Proposal ANNEX A. Project title

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1 ANNEX A Proposal Project title One line summary of project Start/end dates Organisation name Primary contact person, and phone number Secondary contact person, and phone number Relief Support for flood and cyclone affected Population in Need in South-East Bangladesh (RESPONSE) The emergency response will deliver 3 months unconditional cash support to 21,803 most cyclone and flood-affected households in Bandarban and Cox s Bazaar Districts. This intervention is in line with the joint response plan developed in coordination with humanitarian actors in Bangladesh. Start date: 13 September 2015 End date: 12 January 2016 CARE International UK Georine Homawoo-Sokpe, Humanitarian Funding Coordinator CARE International UK. Homawoo-sokpe@careinternational.org Phone: Arshad Muhammad, Assistant Country Director CARE Bangladesh, arshad.muhammad@care.org Phone: Context 1. Please give your assessment of the humanitarian emergency and how it is likely to develop over the funding period. Please limit to three succinct bullets. Heavy rainfall hit South-East Bangladesh on 23 June 2015, causing landslides and flooding in 29 Upazilas of 3 districts. The flash floods were followed by Cyclone Komen, causing further damage % of the population in Cox s Bazaar district are extremely poor compared to the national average (15.39%) 1.Nutrition indicators are also below the national average. 88% of total houses in Cox s Bazaar, 6 % in Bandarban, and 6% in Chittagong districts are either fully or partially damaged. Many affected areas in Bandarban are agricultural, with severely affected livelihoods and food security of affected farmers. Floods also damaged the fishing equipment of many fishermen in Cox s Bazaar. Floods and cyclone damage severely affected the opportunities for daily labourers leading to loss of household income and inability to afford food and meet basic needs. Negative coping mechanisms of poor and most affected households have been reported, such as taking fewer meals per day (mostly amongst women and girls), selling assets or borrowing money at high rates to purchase food items, causing unmanageable debt. The joint needs assessment identifies food, livelihood recovery and shelter as priority needs along with WASH, temporary shelter and information/ communication. The detailed Joint Needs Assessment report is given in Annex 1. Government and other humanitarian actors provided food assistance for approximately 192,000 people amongst which around 6,300 people also benefited from WASH support. The Government has provided BDT 7,165,000 and 1,255 Metric Tonnes (MT) of rice to affected people. In response to the second spell of flooding the Department of Disaster Management has allocated 900 MT of rice and BDT 3,100,000 for Chittagong, Cox s Bazaar and Bandarban districts. However, that is not enough to address the current needs. The gap analysis conducted by the NARRI consortium shows fewer than 20% of people affected have been covered with these immediate responses. 1 Household Income and Expenditure Survey

2 A recent rapid assessment led by WFP shows that markets affected by the flood are now functional, indicating that traders are gaining in confidence in the flow of supplies, and food and all basic commodities are available at normal prices. The proposed response aligns with DFID s Operational Plan in Bangladesh, as it responds to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable. It also aligns with DIFD s key objectives for Bangladesh to foster security and prosperity by working on climate change, disaster preparedness and poverty reduction as well as life-saving humanitarian assistance in response to disasters. The WFP Rapid Market Assessment is given in Annex 2 and Joint Response Plan attached as Annex What is the proposed form of assistance (in-kind, cash or combination) and location of the proposed intervention? Please provide a map. NARRI consortium members propose that providing unconditional cash assistance is the most appropriate intervention at this immediate response stage and will allow beneficiaries to prioritise their most pressing needs. The detailed location and union-wise target household allocation is given in Annex What is your current field/regional presence? Please specify if this is your own or a partner. Time and location in country: CARE has been in country since 1949; CARE has a field office in Cox s Bazaar, 3 local partners 2 and other consortium members also have long established presence in the country: Concern Universal since 1993, Concern WW 1973, OXFAM 1971, Plan International Concern Universal has operated in Bandarban since Number of staff: CARE Bangladesh: more than 800; Concern Universal: more than 56; Concern WW: more than 82; OXFAM: more than 90; Plan: more than 300 Sectors: CARE: Women s Empowerment, Extreme Rural Poverty, Urban Poverty. Cross cutting: Emergency & Resilience (Food security & livelihoods, WASH, Shelter), Health and Nutrition, Private sector engagement Concern Universal: Food security, DRR & Humanitarian response, Human Rights, WASH and Health, Education Concern WW: Livelihoods, Food security, Health & Nutrition, WASH, Climate change and DRR, Humanitarian response OXFAM: WASH, Food Security, DRR, Resilience, Gender Plan International: Health, Education, Protection, DRR & Climate Change management, WASH, Youth and Economic empowerment Budgets: CARE: $29 million/year; Concern Universal: GBP 2.5 million/year; Concern WW: Euro 5-7 million/year; OXFAM: GBP 15 million/year; Plan International: Euro 21 million/year Project outline 4. What activities will be undertaken? Please limit to five bullets. Activities (A detailed Gantt Chart is attached as Annex 5): Beneficiary selection in the targeted Upazilas in consultation with local government and administration, in Bandarban and Cox s Bazaar Districts Beneficiary profiling, registration for cash transfer and field preparations Orientation to beneficiaries on cash transfer mechanism Distribution of BDT 9,000 (3,000/month for 3 months) to 21,803 households to meet immediate 2 Annex 7 Agency and local partner information of all consortium members 2

