External Evaluation of the Multipurpose Cash Programme Consultancy Tender, Yemen - 99455271

Procurement Summary

Country : Yemen

Summary : External Evaluation of the Multipurpose Cash Programme Consultancy

Deadline : 08 Apr 2024

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 99455271

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Purchaser Ownership : Public

Tender Value : Refer Document

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Tender Details

Tenders are invited for External Evaluation of the Multipurpose Cash Programme Consultancy

Closing Date: 8 Apr 2024

Type: Consultancy

Background:
Founded in 1956, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a leading international NGO and one of the few with a specific expertise in forced displacement. Active in 40 countries with 9, 000 employees and supported by 7, 500 volunteers, DRC protects, advocates, and builds sustainable futures for refugees and other displacement affected people and communities. DRC works during displacement at all stages: In the acute crisis, in displacement, when settling and integrating in a new place, or upon return. DRC provides protection and life-saving humanitarian assistance; supports displaced persons in becoming self-reliant and included into hosting societies; and works with civil society and responsible authorities to promote protection of rights and peaceful coexistence.

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is the lead agency for Cash Consortium of Yemen(CCY) .The Cash Consortium of Yemen (CCY) was set up in 2020 to improve the living conditions of crisis-affected people in Yemen by maximizing the effectiveness of cash assistance and supporting the transition to social protection mechanisms. The Cash Consortium of Yemen (CCY) is led by the Danish Refugee Council and includes Acted, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Mercy Corps, Solidarities International, and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). CCY-s program has operated under two core pillars:

Distributing MPCA to crisis-affected HHs to meet their critical basic needs and reduce negative coping strategies. CCY promotes MPCA as its proposed modality based on its demonstrated effectiveness in Yemen, leveraging on functioning and accessible markets; and the flexibility that cash assistance provides.
Establishing, expanding, and utilizing referral mechanisms to increase access to other tailored assistance and/or longer-term assistance.
The complex situation in Yemen requires ongoing evaluation of implementation strategies and approaches to ensure that programs achieve their desired impact effectively. The Evaluation Plan provided here clearly describes the evaluation activities of CCY-s program. It precisely outlines the important aspects of each activity. These include defining the purpose and scope, formulating crucial evaluation questions, specifying the methodology, choosing the evaluation team, identifying the primary audience, setting a timeline and budget, coordinating with other consortium partners, and detailing the dissemination of findings and recommendations.

SECTION I - ProGRAMME Overview
Building on the CCY partners' extensive experience in cash-based transfer programming within Yemen, the CCY proposes to a) provide MPCA as a first-line humanitarian response and b) support longer-term assistance to address more protracted needs by employing a strong referrals network to open pathways for vulnerable populations to access a wide range of services. The MPCA beneficiaries targeted under this award will include socio-economically vulnerable Yemeni IDPs, returnees, refugees, host communities, and those most affected by food insecurity and epidemic outbreaks. This proposed activity directly supports the Yemen 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan Yemen and its focus on ensuring maximal coverage of the most urgent, life-saving assistance integrated with a longer-term perspective.

a) Goal: To increase the ability of vulnerable conflict-affected populations of Yemen to build stable foundations through addressing the most acute humanitarian needs and linking humanitarian and social protection programming.

b) Theory of Change Statement: The proposed Theory of Change (ToC) states that: if individuals have access to food, essential services, non-food items and dignified shelter, if cash flow is increased in local markets, if the political, security and protective environment remains conducive, and if sequencing of humanitarian and development efforts is facilitated, then conflict-affected and vulnerable communities become more resilient and are better able to cope with shocks and crises.

c) Purpose of Program: To improve the dignity and living conditions of affected populations in Yemen through harmonized, coordinated, timely, safe and accountable needs-based MPCA and linkages to longer-term assistance.

As of December 2023, the CCY program had assisted beneficiaries in 16 governorates across both North and South Yemen. These beneficiaries comprise various groups, including members of the host communities, households internally displaced by conflict or natural disasters, persons who have returned to their places of origin, as well as refugees and migrants. The table presented below outlines the number of households that received support from the CCY program between 2020 and 2023.

