Haiti Evaluating Flexible Approaches to Cash Transfers for Emergency-Response Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Haiti

Summary : Haiti Evaluating Flexible Approaches to Cash Transfers for Emergency-Response

Deadline : 13 Jul 2020

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 43864300

Document Ref. No. : 1269483

Competition : ICB

Financier : World Bank (WB)

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : THE WORLD BANK GROUP
Tel: +50928122240 Attn: Peleg Charles
Haiti
Email :pcharles@worldbank.org
URL :https://www.worldbank.org/en/

Tender Details

Expression of Interest are invited for Haiti Evaluating Flexible Approaches to Cash Transfers for Emergency-Response.

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR SELECTION # 1269483

This Request for Expression of Interest is for a Firm Selection. Please log in as a valid Firm User if you wish to express interest in this selection.

Selection Information

Assignment Title

Haiti Evaluating Flexible Approaches to Cash Transfers for Emergency-Response

Publication Date

29-Jun-2020

Expression of Interest Deadline

13-Jul-2020 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time - Washington D.C.)

Language of Notice

English

Selection Notice

Assignment Country

· HT - Haiti

Funding Sources

The World Bank Group intends to finance the assignment/services under:

· BB - BANK BUDGET

· TF073227 - Caribbean Regional Resilience Building Facility

Individual/Firm

The consultant will be a firm.

Assignment Description

Haiti Emergency Cash Transfer Evaluation
The objective of the assignment is to evaluate an emergency cash transfer as part of the COVID-19 emergency response, including through the design of a methodology and survey questionnaires, the implementation of primary data collection, the compiling of secondary sources of information from Financial Service Providers, the analysis of these data and the drafting of an analytical report.

Attachments

· Optional TOR File

Qualification Criteria

· 1. 1. At least 5 years of experience in collecting data, including household survey data, in low income countries, preferably in Haiti.

· 2. 2. Ability to conduct phone surveys as well as face-to-face surveys in Creole.

· 3. 3. At least 5 years of experience in analyzing data and producing analytical reports.

· 4. 4. Excellent communication (verbal, written, listening) skills in English, French and Creole. 5. Ability to manage high pressure situations and deadlines.