3 basic needs, including food security, WASH, livelihood temporary shelter etc. Coordination with the local government and administration, food security, WASH, Shelter, other clusters and key stakeholders on a regular basis Post distribution monitoring (PDM), including market assessment Lesson learning exercise and dissemination of the findings through a workshop among the consortium members and with wider humanitarian community. 5. Are these activities flexible and if so, how? (e.g. geographically, scale etc.) The programme has flexibilities to accommodate changes as, where and when required; keeping in view the field requirements. The number of beneficiaries in each targeted union shall be flexible to allow adjustment as per field requirements. Such changes shall be made in consultation with DFID in accordance with compliance requirements. The unconditional cash grant support, grant size and 3-months period of support is as advised in the joint response plan developed in consultation with Govt., UN clusters, the Humanitarian Coordination Task Team (HCTT), and agreed amongst the consortium members. The geographic targeting is also agreed with other responding agencies to avoid overlaps. The selection criteria, with a focus on women, girls, elderly and people with disabilities (10% of the targeted population), are agreed among consortium members. There are flexibilities with regard to; the cash transfer mode as per agencies best practices in past, developing and following joint beneficiary selection criteria, M&E plan and post distribution monitoring. 6. Can the proposal be split into component parts, or is it an integrated approach where the components will only work together? The proposal is submitted as a consortium to facilitate coordinated joint response, minimize beneficiary overlaps, standardise assistance packages and to reach affected populations at scale. A single approach of unconditional cash grants is proposed to address multiple sector needs, so the project cannot be further split into components. The household coverage by each agency is given in Annex 6. Unconditional cash grants are a tested mechanism under the circumstances as they provide full choice to beneficiaries (of where, what and when to buy), help to expand local food markets and are highly cost-efficient in delivery and distribution How will the project be implemented and what are the advantages of this method?please describe your relationship with partners and their experience and capacity. Delete as appropriate. All consortium partners will implement in partnership with local NGOs. The partners identified have been working with the consortium members for many years; they have the capacity to deliver cash programming and meet other requirements. Their long-established presence in the targeted areas ensures a good understanding of the local context and they have strong relationships with local government bodies and community acceptability. The consortium members (CARE, Concern Universal, Concern Worldwide, Oxfam, Plan International, and Handicap International) have extensive humanitarian experience and cash based programming capacity. Each of these agencies and their local partners have trained staff, strong local presence and expertise which will be an added value for effective implementation of the project (Please see details of the involved agencies and local partners presence, capacity and expertise in the Annex 7)

4 Scaling-up/alteration of existing work programme: In order to provide assistance to the most vulnerable, the Joint Response Plan has identified various interventions such as unconditional cash grants, cash for work, emergency shelter, shelter repairs, etc. and identified providing unconditional cash based assistance as the appropriate immediate assistance. However, inadequate funding has been cited as a major hindrance to a holistic response delivery. The consortium has the capacity to scale up its intervention by delivering the recommendations of the joint response plan in the identified areas should further funding is available. The consortium shall also closely monitor (in collaboration with local government, clusters and INGOs forum) the remaining Monsoon season and shall communicate warnings to vulnerable people accordingly. The cash based assistance will build on the existing projects of the consortium members. For instance, the consortium lead, CARE-Bangladesh, has already provided food support to more than 5,000 households, and non-food items (NFIs) to another 14,155 households in Cox s Bazaar. Similarly, Oxfam is providing WASH kits to 1,000 households and livelihood grants to 1000 HH (2,000 BDT) and Plan International is mobilizing WASH support including NFI distributions to 1,500 households. Concern Universal has ongoing programmes in Bandarban and is well placed to deliver the emergency response. Surge: In the initial phase, the consortium is implementing directly. All staff mobilised for the response have strong humanitarian response capabilities and have knowledge of operational procedures. If required, additional personnel can be deployed by the consortium members. 