Electronic Cash Transfers Platform

Electronic Cash Transfers Platform

Attachment A. Statement of Work

1.Summary of Services Requested

Mercy Corps Nigeria (MCN) is seeking to procure a new web-based platform to support electronic vouchers management and to develop basic information management systems for its cash-based interventions and beneficiaries.

1.1Start / End Dates

The duration of the services will be twelve (12) months from the signature date of a Framework Agreement, unless the Agreement expires or is terminated according to its terms in advance of such time. The agreement may be extended upon the delivery of satisfactory services.

1.2Geographic Spread

All of Nigeria (including insecure areas in the Northeast) - specified in Section 1: Program Summary.

1.3Deliverables

Develop a customizable web-based platform that manages electronic vouchers for cash-assistance beneficiaries

• Support the production and management of restricted and unrestricted electronic-vouchers
• Allow MCN staff to manage disbursements from the platform (for initial distributions and top-ups of e-vouchers)
• Support cash-out functions of e-vouchers forthe redemption of physical cash by beneficiaries(the bidders are invited to propose methods for cash-out e.g. through Mobile Money Operators or financial institution cash agents)
• Carry out necessarysoftware developments(e.g. integration with mobile data collection platforms such as ONA.io or CommCareHQ)
• Allow for easy set-up and adaption of merchant-facing applications (on Android point-of-sale terminals)
• Support the reliance on a biometric recognition system(fingerprints-based) for beneficiary registration and authentication at voucher redemption
• Ability to develop customizable dashboards for beneficiary profiling and information management
• Track beneficiary voucher redemption with precision and in near-real time (displaying key transaction details as defined by MCN - including beneficiary IDs, item name, quantity, price, time etc.)
• Ability to generate a variety of customizable reports in any format requested by MCN (Excel or other)
• Required hardware (e.g. Android devices, Bluetooth receipt printers) may be delivered by the Platform Service Provider or procured by MCN - local procurement will be prioritized above all.
• The service provider will be required to make all necessary developments for the system’s software to be compatible with the hardware that was already procured by MCN(Smart cards printer: Zebra ZXP series 3; Bluetooth printer: TSC, ALPHA-3RB; Vendor Terminals: Android generation 4.4.4)

NB: It is not required for one sole service provider to be able to accommodate all of Mercy Corps Nigeria’s needs. Thus, primary bidders may partner, employ or subcontract to third-parties (at their own expense) in order to produce a multi-component system with complementary hardware / software components and expertises.

For instance, an information management system (IMS) provider may propose to subcontract a biometric company and/or financial service provider (i.e. MFI, cash-out agent, mobile operator) for the delivery of the services required by MCN.

Multiple service providers may thus partner and bid on one proposal. In such cases, a master scope-of-work spelling out the conditions of the coordination among the different service providers shall be agreed on with Mercy Corps Nigeria before a Framework Agreement may be agreed on.

Note that some technologies and technology partners may already be in use by Mercy Corps so once you have identified secondary providers or components to a comprehensive solution, it is recommended to confirm which (if any) are already working directly with MCN.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.Summary of Services Requested

1.1Start / End Dates

1.2Geographic Spread

1.3Deliverables

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I.PROGRAM SUMMARY

II.SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

A.BASIC INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

1.Beneficiary Data Dashboard (required):

2.Data Security, Access, Ownership

3.System Needs

3.1Beneficiary Registration / Enrolment

3.2Beneficiary Unique Identification

4.Program Activities Dashboard (desirable):

B.VOUCHER MANAGEMENT

1.Voucher Workflow

2.Component Needs

2.1Paper vouchers

2.2Electronic vouchers (i.e Smartcards)

2.3Biometric - Fingerprints-based (required)

2.4Receipt Print-out function

2.5Bulk E-Voucher Management (web-based)

2.6Reporting (web-based)

2.7Post-distribution Market Monitoring Dashboard:

