Foreign economic-aid-related services

Tender description

Prior Information Notice (PIN) Early Market Engagement Event: Better Social Assistance in Crises DFID intends to facilitate an early market engagement event (EME) on Tuesday 25.4.2017, in DFID Whitehall, from 14:00 — 16:00 GMT. The purpose of this event is to seek feedback on programme design, scope and potential delivery models for a new multi-component business case. The session will take the form of an open consultation. DFID will deliver a presentation covering the various facets of the planned programme and pose questions to attendees on the proposed outputs and delivery channels, as well as answering questions from the room. Information gathered will be used to inform the business case and assess market capacity to deliver. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Programme Crisis needs are increasing in volume and duration. The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection is dramatically rising as (i) climate shocks get more frequent, (ii) crises become more protracted and (iii) forced displacement grows. However the international humanitarian system is overstretched and with its short term focus, is ill equipped to meet rising needs alone. A more effective approach to meeting basic needs is needed. At the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit world leaders agreed on a new agenda for humanity, calling for responses which more effectively meet immediate needs, but also contribute to longer term resilience, including by drawing on the capacity of a wider range of actors, including development actors and approaches, and development financing. Social protection (SP) mechanisms and approaches have potential to help respond to crises and could offer greater value-for-money. SP (specifically social assistance such as basic transfers, whether in-kind or cash) is well evidenced in more stable contexts in halting the decline into destitution. It can contribute to breaking the cycle of poverty and building the resilience of populations. It is increasingly seen as having potential to contribute to more effective response and resilience objectives in a range of contexts including: recurring covariate shocks (e.g. having SP systems in place that can scale-up and deliver to additional caseloads made vulnerable during a drought); in protracted conflicts in fragile states (e.g. working towards nascent delivery systems that offer more predictable, less fragmented and efficient delivery of transfers to the chronically vulnerable); and in situations of protracted displacement (e.g. integrating refugees into national SP systems or shadow alignment of humanitarian and SP systems). However, SP approaches are currently underutilised given key bottlenecks and constraints. DFID and others have experience developing SP systems in more stable contexts, but humanitarian and SP linkages are newer, with: limited evidence of what works; limited capacity (little learning from field-driven innovation, small number of individuals with knowledge/experience/time to engage); significant political economy challenges (e.g. Governments/Agencies not necessarily incentivised to make these shifts); the latter leading to financing structures that also challenge longer term approaches; and often significant contextual challenges and fluidity (e.g. security/access constraints). In some areas these bottlenecks are beginning to be addressed (especially regarding shock-responsive SP and more recently forced displacement), but gaps remain. There has been much less attention to date on addressing the challenges in protracted conflict crises. In response, DFID is designing a centrally managed programme of up to 20 000 000 GBP over 5 years to tackle some of these bottlenecks, with the overall aim that vulnerable crisis affected people are supported with more effective social assistance, particularly in protracted armed conflict, but also in anticipation of and following shocks and when forcibly displaced. The Theory of Change refers. Investment will be spread across 5 work-streams: Technical assistance, Operational research, Knowledge management and learning, Seed Funding for piloting approaches and system building, and Monitoring and Evaluation. The EME provides an opportunity to share more detail on the programme and services required (subject to further design and financial and business case approval). The main objective will be to share information on the proposed new programme, provide opportunities for suppliers to comment on the draft theory of change, scope, design and delivery/procurement approaches. We wish to seek market feedback on the feasibility of the proposed delivery options and to discuss both any challenges and opportunities the market may identify. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Event Registration Parties interested in attending the event must register interest via the DFID Supplier Portal. Suppliers should use the Survey Monkey link below to register specific details of who will attend, clearly stating whether the intention is to attend in London or virtually. Please register details of attendees no later than Wednesday 19.4.2017. EME event 25th April — https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ZD9LT5L The DFID Portal will be the main communication channel moving forward (https://supplierportal.dfid.gov.uk/selfservice/). Suppliers are therefore encouraged to keep up to date with the Portal over the coming weeks as further information may be added here in due course. We are happy to receive questions in advance, which DFID will respond to anonymously at the event. Please include these in the registration form, to be completed by Wednesday 19th April. The discussion's headlines will be published after the event on the Supplier Portal. We will not disclose the source of the questions and answers.