Joint Emergency Cash Transfer Programme Review Consultant

The goal of this consultancy is to assess the implementation of the Joint Emergency Cash Transfer (JECT) programme in Dominica after Hurricane Maria.

Duty Station: Home based with travel to Dominica

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SITUATION ANALYSIS

On 18 September 2017, Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 5 hurricane made land fall in the island country of Dominica with a total population of about 73,000, causing widespread destruction along its path. Houses and key infrastructure was damaged and normal life came to a standstill. All social services including public utilities including water, electricity and communications have been interrupted. In addition, the recovery pace was slow. The impact of the hurricane has dented severely the Dominican economy. All the 10 parishes in the country, are estimated to be moderately to severely affected. According to the Country Poverty Assessment (2008/2009), some of the hardest hit parishes on the north-east coast are among the poorest According to preliminary figures from the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) currently being finalized, it is estimated that a total of 24,000 persons have been affected which translates to about 8,000 households. This calculation is based on an average of about 3 persons households based on figures provided by government.  

Since Hurricane Maria struck Dominica, UNICEF support focused on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; education, child protection, psychosocial support to affected children and duty bearers. UNICEF also supported the recovery efforts with a Joint Emergency Cash Transfer (JECT) programme jointly designed and implemented with the World Food Programme (WFP).

BACKGROUND OF THE JOINT EMERGENCY CASH TRANSFER (JECT)

The JECT, which is the first one implemented in the Latin American and the Caribbean region, targeted a total of 8,000 of the poorest families in the country, including 6,000 children. The programme was officially launched in early December 2018 and the last payment of cash was completed in March 2018.

The JECT was designed building from the existing structure of Dominica’s main national social assistance programme, the Public Assistance Programme (PAP), which benefits about 2,200 households of the poorest population in the country.[1] The institution responsible for the PAP implementation is the Social Welfare Department (SWD) within the Ministry of Social Services, Family and Gender Affairs (MSSFGA). The PAP provides monthly transfers of cash to the most vulnerable men, women, and children in the country. For people to be eligible to receive support, they have to apply to the MSSFGA either directly by writing a letter or by apply at the Village Councils which are set up across the different Parishes. There are about 100 settlements lead by the Village Councils in the 10 parishes which include development committees.

The JECT was intended to immediately benefit families from the PAP (vertical expansion), and gradually add families that were severely hit by the hurricane but were not original beneficiaries from PAP (horizontal expansion). Please refer to the diagram below for more details on the strategy of the JECT.  The JECT’s main implementation body is also the SWD working closely and continuously with UNICEF and WFP.

Specific objectives of the JECT are:

• To promote the overall well-being of 6,000 most vulnerable hurricane affected children living in vulnerable households[2] and, thus, contribute to SDGs related to poverty alleviation, good health, access to quality education, clean water and sanitation and protective environment;
• To contribute to strengthen government capacity in the implementation of PAP and ensure it becomes better prepared to respond to future emergencies and humanitarian situations towards a shock responsive social protection system.

Specific activities included:

• With the support of the WFP, provision of unconditional cash based transfers to identified households for 3 months.
• With the support of UNICEF, provision of unconditional cash child grants to carers of identified children for 3 months.
• Provision of technical assistance and accompaniment to the SWD to support programmatic implementation of the JECT.
• Conducting monitoring and verification of the process and utilisation of emergency cash transfers.

UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Area (ECA) office has invested significant resources in supporting the JECT with allocation of about 990,000 USD to finance the programme over a period of three months that includes institutional capacity building interventions with the MSSFGA. The ECA office is also providing technical expertise and field coordinator on the ground in Dominica from December 2017 to May 2018 to support the overall implementation of the programme. The field and technical support team in Dominica are also working directly with the WFP field team.

The JECT programme is planning to roll out its second phase in May 2018 to continue providing cash assistance to families most vulnerable specifically through those on the PAP.  The objective of this phase will shift to focus more on capacity strengthening and less on the emergency need. This will allow for a greater overlap of emergency recovery and development programming.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY

As part of the programme document signed with the Government of Dominica and UNICEF, it was agreed that a process review will be conducted. The overall goal is to assess the implementation of the JECT programme after Hurricane Maria and whether the activities translated into planned outputs. What did we learn from the process? What worked? What did not work?

Specific objectives are:

1. Validate whether the intervention met the vulnerable immediate children’ basic needs, in an extremely challenging post-hurricane situation.
2. Assess the level of implementation and completion of activities planned under the JECT programme
3. Identify barriers that cause delays in the implementation
4. Assess if planned results were achieved

In addition, the review will also capture lessons learnt from the perspective of:

1. partnership arrangements
2. operationalization of the JECT through the PAP structure

These will be used to inform how best to strengthen the role of UNICEF and other partners on building a shock responsive social protection system and also assist in informing the roll out and implementation of phase 2 of the JECT which includes recommendations on how the Government of Dominica’s ability can address the needs of vulnerable children in times of emergency recovery and development.  

Although the programme was administered jointly with WFP the review will be conducted and managed by UNICEF working in close collaboration with WFP and government partners. The consultancy will be managed under the overall supervision of Social and Economic Policy Specialist of UNICEF ECA with inputs and direction from the Dominica UNICEF field team. 