C.MERCHANT MANAGEMENT

1.Merchant registration

2.Merchant terminals (Android)

D.TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE

1.Pre-deployment

1.1Kick off and capacity building ToTs (in-country)

2.Post-deployment

2.1Ongoing support and maintenance (remote)

3.ELIGIBILITY & REQUIREMENTS FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS

1.Technology

2.Agent network

3.KYC

4.Registration

5.Data collection and Management

6.Customer Service

7.Previous Experience

8.Team composition

9.Insurance

10.Reporting Requirements and Schedule

11.Risk Management

12.Expected Platform Roll-out Timeframe and Sequencing

13.Project Budget

14.Contracting Terms

15.Submissions

16.Enquiries/clarifications

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I.PROGRAM SUMMARY

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.

In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions

into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.

Now, and for the future.

Mercy Corps started operating in Nigeria in 2012, and its programs have grown to tackle the delivery of humanitarian emergency assistance, the empowerment of adolescent girls, economic development and conflict mitigation.

Humanitarian Programs: With the insurgency spilling over and causing the displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps has gradually been addressing the rising humanitarian needs of Internally Displaced People and vulnerable host community members in the north-east of Nigeria, since July 2014. MCN’s humanitarian programming aims to address the immediate needs of the most vulnerable through food assistance, non-food items distribution, protection activities, WASH, nutrition and shelter.

Development Programs: MCN has also been intervening since 2012 to foster its beneficiaries’ longer-term capacities and resiliency by providing access to safe spaces, informal education, life-skills trainings, income-generating activities and livelihood grants.

●CTP Types: Both Humanitarian and Development programs involve the provision of cash-based assistances under different forms:

-Livelihood Grants (Unconditional and Conditional Cash Transfers);

-Cash for Work (CCT);

-Restricted commodity-based vouchers (food and NFIs);

-Unrestricted value-based vouchers (value vouchers)

●Direct Cash Assistance Beneficiaries:

-Estimate number of Cash-Assistance direct recipients (i.e. single individuals or heads of households): approximately 47,900 (Annex I). This number is an estimate based on Mercy Corps’ current workflow and can in no case be considered a firm commitment.

-Beneficiaries include: Vulnerable Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs); Host-community members; Under 18 years old youth

●Donors: Mercy Corps Nigeria’s main donors are the European Union (The European Commission; European Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection); USAID (Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance; Food For Peace); Global Affairs Canada; World Food Program.

●As MCN’s programs expand, the list of donors is subject to change.

●MCN is also a sub-grantee to a project in partnership with Catholic Relief Services - CRS should thus approve of MCN changes in methods of grants disbursement - noting however this sub grant will come to an end in February 2018, and therefore not affect MCN’s choice of service provider.

NB: As per donor regulations, MCN will be required to provide certain certifications and provisions from the service provider - the latter will be specified in contractual terms. The successful bidder will be required to review the following programme documentation: Grant Recipient Handbook; Evaluation Guidance; Logframe and workplan guidance.

●Location: All of Nigeria.

Cash-based programming is concentrated in the Northeast of Nigeria. However, cash assistance activities may be implemented in any other location in Nigeria, including:

Borno State: Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, Biu, Hawul, KwayaKusar, Damboa, Ngala, Dikwa, Jere LGAs

Federal Capital Territory State: Abuja Municipal Area Council and Bwari LGAs

Gombe State: Funakaye, Nafada, Kwami, Akko, Nafada, Kwami, Billiri, and Balanga LGAs

Kaduna State: Chikun, Jaba, Kaura, Markarfi, SabonGari, and Zaria LGAs

Kano State: Fagge, Kumbotso, Taruani, Dala, and Ungogo LGAs

KebbiState:Birnin-Kebbi and Danko-Wasagu LGAs

Lagos State: Alimosho, Epe, Kosofe, Ojo, and Shomolu-Bariga LGAs

Sokoto State: Kebbe, Tangaza, Rapah, and Denge-Shuni LGAs

NB: This list is not exhaustive and is subject to change as per MCN programmatic needs and security situation.

