CONSULTANCY FOR REVIEW OF CVA POLICY POSITIONS ACROSS THE HUMANITARIAN SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION

The CALP Network is a dynamic global network of over 90 organizations engaged in the critical areas of policy, practice and research in humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and financial assistance more broadly. Collectively, CALP members deliver the vast majority of humanitarian CVA worldwide. What makes CALP unique is its diversity. Members currently include local and international non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, donors, specialist social innovation, technology and financial services companies, researchers and academics, and individual practitioners.

Together, and alongside our strategic partners, we seek to better meet the needs and improve the outcomes for people affected by crisis. To do this we need to ensure that CVA is a central, scalable component of quality, timely and appropriate humanitarian assistance, and that the need to sustain positive outcomes for people over the longer term is considered.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The increased use of CVA is regarded as one of the few drivers of positive change within the humanitarian system in recent years, enabling greater choice and dignity for recipients of aid and the potential for increased sustainability through linkages to social protection systems and financial inclusion.

The use of CVA has increased substantially over the last seven years with that growth supported by a number of global policy commitments. Such commitments include those made as part of the Grand Bargain, the high-level panel on cash, and commitments by many donors and operational agencies.

CVA now accounts for approximately 19% of International Humanitarian Assistance. According to GPPI, there is potential to increase this further to approximately 37-42% if CVA was used on all occasions whenever and wherever appropriate.

Many of the global policy commitments made in/around 2015/ 2016 are now coming to an end or need to be renewed. Furthermore, much has changed since those commitments were made – both in terms of the humanitarian context, other evolving policy commitments and greater understanding of how CVA can be used effectively.

Against this backdrop, there is now a need to gather an overview of current and evolving commitments of key stakeholders, to understand where individual organisational commitments align, explore differences, highlight gaps and establish where new collective commitments could help drive forward further progress.

OBJECTIVES

Main objective

To map CVA-related policy commitments and priorities of humanitarian stakeholders, identify areas of convergence and divergence and establish gaps and areas of potential collective action.

Specific objectives

· To undertake a light touch analysis of progress against previous policy commitments

· To identify current and emerging commitments of key stakeholders to the on-going use and further development of humanitarian CVA. This includes an analysis of the policies of traditional and emerging donors, UN agencies, IFIs (including the World Bank and regional banks), NGOs, and the Red Cross/Crescent Movement.

· To map areas of alignment and difference in commitments and explore areas for potential collective action

KEY QUESTIONS

· What existing policy commitments remain relevant and should be carried forward?

· What new commitments have been made or are being considered?

· Have any CVA policy commitments been removed?

· Where are commitments aligned, between which agencies, and where do they differ?

· Are there other issues that are not captured in current policy commitments which should be raised as a priority?

METHODOLOGY

It is anticipated that the study will include both a desk review of existing documentation and key informant interviews and focus group discussions with staff from key agencies. This includes staff from traditional and emerging donors, UN agencies, NGOs, the Red Cross/Crescent and IFIs (including the World Bank and regional banks). Key informant interviews with think tanks and academia will also be important.

We envisage a maximum of 30 agencies will be included in the review, with details to be decided through discussion with the CALP team and steering committee.

We anticipate that policy commitments may include:

· commitments to inclusion of people affected by crises in planning and decision-making – commitments to volume of CVA use of restrictions and conditionalities

· data management

· risk management

· ensuring work is based on learning and evidence,

· maximizing efficiency and effectiveness (operational set up, coordination, capacity),

· locally-led CVA

· climate and environment

· links to social protection and other forms of financial assistance

· monitoring of CVA

We expect other areas of focus will also arise as priorities during desk reviews, key informant discussions and focus group discussions.

Outputs of the project will be shared by the CALP team throughout the project duration on a rolling basis with different interest groups[1] at country, regional and global level. There is an expectation that feedback given by these groups will be used by the consultant(s) for their analyses of the progress of commitments made previously, new commitments identified as having been made since 2015/2016 as well as the need for new commitments. The consultant(s) will be expected to be available to join specific consultations.

A Steering Committee will be formed to guide the consultant(s) and will consist of CALP staff and network members.

The consultants will define the final methodology in conjunction with CALP.

KEY DELIVERABLES FOR CONSULTANT

· Inception report to confirm agreement on the methodology, existing data, data collection tools, analysis plan, planned outputs, options on structure, and workplan.

· Debriefing on the initial findings, prior to drafting the report

· Draft report including executive summary, analysis, diagrammatic representations of commitments by different stakeholders, and key conclusions.

Final report 50 pages), incorporating stakeholder feedback (process facilitated by CALP staff) and including complete citations and hyperlinks to external documents (agencies’ policy and strategy· documents capturing their commitments) and diagrammatic representations of commitments and key actors.

· Communication outputs to be decided in consultation with the CALP team but may include participation in two events (type to be confirmed) organized by CALP or an external partner and development of PowerPoints to help with future communication of research findings by CALP

· Engage periodically with the Steering Committee.

· Engage with specific consultations with interest groups facilitated by CALP staff

TENTATIVE TIMELINE

The study will start in April and conclude in June 2022. This consultancy is estimated to take 35 days.

MILESTONES AND PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Payment will be made in two tranches:

Milestone 1 (30% payment) on finalization and sign-off of the inception report.

Milestone 2 (70% payment) on finalization and sign-off of the final report and participation in webinar and podcast.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

The consultant (s) should have the following skills and knowledge:

· A solid understanding of CVA in emergencies

· Professional proficiency in written and spoken English

· Excellent research skills, including the ability to collect, collate and analyse large amounts of data and identify critical aspects to succinctly communicate complex subject matter (in a written and oral form) to make it accessible to wider audiences

· Deep understanding of stakeholders in the international humanitarian system.

· Experience of working remotely with a diverse range of stakeholders, ensuring effective consultation and engagement is achieved.

· Excellent writing and presentation skills.