1
Haiti Emergency Cash Transfer Evaluation
Terms of Reference (Consultant Firm)
Assignment Objective: The overall objective of the assignment is to evaluate an emergency
cash transfer as part of the COVID-19 emergency response, including through the design of a
methodology and survey questionnaires, the implementation of primary data collection, the
compiling of secondary sources of information from Financial Service Providers, the analysis
of these data and the drafting of an analytical report.
A. Background
Cash transfers are increasingly part of both humanitarian and social protection responses to
crises. They hold the potential to provide beneficiaries with choice, strengthen local markets,
engage the private sector (e.g., banking and financial services), and empower people and
communities. There is however limited evidence on the relative performance of transfer
modalities, and significant variance in the availability of comparative evidence on cash
transfers in humanitarian contexts across sectors1
, for instance food security, nutrition, health,
education, and shelter. Evidence is needed in particular to understand the effectiveness of cash
transfers, as part of emergency responses, in supporting households in dealing with shocks,
whether man-made or natural disasters.
The COVID-19 crisis has stressed the importance of dynamic social registries in allowing to
quickly identify the target population and provide assistance. This is particularly important in
countries where social registries are not well developed and/or are rarely updated. Haiti-s social
registry - the SIMAST - is a static database, is rarely updated and does not cover the whole
country. In its current form it is hard to leverage it to support disaster response during the crisis.
The project will address both the issue of producing evidence on emergency cash transfers and
food distributions as well as pilots of on-demand registration and updating for potential
beneficiaries of emergency assistance.
The current crises in Haiti and the emergency cash transfer financed through the contingent
emergency response component (CERC) of the Municipal Development and Urban Resilience
(MDUR) project, provide a unique opportunity to produce such evidence in the context of a
weak social protection system.
Haiti is currently facing one of the worst political, socio-economic and humanitarian crises of
its history after years in cycles of political and economic dysfunction. The poorest country in
the Western Hemisphere has long had one of the world`s highest levels of food insecurity,
which has significantly worsened in recent months due to drought, a collapse in the local
currency and anti-government protests which shuttered businesses and public institutions for
several months in 2019 and disrupted the transportation of goods, including food aid.
Approximately 40% of the population or 4.1 million individuals need urgent action2
. The
socio-economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic further compounds these
vulnerabilities, including through job losses, lack of access to markets due to physical
distancing, and increased out-of-pocket health expenditures. In the absence of a formal
national safety net system, Haitians currently rely on coping strategies that erode human capital
when facing increasingly frequent shocks, with the potential of deepening and perpetuating
1
Inter-Agency Standing Committee, available here
2
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis conducted in October 2019
2
poverty, including by reducing expenditures on health and education, and increased child
labor. In this context, humanitarian agencies have stepped in to deliver humanitarian aid and
short-term social and livelihood assistance, but these programs are limited in both duration and
coverage and are not being evaluated.
In response to the food insecurity and COVID-19 socio-economic crises the Government - led
by the Ministry of Interior and Local Authorities in partnership with the World Food Program
(WFP) and the Ministry of Social Affairs (MAST) - will implement an emergency cash transfer
program, targeting the most vulnerable households in selected urban and peri-urban areas.
Households in zones of high food insecurity in urban and peri-urban areas, who have been
classified as most vulnerable according to the social registry SIMAST3
or via community-based
targeting, will receive four cycles of 82 USD over the course of 12 to 18 months.
Beneficiary households will also receive Social and Behavioral Change Communication
focusing on COVID-19 prevention as well as general health and nutrition best practices
(activities are expected to start in July 2020), including through on-site activities, as well as
potentially through virtual means for beneficiaries of the mobile transfer (via texts or
robocalls), and radio messages. An estimated 38, 000 households will benefit from this
intervention. The transfer will be delivered via cash deliveries as well as through a pilot of a
mobile money delivery mechanism, using the platform MonCash, for which households in
urban areas (starting in Gonaives) will receive SIM cards as well as training on how to use
MonCash.
While the distribution of cash transfers is aimed to reduce the socio-economic impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable households, understanding how efficient this type of
instrument as well as mobile payment delivery are to respond to shocks is valuable for all
disaster response applications.
B. Consultant Tasks
• Plan and organize the logistical and administrative aspects of primary data collection
from households benefiting from the emergency program in coordination with the
World Bank and the World Food Program teams. The surveys will be conducted with
individual beneficiaries as well as focus groups at the community level.
• Design, test and adjust questionnaires for households to be surveyed and translated
into Creole
• Collect data from beneficiaries to be surveyed, by telephone and in-person surveys
depending on the circumstances;
• Maintain permanent contact with local authorities regarding the planning and
implementation of data collection;
• Establish a data quality control and backup protocol;
• Match data collected from the beneficiaries with data from secondary sources,
including distribution reports from MonCash and Le Levier
• Analyze the primary (households and focus groups) and secondary (MonCash and Le
Levier) data in terms of (1) design of the transfer and (2) outcomes.
o Regarding (1) the design of the transfer, the feedback regarding modality,
amount and frequency of the transfers, the experience of households in using
3 Système d-Information du Ministère des Affaires Sociales et du Travail
3
the mobile money option if applicable and their preferences in terms of delivery
as well as the registration and targeting of beneficiaries will be evaluated.
o Regarding (2) the outcomes, awareness of and behavioral changes related to
COVID measures, food insecurity, poverty, resilience of households,
perceptions of social cohesion, human capital, preferences of food, cash or
mobile money are of interest.
• Develop a study based on the quantitative analysis of the household survey data and
distribution reports, as well as qualitative data from the community focus groups.
• Submit monthly reports on progress to the World Bank and the World Food Program.
C. Required Professional Expertise
i) At least 5 years of experience in collecting data, including household survey data,
in low income countries, preferably in Haiti
ii) Ability to conduct phone surveys as well as face-to-face surveys in Creole
iii) At least 5 years of experience in analysing data and producing analytical reports
iv) Excellent communication (verbal, written, listening) skills in English, French and
Creole
v) Ability to manage high pressure situations and deadlin

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