Assessment of the emergency cash transfer support provided through the social assistance scheme in response to COVID-19

Project: P173819 - KOSOVO EMERGENCY COVID-19 PROJECT Reference: XK-MOH-219361-CS-CQS Procurement method: Consultant Qualification Selection Financing: World Bank Request for Expression of Interest (Ri-advertisement) Country: Kosovo Project ID: P173819 World Bank Loan/Credit Name: Kosovo COVID-19 Emergency Project Ref. No.: XK-MoH-219361-CS-CQS Assessment of the emergency cash transfer support provided through the social assistance scheme in response to COVID-19 Background Kosovo was hit with the global pandemic of COVID-19 in mid-March 2020. The Government acted quickly, declaring a public health emergency for the entire country on March 15, 2020. Early on in the pandemic, the Government adopted a set of public health measures to contain the spread of the virus and “flatten the curve.” To help ensure that the population was able to comply with these public health containment measures, the Government announced emergency measures to provide direct financial support to households through a range of programs, which were set out in its Operational Plan on Emergency Fiscal Package (called Emergency Package). The COVID-19 Emergency Project, which is funded by the World Bank, supported implementation of the Government’s Operational Plan on Emergency Fiscal Package as follows: Firstly, the project supported the regular payments through the Social Assistance Scheme (SAS, see Annex 1 for details of the SAS), with some adaptations to comply with the social distancing measures. Secondly, the Government doubled the value of the payments to SAS beneficiaries for the months of March, April, and May 2020 (this change was set out in Measure 1 of the Emergency Package). Finally, the Government provided much-needed social assistance to poor households that are negatively affected by the pandemic and were not supported through other public measures announced by the Government (this aim was set out in Measure 15 of the Operational Plan for the Emergency Fiscal Package). Because the SAS is targeted to households that fall into a set of narrowly defined categories (see Annex 1), the number of exclusion errors is high and was expected to rise further as households lost their jobs and other income sources as a result of the public health measures that were introduced to contain COVID-19. Given the investments that the Government made in seeking to protect poor and vulnerable households from the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic through the Emergency Package, it now wishes to hire a firm to collect data that will enable an assessment of how these initiatives were delivered and the experience of beneficiaries in access and receiving this support. Such information will provide much needed information on the delivery of these initiatives, while also offering lessons for any future response to shocks through the SAS in Kosovo. Objective In order to assess the government’s response to help vulnerable households cope with the negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary public health containment measures in Kosovo, the Ministry of Health of Kosovo seeks to hire a firm (Consulting Firm) to conduct a rapid assessment through a telephone-based survey, for the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare/Department for Social Policy and Family (MLSW/DSPF) which will focus on: exploring the impacts of the COVID-19 containment measures on poor and vulnerable households; and, assessing the experience of beneficiaries[1] in their (re) application to SAS and Measure 15, and those of beneficiaries in terms of payment. The assessment will consist of two phone-based surveys, the first of which will be with 500 households who have received or applied to either of the two programs, SAS or Measure 15, during March, April, May and June 2020. The second survey will be field six months later to 500 households to ask (i) how the situation of households has evolved; and, (ii) implementation of the SAS or any follow on emergency program Scope of Work The selected Consulting Firm will conduct Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI) of beneficiaries and applicants of the SAS and Measure 15. Specifically, the objective of the first survey is two-fold: Exploring the impacts of COVID-19 and the necessary containment measures on the livelihoods and wellbeing of poor and vulnerable Kosovars; Assess beneficiaries’ experiences with implementation of social assistance (SAS and Measure 15) and their satisfaction with the government’s response to COVID-19 through SAS and Measure 15. The sample for the first survey will consist of three groups: SAS beneficiary households: These households should have been SAS beneficiaries in March, April, May 2020. SAS beneficiaries whose re-application to the SAS was waived between March and July 2020 and, as a result, remained within the SAS until at least July 2020.[2] Measure 15 applicants and beneficiaries who received at least one payment, including a sub-sample who lodged a complaint and rece