaned dataset and codebook
- Data analysis code for replication of results using cleaned data set
- Results outputs and tables for use in report
Component 4: Reporting and Dissemination
Key Tasks:
- Prepare a comprehensive baseline survey report, including:
- Methods
- Key findings aligned to learning questions
- Limitations and interpretation guidance
- Develop presentation materials for validation workshop
- Participate in a stakeholder validation event and incorporate feedback
- Prepare a final baseline report incorporating feedback from validation workshop
Deliverables:
- Draft baseline report
- Validation workshop presentation slides
- Final baseline report (post-validation)
Duration
The assignment is expected to last approximately 4 months.
Management and Reporting Arrangements
- The service provider will report to the Deputy Team Leader for Program Quality and Learning.
- Deliverables for each Component must be approved by Palladium before work on the next Component begins.
- The service provider will provide weekly progress updates, and participate in other calls and meetings with Palladium as required.
Required Qualifications and Experience
The service provider should demonstrate:
- Proven experience implementing detailed multi-module household surveys in Malawi;
- Expertise in nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and outcomes measurement;
- Capacity for rapid survey data collection implementation, including ability to mobilize enumerator teams and access to all hardware and software required for the assignment;
- Strong data quality procedures and practices;
- Expertise in data management and data analysis;
- Ability to produce a polished, error-free final report accessible to non-technical audience;
- Strong communication and project management skills.
Selection will be based on best-value trade-off, taking into account applicant qualifications, quality of the technical proposal, and value for money.
How to Apply: email ProcurementGPMW@thepalladiumgroup.com to request a proposal template.
Proposal Requirements: Interested individuals and/or firms should submit:
- A brief technical proposal describing their approach and expertise using the provided template
- Financial proposal
- One example of a previous household survey report produced by the applicant
Use of Results
The outputs of this consultancy will be used by Palladium and partners to:
- Understand poultry business and community nutrition needs
- Establish a baseline for evaluation of impact of programming on business and nutrition outcomes.
You may also download the TOR File using: TOR (final) Poultry production and nutrition baseline survey
Post expires at 11:59pm on Thursday July 2nd, 2026