8. How will you procure goods/equipment and what s the rationale for that method? For the unconditional cash transfer programme no equipment is requested in the proposal apart from some office equipment which will be purchased locally in accordance with the agencies procurement policies. The cash will be transferred through banking, hand cash delivery or mobile banking (by distributing SIM cards to those owning a mobile phone without SIM cards), subject to suitability of the options at local level. The mobile company/financial service provider will be selected based on availability of network and/or services, readiness and ability to provide a prompt delivery, and reasonable service charge. This service will be purchased locally and in accordance with agencies policies. 9. How will you co-ordinate during the project and with whom, including links to UN, national government and other responders? Please limit to three bullets. The NARRI consortium aims to enhance the coordination of operations and strengthen response capacity across all concerned humanitarian actors, specifically the Food Security Cluster, local authorities, INGOs and local NGOs. NARRI consortium members have been actively involved in the UN food security, Shelter and WASH clusters, government-led NGO Coordination Committee platform and as well as the INGO forum and donor meetings. The NARRI consortium has had regular discussions with relevant representatives from DFID, ECHO and USAID as well as with other relevant development/humanitarian partners and actors for this intervention, including the UN agencies, other consortiums and other INGOs in Bangladesh. The response plan presented for funding is part of the joint response plan developed jointly by all actors and the caseload has been shared and agreed with other responding agencies to maintain consistency in response and avoid duplication. The updated information on response will be shared with government, clusters and other agencies responding to the emergency. Key stakeholders such as disaster-affected local people, local and national government 4

5 offices have been consulted. Inputs from the stakeholders have been incorporated in the plan being presented for funding. 10. What are the expected results of the proposal? Please limit to five bullets. The overall intervention aims to meet people s basic needs including food consumption (especially for women, children, adolescent girls, people with disabilities and elderly people), livelihood recovery and shelter repair. It will also help the most affected population in reducing negative coping mechanism. Impact: To meet the immediate lifesaving needs and to reduce vulnerabilities of flood and cycloneaffected households in South-East Bangladesh Outcome: Flood and cyclone-affected households in Cox s Bazaar and Bandarban districts are able to meet their immediate basic needs during the period of September to January 2016 Output: 21,803 Flood and cyclone-affected households in 7 Upazilas (sub district) in Cox s Bazaar and Bandarban districts have received unconditional cash grants to meet their immediate basic needs (A logical framework is provided in Annex 8) 11. What are the project risks and how are they being managed/mitigated? Please include details on security management and staff welfare. Risk Likelihood Mitigation Options Major flood or cyclone High Strong advocacy for immediate coordinated action for emergency relief with government, UN and other INGOs. Pass on early warning to authorities and communities, facilitate movement to government emergency shelters, as and where required. Support local government in information collection from the target areas as well as other areas. Significant fluctuation in food prices or food availability In case of fluctuation in exchange rate Cash transfer related risks In case of political instability and security issue Medium Medium Low Low Monthly market surveys to know food availability and price trends. Work with government and national chamber of commerce to determine how they could help minimize fluctuations and ensure there is consistent supply of affordable food in the area. In case of increase in exchange rate beneficiaries will be paid the difference directly. Programme risk related to cash transfer will be minimized through the practice of randomized cash delivery, establishing the Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) services which have been tested in previous different cash transfer programs. In the case of political unrest, NARRI will temporarily suspend its activities in order to avoid risk of violence against its staff or the beneficiaries. NARRI will use a do no harm approach and will resume activities as soon as the unrest ceases. Each agency shall follow its safety and security management protocol to follow. Moreover, assistance will be sought from local Administration if needed. 5

