Formulation Mission – Support to the Social Welfare Fund IV

Detailed description of project Back

The Republic of Yemen remains among the Least Developed Countries as per the current OECD-DAC classification. Poverty is widespread, as is unemployment and the country is threatened by an enormous youth bulge; economic perspectives are bleak and corruption is rampant. In addition, the country suffers from security risks at national and regional levels. In this framework of poverty, the Government of Yemen, since mid-nineties, has been providing social assistance through the creation of a social safety net, to compensate the poorest for the higher prices of basic commodities. The three key organizations established at the time comprised the SWF to support individuals and families with cash and in kind; the Social Fund for Development (SFD) to support communities through development programmes concerning education, health, drinking water supply, sanitation and others; and the Public Works Program (PWP) to provide employment opportunities through infrastructure development. The EU as well as many other donor agencies has been providing support to the social safety net in the past 10 years. A new programme has now been identified and the purpose of this contract is to provide the EU Delegation with sufficient information to justify the acceptance, modification or rejection of the project proposal as formulated in the Identification Fiche and to provide adequate information on which to proceed to conclude a financing agreement.

The mission will specifically review the proposed programme against:

• The programme’s contribution to improve the social safety net in Yemen in general and the SWF specifically, within the context of current and prevailing strategies and policy documents;
• The coherence of the proposed interventions with the prevalent strategic directions for the areas concerned as well as current/future support planned for those sectors;
• Financial viability of proposed programme option.

Type of services provided

PROMAN is responsible for the management, backstopping and quality control of the assignment; it provides the services of the Team Leader – Social Safety Nets Expert and the Graduation Processes Expert. A third expert, the Institutional Capacity Building Expert is provided by B&S Europe. Following services are provided:

• A thorough field-based analysis of ongoing and planned activities in the concerned areas of intervention – from the donor as well as Yemeni perspective;
• Formulate recommendations to the Delegation for a coherently designed programme;
• Full feasibility study for the concerned intervention areas, resulting in a full-fledged proposal for targeted EU support to the sectors agreed upon with the Delegation;
• Consult with potential implementation partners and stakeholders is to be done throughout the assignment;
• Provide logical and reasoned options to the EU Delegation for implementation mechanisms and partnerships.