Technical support to design a child benefit social cash transfer program for CAR

Contract

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-***Technical support to design a child benefit social cash transfer program for CAR***-

Justification :

UNICEF views social protection as a key programmatic approach to reduce child poverty and address multiple and compounding vulnerabilities. The growing needs for social protection coverage of most vulnerable households, that have been enhanced by the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the opportunities provided by the policy development process and the institutionalization of PACAD, have encourage UNICEF to further strengthen its social protection efforts in CAR. A recently conducted mission by UNICEF, to articulate a vision/framework for social protection development in CAR, recommended incrementally building a social protection system using social cash transfer program/s as an operational entry point. Building on a child sensitive social protection objective, we believe that a life-course approach is essential for children, where their multi sectoral needs can be supported. To that end, UNICEF recognizes the importance of ensuring that social protection programmes are linked with other sectors, via cash plus and other approaches, to address multi-dimensional poverty.

Considering UNICEF existing programmatic work on social protection system building in more than 115 countries, UNICEF is well positioned to support the conceptualisation, development/design, and implementation of large-scale social cash transfer program, including in a challenging context. In CAR in 2020, UNICEF implemented humanitarian cash transfers to reach around 15,000 children in 8 different locations. This operational experience in fragile contexts demonstrated the operational capacity of UNICEF to implement cash transfers in a challenging context.

In view of the above, the recent UNICEF mission on social protection in CAR recommended taking an operational approach to systems strengthening. UNICEF CAR is therefore mobilizing resources for a child benefit social cash transfer programme. Such a program will be instrumental to start addressing chronic child poverty and vulnerability and assist the country to invest in human capital. In addition, the programme would allow an expansion of social cash transfer coverage – beyond the current PACAD programme – and thereby more substantially contribute to social cohesion, local economic development and opportunity, and enhanced trust of citizens in the public sector and the state. This requires transparent and easy-to-communicate eligibility criteria, and a combination of categorical and universal targeting criteria will be prioritized for the child benefit programme. In addition, it requires the development of a plus package to ensure that the cash transfer impact is optimized for children through an additional package of protection services. The added value and efficiency of such a package will have to be measured through a rigorous research design that assesses the relevance and feasibility of rolling out the plus package at scale.

The roll-out of a child benefit program will provide practical entry points to start addressing government capacity in the social protection sector, through a parallel strengthening of delivery systems, coordination capacity, and reinvigorating the policy dialogue around the national social protection policy. This purpose is aligned to the institutionalization objectives of the second phase of the PACAD programme. It is however clear that this agenda of strengthening the building blocks of what currently is a nascent social protection system will require time. Therefore, to roll out a child benefit program in the short run, operational delivery systems will be managed by UNICEF in coordination with the government. A strategy will be designed to ensure that the medium-term agenda of strengthening government delivery systems and overall social protection capacity is informed and driven by the delivery systems put in place for the child benefit programme.

To kick-start this process, the current TORs provide the main parameters of an assignment that has a three-fold purpose. First, to develop the design of a child benefit social cash transfer programme for CAR. Second, to develop the overarching parameters of a research strategy to assess the impact of the cash transfer on a range of child vulnerability factors, and to determine effectiveness and efficiency of the plus package of protection services. Third, to develop a strategy to optimize the use of the child benefit programme roll out for the CAR social protection systems strengthening agenda.

1. Goal & Objectives :

The purpose of the assignment is to contribute to the development of a social cash transfer program in CAR, with the overarching aim of reducing children’s vulnerability to the impact of shocks, stress, and to the multiple dimensions of poverty, enhancing investments in human capital, and strengthening social cohesion and local economic development.

The assignment has the following 3 specific objectives:

1. Design a child benefit social cash transfer program, including implementation arrangements

The Child Benefit social cash transfer program should be designed for a period of 2 years. It should include all the operational aspects ranging from the targeting, registration, partnerships, delivery mechanisms, transfer amount & frequency, feedback mechanism, M&E, to risk management, but also a concise Theory of Change, and an assessment of operational capacity required to roll out the program. The design will comprise the following elements:

Targeting: the program will target 100,000 households with children. A combination of categorical and universal targeting criteria will be prioritized for the targeting of the child benefit program. Rural and urban areas will be covered with the exact localities to be determined depending on the needs & cash feasibility assessments.

Benefit package: to identify the most appropriate child benefit option on the longer term, the tentative proposed design for the initial phase of the child benefit programme will comprise 2 different packages:

Support package 1 - Social cash transfers combined with social worker support: recipients of this package will benefit from social cash transfers and support provided by social workers. The social worker will be responsible to orientate & support selected households to reinforce their resilience and improve children’s access to basic goods and services. Social

a. workers will also oversee case management and refer children to protection services when needed.

b. Support package 2 - Social cash transfers only: recipients of this support package will only receive social cash transfers.

The transfer amount, frequency, delivery mechanisms and additional services will have to be determined based on the program’s objectives and in light of social protection activities in the country.

