Title of the Work:

Urban Households Economic Analysis (HEA) for Bangladesh

Duration:

August 01 to October 31, 2019

Background:

The Start Fund Bangladesh (2017-2020) is a £10 million rapid emergency response fund set up by the Start Network with support from UK aid and hosted by ACF Bangladesh. Modelled on the successful Start Fund that activates funding within 72 hours of a crisis alert, the fund has been setup to be accessible to both national and international member NGOs operating in Bangladesh to respond early and fast to under the radar emergencies in Bangladesh. These decisions are made by humanitarian actors within member agencies with all projects selected within the country or region of the crisis, while projects start within 7 days and finish within 45 days. As such, the expected impact and outcome of Start Fund Bangladesh is that “Loss of lives, livelihoods and dignity are minimised”, given that the “Humanitarian responses are rapid, informed and adapted to the need of the affected communities” respectively. As a mean to achieve these, Start Fund Bangladesh envisages to complement existing humanitarian preparedness and response through greater collaboration.
Urban areas are currently projected to host more than half of the total population of Bangladesh. However, given the rapid and unplanned urbanisation in the last few decades, the potential vulnerability to hazards like fire, infrastructure collapse, waterlogging, disease outbreak, earthquake etc. has risen exponentially due to lack of necessary critical infrastructures, high population density, rising poverty and poor living conditions (e.g. WaSH facilities) in urban areas. In addition, due to their recent exposure, unique context and often man-made nature, urban crises remained beyond the realms of convention emergency response and recovery operations.
During the last two years of its operation, Start Fund Bangladesh, due to its mandate to work in under the radar, small to medium scale disasters, responded to urban disasters i.e. fire incidents in urban slums. Our experiences indicate that there are challenges in terms of rapid assessments and designing appropriate/quality interventions within the scope of 45-day rapid response project. In this regard, the Start Fund is already collaborating with the Needs Assessment Working Group in the development of an urban JNA tool. SFB member agencies also feel the need for a separate urban multipurpose¹ standard cash package² to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of Start funded responses.

Objective of the work:

• To speed up the assistance and improve effectiveness of urban responses by the development of a  standard cash package (or a Multi-Purpose Cash Grant – MPCG) to support the people affected by sudden-onset disasters to meet immediate basic needs covering the different areas like food, shelter repairing, hygiene items, health, education, livelihood inputs, transports and other non-food items
• To prevent affected people from using negative coping mechanism practices among severely vulnerable people and uphold their dignity.
• To complement the Government efforts during any humanitarian crisis and maximize the impacts for emergency response.

Key Accountabilities:

• Review of Secondary Documents: MoDMR Cash Assistance Packages, Cash Working Group (CWG), Cluster standards and guidelines, macro-economic indicators (e.g. inflation rates), urban market assessments, minimum expenditure basket/ household income & expenditures survey reports, post distribution monitoring findings³, work done under Urban Crises Learning Partnership in Bangladesh as well as other countries if available⁴
• Review of Start Fund documents: Peer review reports, learning exchange notes, crisis response summaries, case studies, PDM reports etc.
• Onsite Appraisal: Household Economy Analysis (HEA) of the affected households at vulnerable locations from Dhaka (Ilias Mollah and Bhashantek Slum) and other areas⁵, consultation with project staffs etc.
• Validation of findings, lessons and recommendation: by the Start Fund Bangladesh members, Cash Working Group members, HCTT, MoDMR and UN-OCHA regional office, UNRCO, Clusters, BDRCS/IFRC and other donor representatives

Deliverables:

• A brief inception report on the background, scope, objective and methodology to carry out the analysis, sources of information, data collection tools (i.e. questionnaire, checklists, interview guides etc.), limitations, timeline
• A brief yet easily understandable, evidence based report suggesting
• Multipurpose cash grant amount for urban responses based on household expenditure and economy analysis.
• Technical guidance on delivery mechanism, standardized tools, targeting criteria, , PDM template to assess expenditure and satisfaction of the beneficiaries to review the MPCG amount when/if required, information/knowledge dissemination and advocacy.
• Presentation of findings and lessons for validation by relevant stakeholders
• Finalization and formalization of a nationally agreed MPCG package relevant for urban communities affected by sudden onset disasters

Expected Outputs of the Consultancy:

• Complement sectoral assistance for a certain period of time to be decided by the HCTT;
• Provide a portion and /or full of the Minimum Expenditures Basket (MEB) in the aftermath of sudden disasters complementing the government and other assistance, local capacities and, beneficiaries’ own coping strategies⁶

 Work Location:

Dhaka and outside Dhaka (if required)

Responsible organization and Contact Information:

ACF Bangladesh, Orin Tower, House 23, Road 113A, Gulshan 2, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh

Total Points

Knowledge, skill and professional experience:

• Experience in conducting household minimum expenditure or economy analysis, market assessments, impact assessments, vulnerability assessments, monitoring etc.
• Experience of humanitarian work⁷ and in depth understanding of humanitarian standards, principles and commitments, humanitarian standards, emergency response and recovery programs, cash transfer programs especially in Bangladesh

40%

Technical approach:

• Overall understanding of the ToR, proposed methodology including approach, design, scheduling, tools, sampling, data management, analysis etc.
• Team composition and roles, management, coordination with relevant stakeholders (e.g. NAWG, clusters, HCTT) etc.

40%

Overall Technical Evaluation Points

80%

Financial Evaluation

20%

Total

100%