6 Conflict amongst those who receive cash grants and those who do not receive cash grants Low Beneficiary selection will be done in a participatory manner and everyone, including those not selected, will be explained the process, reasons and necessity of cash grants for those selected. Moreover, local authorities and relevant government departments will be consulted for final selection of beneficiaries in the targeted areas. The risk of conflict within family, as in most cases women of the family will get the cash, will be minimized by involving local communities in the implementation and sensitization of men. 12. What monitoring, feedback or other systems will be used to ensure that the project delivers results? Be as specific as possible. Please limit to three bullets. A monitoring framework will be developed based on the operational framework and logframe. Three tiers of the monitoring system will be established for effective project delivery at the community, organization and consortium levels. The major areas of the monitoring will be the beneficiary selection process as per the set criteria, quantity and quality of delivery, visibility of materials, and utilization of the cash and establishment of effective Complaints Response Mechanism system. The local government officials will be consulted and involved at each stage in monitoring the intervention at union, upazila, and district level. - Community Level: At the ward level, a Project Implementation Committee (PIC) will be formed with the presence of UP chairmen, ward representatives and selected beneficiaries. They will ensure that the cash is transferred to the right person and the cash receiver uses the cash to meet basic immediate needs. - Organizational Level: Each organization has proposed M&E staff and will be responsible for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project delivery. Individual organizations will develop their own plan and will be responsible for timely execution of that plan. If required, the individual organization may ask assistance from the Consortium Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. The organization will also share fortnightly progress reports with the consortium lead agency. After completion of the project, a project completion report will also be shared by the consortium lead agency. - Consortium Level: The consortium lead will convene a meeting of M&E staff from participating agencies to finalize M&E methodology and tools. A monitoring and evolution officer will be recruited at consortium level to coordinate and oversee monitoring by each agency and appraise the latest project update to all concerned parties. Consortium shall also coordinate and consolidate the beneficiaries profiling and post distribution monitoring process. In order to monitor the project impact, focus group discussions, feedback mechanism for assistance, grievances and bi-weekly local market surveys shall be coordinated to monitor the food price fluctuations. For establishing an efficient Feedback and Complain Response Mechanism (FCM), following steps will be undertaken: - Set up feedback and complaint system (including boxes in the field, mainly at distribution point). - Receive feedback and complaints through verbal/written/mobile phone call etc. - Review and investigate (where required), feedback and complaints by CARE and relevant consortium members - Take immediate action on complaints - Respond to feedback and complaints following review, any investigation process and action taken. - Record all responses to feedback and complaints 6

7 Funding requirements 13. What is the total amount of funds ( ) requested? What is the cost per person reached and how has this been calculated? Total amount requested is GBP 2,300,000 to reach 21,803 households Cost per household is GBP as calculated automatically by the budget template; (about GBP per beneficiary). 14. Is advanced funding required? If so, please give rationale. The advance funding is required from DFID so that funds are available immediately for responding to the emergency needs of flood and cyclone affected people. As this is a cashbased and short-term project, it is not feasible for the consortium agencies to arrange this large amount of cash in this short period. 15. How will this project provide good value for money? Please limit to three bullets. Effectiveness: The consortium members and partners are well-prepared to deliver the planned relief (cash grants) in minimum possible time. The local presence, capacity, past experience in the country, understanding of local culture and context are all major factors to initiate and deliver quality response. Efficiency: With links and relationship with local communities, local government, coordination with Department of Disaster Management, clusters and other humanitarian actors at Dhaka level shall help in delivery quality response with almost no duplication in beneficiaries, independence and transparency in beneficiary selection, close monitoring, third party money transfer system and complaint response mechanism shall help in delivering quality response. Economy: the proposal presents more than 75.08% reaching directly the beneficiaries. All other costs including field and management staff, transport, operations, local and head office costs, consortium costs, workshop & meeting costs are limited to 24.92% in agreement with all consortium members. 