Proposal Invitation/Quotation for Public Perception Survey: Religious Freedom in Indonesia - Search

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Public Perception Survey: Religious Freedom in Indonesia

Search for Common Ground (Search), Indonesia is seeking to hire a consultant to carry out a baseline survey for its project “Solidifying Religious Freedom in Indonesia” funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. For this consultancy, Search Indonesia seeks to procure the services of an independent, external consultant(s) to design, plan and conduct a rigorous public perception survey. The objective is to gather relevant data regarding public perception on religious freedom in Indonesia.

Background of the Organization

Search (www.sfcg.org) is an international peacebuilding organization that strives to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches; towards collaborative problem-solving. SFCG is working in 35 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the USA. SFCG works with governments, civil society, state institutions, youth, women, media organizations and other stakeholder groups to promote peace, reconciliation, tolerance, and collaboration across dividing lines.

SFCG has been working in Indonesia since 2002. As a diverse country, Indonesia is facing challenges in managing social harmony and tolerance within the heterogeneous society. SFCG, in collaboration with local partners, is supporting the process of building peaceful culture through media programming, dialogues, outreach activities, and capacity strengthening. SFCG Indonesia works primarily with youth, especially in the universities and schools, government agencies and officials, and communities in the vulnerable areas to prevent violent extremism as one the challenges of peace and tolerance in Indonesia.

Background of the project

Despite being universally recognized as a widely tolerant country considering the extraordinarily diverse religions and ethnicities present, many ideals of the country’s core identity, including religious freedom, are increasingly under threat, with increased violations of religious freedoms in recent years. In response, the project will use innovative approaches, from inter-religious training to art festivals and social media personalities, to bring diverse stakeholders together, including local and national government, youth and local communities. These diverse groups will collaboratively contribute to improving state protection for religious freedom and building a more cohesive and pluralistic Indonesia.

Project objectives

The overall objective of the project is to reinstate the values and norms of pluralism within state institutions, youth, and local communities, which would create an enabling environment for the strengthening of religious freedom in Indonesia.

The specific objectives of the project are: 

Objective 1: To improve national and local government’s role in ensuring the protection of religious minorities in exercising religious freedom.

Objective 2: To enhance the roles of key actors (religious leaders, artists, and media) in actively promoting religious tolerance.

Target groups for the project include:

Primary target groups: state actors, religious leaders (inter-faith dialogue organization), youth, Civil Society Organization (CSO) journalist/media, public attorney and young artists Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, and Bekasi), Yogyakarta, Kupang, and Bandung.

Secondary target groups (Government counterparts):

The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Ministry of Religious Affairs. Universities, Indonesia Ulema Assembly (MUI)

Objectives of the Public Perception Survey:

The primary objective of the public perception survey is to measure how the state actors, community, and regulation able/disable to preserve religious freedom and obtain relevant information that will inform the project’s strategic planning while maximizing the visibility of public’s view on project implementation.

The Specific Objectives of Public Perception Survey:

1.       To assess the level of public knowledge and understanding on religious freedom;

2.       To assess public perspective on how state actors/regulation in preserving the religious freedom

3.       To assess the influence of social media in shaping public attitude toward religious freedom.

4.       To assess the challenges and opportunities of protecting religious freedom in Indonesia

Proposed location for baseline assessment

This public perception survey should target 2000 respondents in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, and Bekasi, Yogyakarta, Kupang, and Bandung since the project activities will be mainly focused on above-mentioned locations. These locations are selected considering as a vary of variables including religious diversity, a number of cases on religious freedom are reported and minority religion.

Public Survey Methodology

The survey will use two-stage sampling process to select the respondents. First, the cities and specific survey locations will be purposively identified based on their social and religious dynamics and then a random sampling will be done from the location keeping in mind the gender, ethnicity and religious composition of the location. Inclusion is ensured doing developing location-specific random selection. For this, the consultant team will make a respondents selection guideline that guides the selection of all categories of respondents from each location.

Sample Definition and Sampling: as with any survey, time constraints usually prohibit the investigation of an entire population. Although the consultant is requested to target 2000 respondents, it is important to further review and determine the appropriate required number of sampling to build a level of statistical confidence and tolerance for statistical error.