The proposed benefit packages are based on an initial assessment of what is most relevant to address child poverty and vulnerability in CAR. During the design stage of the program, other options will be proposed for discussion if relevant. The proposition of the 2 support packages mentioned above are flexible and could be adapted depending on their relevancy to address children needs. As well, at one point of the program all beneficiaries could benefit from the same package.

Partnership: to implement the program, UNICEF will work with financial service providers & humanitarian organizations, to be selected based on their capacity and coverage. The Government will be involved in the design, coordination as well as the operations when possible.

Others: coordination mechanism, M&E, feedback mechanism and reporting will be proposed.

2. Develop a set of research questions for an assessment of the impact and implementation of the child benefit programme, including the child protection plus package.

The assignment comprises the development of a set of research questions to facilitate the generation of evidence that informs a policy dialogue around the further expansion of social cash transfers in CAR, beyond the initial roll-out period of the child benefit programme. The required evidence includes an assessment of the impact of the social cash transfers as well as an assessment of the impact of the child protection plus package. The research questions will not only focus on impact- and outcome-level change, but will also include an analysis of the implementation arrangements to generate lessons learned and recommendations around implementing social cash transfer programmes in a context such as in CAR.

The research questions will serve as the basis for the development

3. Design an overarching strategy and an accompanying 5- year action plan on the contribution of the child benefit program to develop and strengthen the basic building blocks of a national social protection system in CAR.

The child benefit programme is conceptualized based on the recommendations of a remote support mission for social protection system building in CAR. The mission identified the most appropriate entry points in the current context of CAR for developing the social protection system. Experience suggests that social protection system building is not an automatic outcome of humanitarian cash transfer programmes and this element has to be consciously embedded in their design and operations. The child benefit social cash transfer program is therefore more than merely being a routine cash transfer program to meet the immediate needs of children. It will include simultaneous and concerted efforts to contribute to social protection system building in CAR. As a part of this assignment, the consultant is expected to identify specific opportunities in the design and operations of the child benefit programme to develop context-specific basic building blocks of a social protection system. These may include, but not be limited to, the following:

1. Programme design: Targeting methodology, strengthening the social registry, determining transfer values and the frequency of transfers etc.

2. Administrative systems: Information system, payment mechanism, coordination, complaints management and monitoring

3. The policy and financing framework for social protection.

2. Deliverables:

2 lots are proposed to fulfil the objectives of the overall mission. The consultant is free to respond the overall offer or to the lot 1 or 2. At the end of the consultancy period, 2 lots or depending on offer, one of the 2 lots below are expected to be delivered:

Lot 1:

1. Concept note for a child benefit social cash transfer programme

- Including a concept note for a specific Donor

- Including a project proposal for a specific Donor

2. Concept note for research questions

Lot 2:

1. An overarching strategy and 5-year action plan to develop and strengthen the social protection system in CAR as a part of the child benefit programme and independent efforts.

1. Management of the assignment

The contract will be managed by UNICEF CAR Chief Social Policy, with the support of CAR cash transfer specialist. UNICEF will manage coordination with the government counterparts, with UNICEF technical units and with all relevant stakeholders. At various stages of the assignment, the contracting institutions will be required to present deliverables and progress status to UNICEF – notably those who will be providing funding to the programme.

2. Qualifications Skills :

 Extensive and demonstrated track record on the technical and operational design of social protection systems in Africa

 Extensive and demonstrated track record on cash transfer programme design and implementation development in Africa, especially in fragile context, including in complex and high threat environment

 Experience with child benefit focus cash transfer programme

 Experience with UN agencies, INGOS, local NGOs, private sector

 Familiarity with the social protection landscape in CAR and the PACAD programme is an asset

 High level demonstrated writing skills

 Ability to speak French

 Availability at short notice, for assignment start in July 2021.

Cost of the consultancy :

The budget for this consultancy is estimated including: (i) Fees, (ii) Living expenses - not to exceed the applicable DSA, (iii) Airfare, if travel is involved) and (iv) R&R Allowance.

The consultant sending an offer is free to apply for LOT 1 & 2, or just for each LOT individually.

If a consultant applies for Lot 1 & 2, as UNICEF based on the evaluation, may accept only one on the two lots, a separate price should be given for each of them in case only one is granted.

Work conditions:

• UNICEF will meet the consultant at the airport upon arrival and will also facilitate his/her transfer to the airport upon departure from CAR. For internal travel within Bangui, the consultant will benefit from the facilities granted by the office according to the procedures in force.

• The consultant is required to strictly comply with the security provisions of the United Nations system in CAR.

• The fees of the international consultant will be paid by UNICEF and will be fixed according to UNICEF standards and in conformity with the contract that will be established between the consultant and UNICEF. The consultant will be responsible for his own insurance.

• The costs of the workshops will not be included in the consultant's contract but will be covered by UNICEF and other UN agencies.

. Starting date: August 2021

. Ending date: March 2022