16. How will funds be spent in the funding period, to ensure rapid response? Please limit to three bullets. All in-country spending shall be in Bangladeshi Taka (BDT). The cash delivery to beneficiaries shall be between week 5 and 11 of the project, in Bangladeshi Taka maximum through the third party arrangement (bank or mobile transfer). Only the agencies opting for direct delivery shall deliver cash through local NGO partners. Following finalization of agreement among consortium partners funds shall be transferred to headquarters of the agencies and following approval of NGO Affairs Bureau funds shall be transferred to respective bank accounts of consortium members. Each agency shall spend and transfer funds to partner NGOs and / or third parties according to their respective policies. The financial audit of the in-country spending shall take place as per the Bangladeshi Government requirements. 17. What alternative funding is available for this project? Have you approached other donors? Not many donors have announced funding to meet the requirements of Joint Response Plan. For the proposed intervention, 100% funding is requested from DFID. Applications to other donors have not been submitted for this project. In coordination with other potential responding agencies and consortiums, NARRI did not approach other donors (like ECHO). This will allow others agencies to cover more areas and beneficiaries. 7

8 Focus on disaster affected populations 18. What s the total number of proposed people to be reached? Direct: 21,803 households (109,015 persons using average family size of 5: estimated 25,386 women; 26,844 men; 29,160 girls and 27,625 boys) Indirect: Approximately additional 100,000 (estimated) persons as the project shall have indirect impact on markets, day labourer opportunities, livelihood recovery etc. 19. Please describe the target (disaggregated) population; why have they been chosen; how will vulnerable people (including older men and women and people with disabilities) access aid and/or services? What targeted activates will be implemented to address the needs of marginalised groups? How have protection issues and gender been incorporated? Please limit to five bullets. According to the Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) report, women, adolescent girls, children, old people and people with disabilities are disproportionately affected by this floods and Cyclone Komen. By adopting different coping mechanisms, also specified in the JNA, women are compromising their personal hygiene practices and reducing daily meal intakes and thus, impacting their health and wellbeing. During the flash floods small assets such as homestead gardens, chickens, goats, fruit trees and similar, which are mostly owned and nurtured by women, are also eroded. This has impact on household level food consumption patterns, and the power balance within the families. Elderly people have also been affected due to lack of essential food and medicines and reduced availability of care. Therefore, the project will particularly target these vulnerable groups, which includes women, children, elderly persons and ethnic minority groups in Bandarban, people with disability, and provide them with lifesaving assistance to protect them from further harm and refraining them from adopting negative coping mechanisms. Direct beneficiaries selection will be inclusive and based on the consultation with communities by the respective consortium members and local partners following the humanitarian principles. A proposed list of beneficiaries (from community consultations) will be validated by the project in a door-to-door beneficiary survey. Beneficiary selection shall not be restricted by documentation provided available with the beneficiaries and solely the selection criteria shall be followed. Direct delivery of cash shall be arranged for the selected beneficiaries who are short of documentation for cash transfer by third parties. Local authorities and relevant government departments will be consulted for final selection of beneficiaries at the targeted areas. Additionally, affected communities and local government authorities will be engaged in identification of the beneficiaries most in need. The selected beneficiaries will be registered on paper (although there will be a database of beneficiary profile) and provided with cards for future verification and monitoring purposes. The following criteria will be applied in selecting target groups: Highly affected households and displaced households will get preference Households with severe damage and loss of homestead/houses, household belongings and livelihoods like standing crops, livestock and/or other livelihood options Households with no means to recover the loss on their own and/or with no or little access to income generating activities Households that are extremely poor (e.g: with the main income earners who are a day labourer or small/marginal farmers, and/or households that are displaced, landless or unemployed) Households with vulnerable people such as pregnant and lactating women, elderly, disabled persons, and chronically ill persons (physically and mentally) or socially excluded people like 8