Survey Tool Design: consultant needs set up simple questions that asked the respondent to give an opinion on religious freedom on a certain scale. The consultant should also provide room for respondents to provide a justification for why they chose particular responses.

Pre-Testing the Survey Tool: the consultant needs to conduct pre-test on survey tool. A pre-test is aimed to identify any shortcomings in the design.

Data collection: Using the developed study sample, the consultant contacts the lists respondents in targeted locations. It is recommended to rotate surveyors among various locations to minimize data collection bias.

Data Analysis: consultant will analyze the collated data using any statistical means and analyze the various responses given to the various questions. The results of the analyses are presented in the public expose event.

Public Expose: Search will facilitate event to expose the survey findings that involves project main target groups, experts, and policymakers.

Key survey questions

·         Public perception on government responsiveness to violent and intolerant actors/activities

·         Level of awareness of policymaker son religious tolerance

·         Current level fo skill among religious leaders on initiating inter-faith dialogues

·         Public awareness on importance interreligious tolerance

·         Proportion of youth who knew strategies and skill son how to counter hate speech

·         Respect for other religions among general population and prevalence of religious tolerance.

Scope of Work and deliverables

Locations:

The public perception survey will be carried out in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, and Bekasi, Yogyakarta, Kupang, and Bandung. However, the consultant can be based in whenever in Indonesia with travel to the targeted locations for the data collection. 

Deliverables

1. Inception report: an inception report detailing the methodological explanation including all data collection tools subject to approval from Institutional Learning Team (ILT)
2. Public Perception Survey Workplan: demonstrates detail activity plan and timeframe of implementation cycle.
3. Public Survey Methodology. The methodology includes proposed above mentioned key points; identification of survey population, sample definition, and sampling, survey tool design, pre-testing the survey tool, data collection, data analysis and other information that relevant for the survey.
4. First Draft of data analysis to be submitted to the Country Representative/Senior Program Manager and ILT for comments and suggestions. Depending upon the quality of the report, there could be more than one round of review process. The report will be reviewed by Search Indonesia Team followed by SFCG Asia Regional DM&E Specialist.
5. Final Report: The report should be in English, and consist of:

• Cover Page. Search will provide sample cover sheet for reference.
• Table of contents, list of acronyms/abbreviations and list of tables and charts
• Executive summary of key findings and recommendations – not more than 3 pages.
• Introduction:  Context analysis, project description, survey methodology with a clear explanation of sampling, survey methodology, and data analysis approach.
• Survey findings, analysis, conclusions, and recommendation. The analytical chapter has to be structured under the agreed thematic areas of the survey.
• Recommendations. The recommendations should be addressed to the program implementation and necessary strategic approaches. 
• Appendices, which include collected data, a detailed description of the methodology with research instruments, list of interviewees, bibliography, and consultant’s brief biography.

     6. Survey tool. All raw data collected should be submitted to SFCG along with the final report.

    7. Presentation material. Presentation of the survey findings should be submitted at least a week before the Public Expose event for further review and comments.

 

Duration & Deadlines

The duration of the contract will be a total period of three months days starting from February 1st, 2018 to April 30^th, 2018 including a field trip to the location.

• Organization/Company Profile should be submitted to Pramita Handayani via email:  phandayani@sfcg.org no later than December 15, 2017. A decision on the selected consultant will be made by mid-January 2018.
• Signing of the contract by end  January 2018
• Inception report including Work plan and survey methodology and data collection tools due by February 15, 2008Field data collection completed by 28 February 2018
• The first draft of a report due by 9 March 2018.
• Final receipt of all deliverables due by 30 March 2018.

Logistical Support

SFCGI will provide preparatory and logistical assistance to the baseline team, which include:

▪       Background materials (Program Proposal/TOR, Log Frame, etc.);

▪       Preparation meeting with Country Director and key program personnel;

Experience and Qualifications

• Between 3-7 years of survey experience required
• Firms, research institution, CSO or association that that legally eligible to sign work         agreement/contract
• Experience and proven track record in conducting quantitative and qualitative surveys
• Possess the capacity to deploy and supervise field personnel in the execution data gathering activities.
• Knowledge of social and political change is required
• References required