PROPOSED METHODOLOGY 

Below is a proposed methodology to be considered based on the key activities that have taken place from the JECT programme. The review will include the JECT programme from the time of the hurricane hit to the time of the conclusion of the programme which are broken down into the following phases:

1. Assessment of utilizing cash for emergency response
2. Design of the programme including the cash grant numeration, targeting and enrolment of beneficiaries
3. Implementation and delivery process
4. Monitoring -what mechanisms were in place?
5. Communication
6. Coordination
7. Sustainability- extent of UNICEF longer term objectives around system strengthening in social protection

Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

The review may but not be limited to only qualitative analysis such as focus groups with key stakeholders, key informant interviews but may also inform on the reliability of existing beneficiary database. The review may also adopt a quantitative approach to review the vulnerability needs assessment (VNA) database, M&E information from the post distribution monitoring (PDM) and other data that may pertain. All of this may inform analysis through a triangulation approach.

To complement data collection, in-depth case studies are to be developed to capture before and after circumstances of the JECT programme.

SCOPE OF WORK

1. Conduct a time analysis of all the processes and stages of the JECT.
2. Recommendations and opportunities for UNICEF and other stakeholders for improving shock responsive social protection system building in Dominica
3. Identify bottlenecks and opportunities during the JECT programme processes how best to remove them for possible future scale ups or replication.
4. Provide overall recommendations based on the above analysis and capture UNICEF way forward in the Eastern Caribbean in terms of social protection system building and emergency preparedness. 
5. Complete 2 in-depth case studies of families that were part of both the horizontal and vertical

DELIVERABLES

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• At least 10 years of progressive work and experience developing social and economic policies and not less than six years of direct experience of working on social protection programmes.
• Demonstrable technical expertise in conducting reviews, evaluations, assessment and lessons learned documentation in emergency cash transfer, cash transfer programme
• Knowledge and experience in the development and implementation of social protection policy and programme development.
• Proven record of writing skills in social protection policy and planning.
• Sound experience in developing Monitoring and Evaluation frameworks and implementation.
• Good knowledge of child care and protection, education and early childhood development, social inclusion, disability and gender issues in the context of social protection programmes.
• Good knowledge of fiscal and macro-economics, and social policy in middle income countries context, particularly in Small Islands Developing States (SIDS).
• Excellent analytical skills.
• Excellent communication and advocacy skills to engage in effective consultation at all levels and target audience.
• Experience working with multiple partners and agencies and national governments in a regional or an international setting.

LANGUAGES:

Fluency in English required.

DURATION OF CONTRACT

Anticipated start date is 14 May 2018.  Start date may vary dependent upon procurement process.

Total Working Days anticipated is 30 working days. Although the duration of contract is beyond the 30 working days, it does not take into consideration time for stakeholders to revert with necessary comments on the consultancy outputs.

CONTRACT SUPERVISOR

The consultant will report directly to the Social and Economic Policy Specialist, UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area based in Trinidad and Tobago.

OFFICIAL TRAVEL

During the contract period, the Consultant is expected to travel to Dominica. A total of 2 visits to Dominica. Total working days during each visit will be no more than 5 days, this will be no more than a total of 15 working days for official travel. Budget detailing travel costs should be submitted in the financial proposal (separately from the technical proposal).

The consultant is responsible for arranging his/her own travel, including bearing the cost of visas and travel insurance.  Accommodation, meals and incidentals costs must not exceed the UN daily subsistence allowance rates

TENTATIVE PAYMENT SCHEDULE

The fee payments are linked with the deliverables and will be made upon submission of a progress report on the achievement of the deliverables.

30% - Completion of Deliverable 1

20% - Completion of Deliverable 2

20%- Completion of Deliverable 3

30%- Completion of Deliverable 4

The consultant is to submit a 1) technical proposal that includes proposed methodology, tentative outline of the final report, list of key stakeholders to engage and contact, and a 2) financial proposal that will also include travel costs to Dominica and the breakdown of fees.

Assessment of Technical Proposal will be based on the following:

1. Experience and technical skills in reviewing and/or evaluating emergency cash transfer programme (25%)
2. Proposal that reflects and makes strategic linkages between emergency cash to shock responsive social protection system building. (25%)
3. Proposed methodology for the review which includes outline of the in-depth case studies (25%)

4. Clarity and scope of the technical proposal (25%)

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

Prior to commencing the contract, the following conditions must be met:

An Individual Consultant will be required to submit a statement of good health, which indicates that the Consultant is fit for work and travel. In addition, the Consultant is required to certify in the Health Statement that he/she is covered by medical/health insurance. The statement includes confirmation that he/she has been informed of any inoculation required for the country or countries to which travel is authorized. He/she takes full responsibility for the accuracy of the statement.

RECOURSE         

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. Performance indicators against which the satisfactory conclusion of this contract will be assessed include: timeliness/quality of submission and responsiveness to UNICEF and counterpart feedback.

PROPERTY RIGHTS

UNICEF shall hold all property rights, such as copyright, patents and registered trademarks, on matters directly related to, or derived from, the work carried out through this contract with UNICEF.  

MANDATORY TRAININGS

Prior to the signature of the contract, consultants/individual contractors must submit certificates of completion of the following mandatory trainings as part of the hiring documentation:

1. The Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) e-learning course is mandatory for all UN Funds and Programmes Personnel including volunteers and contractors. This self-paced course can take you about 90 minutes to complete and can be found at: https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=7380
2. When traveling on UNICEF business, the Basic Security in the Field (BSITF) and the Advanced Security in the Field (ASITF) trainings are mandatory. UNDSS trainings are available at: https://training.dss.un.org/

HOW TO APPLY:

Prospective consultants should apply through UNICEF’s E-recruitmentt System by accessing the following link: http://jobs.unicef.org and typing in the job number 512326 in the search engine, no later than COB (EST) on Friday, 27 April 2018. The submission package should include the following:

1. A cover letter
2. A detailed curriculum vitae
3. A technical and financial proposal.

 TOR_JECT External Review_12 April 2018.pdf