9 affected ethnic minority groups. At least 10% of the beneficiaries shall be people with disability. Women-headed (separated, divorced, or widowed) households, or child-headed households with no or minimum support or sources of income. In most cases the women/most vulnerable of the family will be the receiver of the cash grant. This will contribute in empowering women/vulnerable person in their family as well as in their society. CARE has developed guidance on Gender Equality programming, especially Gender in Emergencies (GiE), which will ensure a gender sensitive approach to this Cash Transfer project and strengthen gender role and responsibility after distribution. The intervention targets the inclusion of the most vulnerable in the flood and cyclone affected areas. In most cases people with disabilities are excluded from the standard emergency response mechanisms. Specific strategies will be applied for inclusion of people with disability with technical assistance from Handicap International (HI). This includes HI involvement at the stages of identification, assessment, and monitoring of beneficiary selection, training the consortium and local implementing partners team, and follow up for referral services. Beneficiary data: Direct: 21,803 households (109,015 persons using average family size of 5: estimated 25,386 women; 26,844 men; 29,160 girls and 27,625 boys). Final disaggregated beneficiary data will be delivered to DFID upon completion of the selection process. 20. How will the target population be involved in developing and implementing your project? How will you meet DFID s accountability requirements? Beneficiary selection: Community consultation shall be carried out within each community to select the beneficiaries by the community themselves. Participation of women shall be ensured in the community consultations. The selection criteria shall be shared for further feedback and refinement in the community consultation meetings. A primary list shall be prepared and subsequently verified by door to door cross checking. The list may be further consulted with the local government elected representatives from the respective communities. The list shall be shared with the local govt. authority, i.e. Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) & Project Implementation Officer (PIO), Deputy Commissioner (DC), District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer (DRRO) At least two contact numbers (one of consortium agency & another of local PNGO) must be stated on the Banner, beneficiary card etc. so that the community can share their feedback as well as complaints. These should not be in small size rather should be in large size to be easily visible. On complaints related with protection issues the protection of complainant shall be ensured. Complaint boxes at each distribution point to facilitate feedback and complaints Post distribution monitoring Project Information and Entitlement sharing: The introduction of consortium agency, the donor and the PNGO shall be shared with community in the community consultations. The project information like objective, activities, duration, starting and ending time etc. Shall also be shared with communities. The entitlements of the beneficiaries shall be shared with community Banner, signboard, information board etc shall be placed for information sharing. The following steps shall be undertaken for ensuring the accountability issues at various stages of implementing emergency response: 9

10 Team Orientation: The staffs involved in this emergency project will be oriented on relevant policy and procedures including accountability and protection related issues. The assigned/deployed monitoring persons are in most cases experienced staff who will be mainly responsible to monitor that the accountability issues are taken care of properly in this project. They will focus on how to get the feedback from the community and take step accordingly. Implementing PNGO selection and Orientation: This Project is being implemented through partnership approach and a local NGO/ the implementing partners have wide knowledge about the local context and can ensure accountability smoothly. The Partner NGO s had been selected after formal assessment process which ensures that the PNGO is oriented and adhere to lead agencies accountability mechanism. Agreements with the PNGO will include major accountability issues to be followed in implementation. Provision of orientation/ staff capacity building initiatives for PNGOs shall be done by respective consortium members. The senior management as well as the staff teams of the PNGOs are well aware about the lead agencies policies and donor s compliance issues as well as accountability requirements. The PNGO staff team will be further briefed properly about the Project Implementation Strategies and accountability requirements. Regular meetings with PNGOs staff at different level will be organized and issues regarding the accountability as well as project implementation will be addressed. Communications activities 21. Confirm how you will acknowledge UK taxpayers support for activities (e.g. press releases, online channels, interviews from the field or in other contact with the media) including using the UK aid logo? Support from UK AID shall be mentioned in all communications including: community consultations, meetings with government at local and Dhaka level, printing of logo on beneficiary cards, banners at distribution sites, complaint boxes, web updates, reports and other published materials. After DFID approval, CARE will use its website, social media accounts and media outlets to inform the public about this action, results and will clearly mention the source of funding. 22. Outline how you will support DFID deliver its own media and communications work (e.g. contributions from the field including text, photographs, video and audio interviews). Consortium lead shall provide case studies, selected photographs and final report. Furthermore materials shall be provided on DFID request. 10