Terms of Reference

Conducting a Financial Inclusion Analyses for Palestine

1.      Background

We Effect is a development cooperation organization founded in 1958 by the Swedish cooperative movement with the aim of fighting poverty. We Effect’s mission is to enable people living in poverty to improve their living conditions, defend their rights and contribute to a just society. We Effect works in the thematic fields of sustainable rural development and adequate housing with a strong focus on women’s rights.
The target groups for our development cooperation are our partner organizations and their existing and potential members. We Effect applies a rights-based approach. This means that our development activities are developed in dialogue with our partner organizations, with strong local ownership, characterized by accountability, transparency, non-discrimination, and meaningful participation. We Effect works in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America in 13 regional or country programmes. The partnership approach is supported by the strong local presence through regional and country offices.

We Effect is currently implementing the “Equality First in Palestine” Palestine Country Programme 2019-2022 and the Environmental Climate Justice Programme (ECJP) 2020-2023. The Palestine Country Programmes are focused on sustainable rural development and cooperative development and the country office strategic working areas are organizational development, business, environmental climate change resilience (ECCR), and production development, gender equality, financial inclusion and civil society strengthening. The cooperative model is used to mobilize rights holders and work towards socio-economic development. The programme is a platform to promote dialogue, synergies, and cooperation between the partner organizations in the programme and other stakeholders in order to influence and advocate for change. The programme operates in the West Bank including area C, and East Jerusalem.

Moreover, We Effect aims to contribute in the development of the social enterprise sector in the area, in particular the cooperatives. By empowering them, they are expected to become significant contributors to the social economy sector in Palestine. This will in turn reinforce the growth of the Palestinian economy in general. Therefore, We Effect is undertaking significant steps toward inclusiveness, resilience, sustainability and food security. One area of support will be in facilitating the integration of these agents into value chains and in improving access to finance

2.      Objective of the Assignment

 The main objective of the assignment is to conduct a financial inclusion analysis on a country level with a focus on right holders; especially women and youth related to improving their financial literacy, utilisation of financial products, planning personal and/or cooperative finances as well as needs to advocate for rights to economic resources.   

The analyses should provide basis for development of framework for activities in the We Effect Palestine 2023-2027 and the respective projects.

The analysis should include:

-        Review of the relevant We Effect documents connected with the requirements for financial inclusion.

-        Conduct A mapping of financing sources/initiatives and institutions that are targeting smallholder producers and cooperatives.

-        Conduct analysis on current financial inclusion situation in Palestine and on current Palestine Programme particularly emphasizing:

1.      The capacity and knowledge on financial inclusion issues of We Effect’s partners

2.      Capacity of the right holders on the awareness and preparedness for financial management including CSOs and cooperatives.

3.      Women’s and men’s rights, attitude and preferences for financial products and services.

4.      Constraints of right for utilisation of financial services.

5.      Investigate available public and private funds appropriate for right holders

6.      Identify stakeholders and other associations or groups whose work focuses on relevant actions for financial inclusion.

7.      Identify national policies regulations and laws on financial inclusion.

8.      Identify issues, limitations in the national policies to be addressed, which are limiting right holder’s access to finance.

9.      Provide recommendations for We Effect partners on development of type of activities for increasing financial inclusion (individual farmers, members, cooperatives, etc.).

10.   Provide specific recommendations for small holders and cooperatives how to expand their access to finance based on the mapping of financing sources.

11.   Provide an initial inventory of potential sources of funding for smallholders and cooperatives, the modalities for accessing funding, the criteria used to make the funding allocation decisions, the funding cycles/timelines, and key contacts.

12.   Provide recommendations on how We Effect’s staff and partner organizations’ staff can be strengthened in order to implement specific activities and contribute to We Effect’s financial inclusion in upcoming program.

3.      Methodology

·        It is expected that the consultant(s)/team describes and justifies an appropriate approach/methodology and methods for data collection for the assignment. The design, methodology and methods for data collection and analysis are expected to be fully developed and presented in the inception report.

·        Limitations to the chosen approach/methodology and methods shall be made explicit by the consultant(s)/team and the consequences of these limitations discussed in the inception report. The consultant shall to the extent possible, present mitigation measures to address them.

·        A gender responsive approach/methodology, methods, tools, and data analysis techniques should be used.

·        The approach to the data collection should be utilization-focused, which means the consultant(s)/team should facilitate the entire process with careful consideration of how everything that is done will affect the use of the final report. In addition to to be augmented with further materials reviews and interviews with key informants.

·        In cases where sensitive or confidential issues are to be addressed in the data collection, consultant(s)/team should ensure an evaluation design that do not put informants and stakeholders at risk during the data collection phase or the dissemination phase.

4.      Time Schedule

 The assignment will be implemented during the period of August -September 2022.

 The deadline for the completion of tasks and the submission of the final report will be no later than the 26^th of September

 The consultant is responsible for submitting a detailed work plan/time schedule in line with the ToR before the start of the assignment

5.      Deliverables

The consultant(s)/team is/are expected to deliver the following:

Inception report: To include design, methodology, detailed workplan

Financial Inclusion report: The assignment will result in the drawing up of the final report written in a straightforward manner, in English. The final report is an important working tool for WE EFFECT and its partners. The report format appearing below should, therefore, be adhered to:

-        Executive Summary

-        Contextual Analysis of financial inclusion in Palestine

-        Identifying, mapping, and addressing financial inclusion in Palestine

-        Research Methods

-        Findings

-        Discussion

-        Recommendations

-        Annexes

Annexes

-        List of persons interviewed, and sites visited

-        Abbreviations

-        An electronic copy of each report including all annexes must be submitted to We Effect

6.      Expertise required

 The consultant(s)/team who will carry out this assignment must have demonstrated expertise in financial services to rural finance and show proof (sample) their working experience when submitting proposal.  The consultant(s)/team should be well familiar with cooperatives and cooperatives development, social enterprises business and services development, as well as organisational development. The consultant/s should be fluent in both Arabic and English language. It is also important that the consultant/s are totally independent from project partners, its staff, land members.

 Preferably, the financial inclusion analyses should be carried out by consultant(s)/team experienced in:

- Approaches for financial inclusion of the target group

- Work with Non-Governmental Organisations

- Agriculture and related rural development fields

- Institutional framework for financial inclusion

- Entrepreneurship

- Donor’s development projects

- Research in the fields of finance, economy and/or needs of farmers, rural inhabitants and other vulnerable groups

7.      Logistics/Facilitation

Reaching the location, the of right holders, workshops or interviews and meetings will be the responsibility of consultant. The consultant will be responsible for arranging for all interviews and any field work if necessary

The consultant has/ to use their own offices, computers and software, own phones and e-mail access and be able to download and print out needed information. And in general, the consultant will be responsible for covering all costs related to their work during implementing this assignment.

8.      Applications Submission

Applications MUST include:

1.      Technical offer:

a.   The consultant’s legal name and official registration documents,

b.   The implementing team members, their appointed roles and responsibilities, and their resumes (with references) illustrating the related experiences in response to the requested qualifications,

c.    Implementation work plan, (see point # 5 above)

d.   Description of the approach, methodology applied and short assignment analysis.

e.   Two examples of studies/reports similar to this assignment.

2.      Financial offer: Should be submitted in ILS including VAT, taxes and transportation.

3.      Financial offer should be per working day.

4.      Proposal should be submitted by email to palestine@weeffect.org as PDF file, signed and stamped.

5.      Deadline for submission is 16:00, August 15, 2022.