Final Evaluation of the Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) programme “My Choice”

https://norwegianrefugeecouncil-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/mohammed_alnajjar_nrc_no/EbJ4ZDSO7KFHgJQyXZbg_zEBD64SuhJ0tHD6evxHzaDWnQ?e=qBsjuc

Program Partnership

The Gaza Protection Consortium (GPC), a partnership between Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Mercy Corps, and the World Food Programme (WFP) are the implementing agencies of the multi-purpose cash assistance program, targeting 1,499 refugee and 1,144 non-refugee households respectively, across the Gaza Strip. The program, dubbed “My Choice”, is funded by ECHO, FCDO and SDC.

Program Scope

The scope of the program was to assist the most vulnerable refugee and non-refugee families in the Gaza Strip, living below the “deep poverty line” with monthly MPCA. All households that form part of the program were obtained from Ministry of Social Development (MoSD)’s waiting list of the National Cash Transfer Programme (NCTP).

Program Objective

Most vulnerable households in the Gaza Strip can meet their basic needs.

Consultancy Purpose

The first MPCA was delivered by GPC and WFP to cover the month of October 2020. Since then, a total of nine MPCA instalments were delivered on a monthly basis to the refugees and to the non-refugees through July 2021, in addition to protection referrals delivered solely by the GPC. The consultant is to evaluate program alignment with the objectives stated in GPC’s contract with ECHO and WFP’s contracts with ECHO, SDC and FCDO and to determine whether the program was relevant in the context of Gaza, whether it should continue, scale down or scale up

As the final evaluation is summative, its objective is to assess the extent to which the intervention as a whole has delivered its expected results, achieved the specific, and contributed to the principle objectives of the project. The scope for examination in this exercise will be determined by the OECD-DAC criteria for evaluating humanitarian action, namely: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability. The assessment will furthermore ascertain the overall performance of the project, will identify and highlight learnings and will provide insight and recommendation for the planning for comparable future interventions.

Specific Objectives of the Final Evaluation

This evaluation serves the dual and mutually reinforcing objectives of accountability and learning. This evaluation is conducted to feed into the formulation of next phase of MPCA, and therefore geared more towards the learning objective:

· Learning: the evaluation will provide evidence-based findings in terms performance and impact, to inform operational and strategic decision-making regarding the MPCA and derive lessons learned for the upcoming MPCA design. The evaluation will provide evidence to inform adjustments to programme design and the strategic direction of MPCA in the Gaza Strip;

· Accountability: the prolonged political context in Palestine comes with high internal and external demand for information. Publicly shared and actively involving a wide range of stakeholders including donor countries, the evaluation will report on the performance and impact of the MPCA;