SECTION II - Project Monitoring System
CCY Yemen has established a robust MEAL system to align with the country's context and meet the needs of stakeholders. The project ensures a continuous intake of beneficiaries by receiving numerous referrals from multiple agencies. CCY has devised its criteria for selecting beneficiaries by assessing their vulnerability, food insecurity, coping strategies, and economic capacity to ensure eligibility and identify unique recipients. CCY currently uses four different tools, i.e., vulnerability assessment, baseline, post-distribution monitoring and endline to collect the indicators. Below is a list of outcome indicators from the CCY indicator performance table:

Result 1

1

% of HHs who received the assistance within 14 days from the registration

2

# of households receiving the full amount of the MPCA, by one-off, 3-month and 6-month MPCA

3

Total value (in EUR) transferred to beneficiaries in MPCA, by one-off, 3-month and 6-month MPCA

4

% of households who report being able to meet the basic needs of their households (all/most/some/none), according to their priorities.

5

% of beneficiaries with acceptable FCS (80%).

6

% of households with total monthly expenditure which exceeds the MEB

Result 2

1

Number of referral pathways mapped.

2

Number of sectoral referral pathways integrated into the CCY system.

3

Number of households successfully referred through the CCY system, by referral type.

Result 3

1

Remittance trackers, Exchange rate trackers, Price Monitoring Tool, CCY Special Report

2

Number of learning products (studies, evaluations, research) produced and disseminated by CCY

3

Percentage of feedback/complaints received which have been timely and effectively acted upon

4

Number of key CCY program adaptations introduced as a result of consortium learning activities

5

# of price forecast data updates integrated into the online dashboard

To monitor the implementation and desired outcomes of the activity, the targeted beneficiaries undergo surveys for pre-assistance baseline, post-distribution monitoring PDM, and endline evaluations. Remarkably, CCY maintains one of the largest beneficiary databases in Yemen, making the program exceptionally cost-efficient by reducing duplicate assistance and specifically targeting the most vulnerable individuals. Additionally, the project utilizes software to keep track of outputs, ensuring efficient maintenance and monitoring throughout the process

SECTION III- CCY LEARNING AGENDA
The Evaluation Plan aligns with the interest of USAID and DG ECHO in expanding the knowledge base related to multipurpose cash assistance practices. The evaluations are intended to contribute valuable evidence to the decision-making process based on their Learning Agenda questions. This evaluation will align with the majority of USAID's learning agenda, with a specific focus on the following areas:

RESILIENCE TO SHOCKS: The evaluation will explore how CCY enhanced the resilience of households, communities, and the country against various challenges such as climate-related issues, conflicts, economic downturns, and health crises like COVID-19 and other global pandemics.
The research question from the Learning Agenda will be incorporated into the evaluations. CCY's program will concentrate on reinforcing the multipurpose cash assistance and implementing livelihood approaches for the affected community by 2024. The findings obtained from these evaluations will enable the consortium body and donors to gauge the extent to which cash assistance helped the beneficiaries build resilience against natural and man-made shocks and stressors.

SECTION Iv- Purpose and SCOPES of the Evaluation
The main objective is to evaluate the program's performance against the desired results as articulated in the project's result framework. Specific objectives of the evaluations include:

Assess whether the programme has adequately responded to the short, medium and long-term challenges as expressed in the project documents, including through expected synergies of a multipurpose cash assistance approach.
Assess the overall project's performance from planning, implementation and knowledge management by identifying the key strengths and areas of gaps and making the necessary recommendations for future improvement
Document vital lessons learned, innovations/best practices resulting in future strategies and interventions
Understand better what the project has achieved concerning gender and disability inclusion and protection mainstreaming and overall results
Support the use of relevant and timely contributions to organizational learning, informed decision-making processes resulting from the analysis, conclusions or recommendations as well as accountability for results.
In order to achieve these objectives the evaluator should focus on the criteria and evaluation questions in Section V below:

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