●Start and end date of projects:

While most of the projects have already started, while others will be launched by the end of 2017.

We expect the new platform to be fully rolled out by January 31st, 2018, effectively serving the implementation of CTP projects.

●Partners involved

While MC is the sole implementer of the majority of its program activities in Nigeria, MCN currently partners with other organizations for the implementation of the following programs:

Feed The Future: The Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria; the Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria; Catholic Relief Services; Life Helpers Initiative; Change Initiative in Sokoto and Justice Development and Peace Commission.

Engine 2 :Society for Women Development and Empowerment of Nigeria in Kano state; Action Health Incorporated in Lagos state; Kindling Hope Across Nations in Kaduna state; and Tabitha Cumi Foundation in the Federal Capital Territory state.

Although MCN is taking the lead in directing the above programs - partners supporting with in-field implementation only - the Catholic Relief Services would need to approve of substantial changes (e.g. change in method of grants delivery method). MCN will however no longer be a subgrantee of CRS beyond February 2018.

●Implementation environment

Financial institutions: Presence is strong in urban settings but scarce in rural local government areas in which MCN operates in the Northeast in particular.

Network connectivity: 3 mobile network providers work on varying levels in different program locations: 2 are strong enough for internet access and signal strength varies day to day. Continuous coverage can however not be guaranteed at the time of voucher redemption. For those reasons, we seek solutions that do not rely on continuous mobile network connectivity.

Electricity: In the Northeast, outages are frequent - We seek solutions that are not reliant on a constant electricity supply and are cost efficient (for Mercy Corps, vendors and participants).

Literacy levels: 51% literacy rate in Nigeria - particularly low in IDP populations and in the Northeast. Enumerator, partners and vendors can be easily trained on technology material and mobile technology usage; some are already familiar with it from the previous platform.

●Special Requirements

●MCN will require a high level of flexibility from the service provider in order to respond to its growing and changing programmatic needs and to donors’ evolving requirements in relation to cash transfer programming startup, scale up, and/or geographic expansion.

●As part of this process, MCN and the service provider would have regular exchanges to review and accept individual features (e.g. biometric hardware integration; beneficiary dashboards, reporting).

●Given the level of vulnerability of MCN beneficiaries (Internally Displaced Persons, victims of conflict, under 18 years old youth) and the sensitivity of data collected (i.e. biometrics, name, location) involved, the service provider will be required to prove a strong commitment to data-protection in line with MCN’s standards and Nigerian and international data protection laws.

II.SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

A.BASIC INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

• Language of the interface: English
• Comprehensive, web-based backend IMS able to easily integrate with key third party Open Data Kit (ODK) mobile data collection tools, such as CommCareHQ or Ona.io
• Ability for Mercy Corps staff to make changes to mobile data collection forms without need to make major adjustments reliant on provider - platform should ideally allow trained Mercy Corps staff to re-map mobile form fields to the platform themselves
• Ability to accept bulk uploads (e.g. CSV) containing participant information (identification details; vulnerability level etc), in order to facilitate easy data migration and bulk registration / removal of individual program participants and merchants throughout the program cycle
• Platform should be able to temporarily store data locally so users can continue work when connectivity is lost (similar to Google Docs Offline or Enketo)
• All captured data is stored on secure cloud-based servers with enterprise-level backup and recovery capabilities. Data is synched in a timely manner and, in conjunction with mobile data collection, supports near-real time data review
• The IMS, in conjunction with relevant mobile data platforms and hardware, is able to manage beneficiary information, photographs and biometric details (individual recipient and recipient proxy when applicable), in a secure and safe manner.
• Role-based beneficiary management system interface where an unlimited number of registered MC personnel are provided with credentials for access to the platform, and such credentials shall not be transferred or shared in any manner.
• Tiered access authority that allows varying levels of access per programme and per individual. Staff members granted access will be assigned a user ID, password and access level based on their approval authority. The system should track and capture Mercy Corps user profile information (e.g. user ID) for all system interactions.
• Access to activity logs, where all actions made through system are recorded to show which Mercy Corps user completed actions within the system (including both file uploading and direct interaction with the system to upload and edit specific records) so that potentially fraudulent activities may be identified
• The platform should be highly user-friendly allowing non-technical users with the appropriate access/approval rights to manually:

(i)Add, edit, suspend, and close-out beneficiaries from a project cycle

(ii)Create categories and groups of beneficiaries (according to MCN criteria) and allow for sending top-up transactions to batches of beneficiaries

(iii)Customize and automate reports to focus on relevant information for their role

• Ability to produce or fuel highly customizable beneficiaries andmerchant dashboards with Key Performance Indicators as determined by MCN

1.Beneficiary Data Dashboard (required):

• The platform should be able to store, manage, and visualize comprehensive beneficiary data
• The dashboard should be customizable, displaying key beneficiary information and allow users to identify and regroup beneficiaries with filters, as per MCN needs. The end goal is to allow field staff to more readily visualize beneficiary data and manage bulk disbursements.

○Filters: The MCN user should be able to manage beneficiary information through the use of single or multiple filters (e.g. by location; by activity; by gender; by age group etc.)

Notably, the dashboard should be able to display the number of vouchers redeemed or the total amount of money redeemed by beneficiaries within an adjustable period (e.g. using date filters) .

○Beneficiary Profile: Clicking on beneficiaries’ user names or unique IDs should allow users to access beneficiary profile tabs containing pictures of cardholders/proxies; and key information concerning the cardholder, his proxy (where one is designated) and his household members. Information may include: name, age, gender, vulnerability condition, status, transaction details, program participation details etc. as defined by MCN

2.Data Security, Access, Ownership

• MC personnel may solely access and use the facility for MC’s internal business purposes. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Service Provider’s personnel shall be provided access to the platform on an as-needed basis.
• All data entered in the system must remain the property of Mercy Corps.
• The system is able to secure sensitive data against both malicious attacks and accidental exposure.

3.System Needs

3.1Beneficiary Registration / Enrolment

• Beneficiary targeting, selection, and registration will be handled by Mercy Corps Staff with MC-designed generic forms and its pre-existing data collection tools (MCN currently uses Ona, but will likely transition to CommCare).
• Mobile data collection will be ODK-based, where beneficiary data collection forms should be directly integrated into IMS (Generation of Android terminals currently used by MCN for data collection: Android 4.2.2)
• Web-based data management: the platform should also allow for an easy upload and integration of beneficiary data collected from the registration forms through Excel sheets; while this is not the norm, it is always the contingency method for data collection
• Once uploaded onto the platform, beneficiaries progressing through MC-defined steps (i.e., validation, approval, disbursement) are subject to pre-defined eligibility criteria
• In instances where cautionary flags are raised by a user or the system based on eligibility criteria (e.g. beneficiary with incomplete data), beneficiaries require manual review and verification from appropriate staff

3.2Beneficiary Unique Identification

• Designed according to MCN requirements, smartcards are used as e-vouchers and may also serve as identity cards for cash assistance program participants.
• Smart cards are encoded with beneficiary personal and biometric details displaying beneficiary photograph, unique MC ID, and personal information (e.g. name, LGA, age)
• Smart cards may be used as a means of tracking beneficiary attendance at conditional cash program activities (e.g. Cash for Work). As such, the cards should ideally be compatible and able to communicate with both ODK-based mobile data collection platforms (e.g. CommCare) and hardware / software specific to e-vouchers (e.g. NFC, chip-based).

4.Program Activities Dashboard (desirable):

• Ideally, the platform should contain a dashboard for easy monitoring of program activities, such as:

○Cash for Work: Key information on work site progression, beneficiary participation etc.