CASH & VOUCHER ASSISTANCE

GLOBAL PAYMENT SOLUTION

AGGREGATOR
Terms of Reference

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Acronyms used in this document:

CVA Cash and Voucher Assistance

FA Framework Agreement
GFA Global Framework Agreement
ICRC International Committee of Red Cross
IFRC International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
NS National Society (local Red Cross or Red Crescent in country)
PSP Payment Service Provider
RCRC Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC and its network i.e NS)
RCRCM Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (IFRC, NS and ICRC)
RTM Requirements Traceability Matrix
TOR Terms of Reference

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I. Background

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest
humanitarian network. The IFRC is a membership organization established by and comprised of its
member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Along with National Societies and the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and
Red Crescent Movement. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote
at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies with a view to preventing and
alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity
and peace in the world.” It works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before,
during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

With the network of 191 member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide, the IFRC
is in virtually every community reaching 160.7 million people annually through long-term services and
development programmes, as well as 110 million people through disaster response and early recovery
programmes1 with focus to support the most vulnerable people including migrants and displaced people
in all types of disasters and crises. Its humanitarian assistance varies from provision of First Aid,
psychological support, water and sanitation, relief items, livelihoods and shelters.

Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) has increasingly been selected as one of response options of
humanitarian action to address the needs of people affected by disasters and crises. CVA enables
people affected by disasters and crises to receive more appropriate and effective support, giving them
greater choice, dignity and control over their lives, and enabling communities through efficiency gains
and better support to local markets and economies. One commitment of the ‘Grand Bargain’, which is
an agreement made during the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit between the biggest donors and
humanitarian aid organizations on getting more means into the hands of people in need and to improve
the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian action, is to increase the use and coordination of CVA.
To be aligned with the Grand Bargain agreement, the IFRC and its network (RCRC) are committed to
delivering 50% of its humanitarian assistance through cash and vouchers by 2025.

The global volume for CVA programming expenditure increased by 41% from 2021 to 2022 to US$10.0
billion, with US$7.9 billion transferred as CVA to crisis-affected people as recently published by CaLP
Network in the “The State of the World’s Cash 2023” report2.

1
Strategy 2030: Platform for Change – Global Reach, Local Action, IFRC
2
See “Chapter 2: CVA Volume and growth” https://www.calpnetwork.org/collection/the-state-of-the-worlds-cash-
2023-report/

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 Over the years, CVA has made up a large proportion in IFRC emergency appeals. In 2022, the RCRC
have reached 5.7 million beneficiaries with total disbursed funds of CHF 631 million through CVA
programs during emergencies. The total amount of cash distributed by the International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (RCRCM) amounts to more than CHF 950 million, reaching
9.8 million people.

Targeting scale, speed and quality service using CVA require contracting global payment solutions, as
detailed in the “Global Payment Solution for Humanitarian Cash Assistance” report3. These combined
tools could be activated simultaneously in the countries where disasters and crises affect people.

IFRC Projection for all CVA interventions, includes all payment solutions:
Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5
# Countries 4 10 20 80 100
# Recipients 10 K 50 K 100 K 500 K 600 K
CVA Budget (CHF) 1M 12 M 25 M 125 M 150 M

Global Red Cross Red Crescent Movement Projection for all CVA interventions, includes all
payment solutions:
Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5
# Countries 4 10 20 80 100
# Recipients 50 K 500 K 1M 2M 3M
CVA Budget (CHF) 12 M 125 M 300 M 600 M 900 M

Early on an emergency, transactions tend to be high volume and low value. As an estimate, and based
on historical data, the average transaction amount can vary between 20 and 200 CHF per recipient per
month during 2 to 6 months period, depending on the region and context.
During the early recovery period (could begin 3-6 months after the onset of a disaster), the transactions
may shift to lower volume and higher value.

These numbers are estimated projections. RCRC has no legal obligation to order any minimum or
maximum quantity.

II. Objectives & Benefits

This tender aims to:

1. Establish a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) for Aggregated services to deliver

humanitarian cash assistance in emergencies. The contract will be signed by the IFRC and will
be non-exclusive, hence IFRC may establish Framework Agreements (FA) with different
suppliers for the same services.

2. The GFA could be utilized by National Societies (NS) to contract directly with the Payment
Service Provider (PSP) for their own cash-based interventions, while benefiting from the
negotiated rates and standard terms & conditions.
NS may adapt parts of the GFA to fit their context.

The following are the expected benefits of having a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) for PSP
in place:
 Have a few “ready to deploy” payments solutions with global coverage at the time of an
emergency for the RCRC.
 RCRC can quickly scale up its CVA interventions to assist the targeted populations within
countries or regions.

3
https://cash-hub.org/resource/global-payment-solutions-for-humanitarian-cash-assistance/

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  RCRC can reach out to the most vulnerable people, including people living in remote areas,
migrants, displaced people and people with no ID.
 Ability to offer different payment mechanisms, providing flexibility to address different contexts
and program needs.
 Ability to address risks and challenges in providing cash to vulnerable populations.
 Ability to increase accountability and transparency to donors, partners and affected
populations.

III. Scope of Service

The objective of this service is to identify a suitable PSP that can provide Aggregated services (i.e
providing more than one payment mechanism type) for humanitarian cash interventions which may
occur concurrently at country, regional and global levels.

Cash assistance through Aggregators shall be in the following form:

- Be available:
o In priority, to vulnerable people affected by disasters living in remote areas,
migrants, displaced people
o When possible, to vulnerable people with no ID, unbanked (people who do not
have access to a formal account at a financial institution)
- Allow recipients to access:
o Funds disbursed to personal mobile wallet, bank account, etc...
o Agents &/or merchants (through point of sale (PoS)) &/or ATM large networks
to withdraw physical cash
o Physical &/or online merchants to make payments for goods or services
o Cross-border transfers
o A secured individual access to funds

Coverage: Please refer to the “Global PSP Coverage – Aggregator" file to list the names and number
of partners and agents by country, the distribution currency and % urban and % rural coverage in the
“Coverage” tab. Instructions and examples have been provided.

Screenshot of the ”Global PSP Coverage - Aggregator” file

Out of Scope:
This ToR does not cover the features of a data management system. The use of the data
management system is decided at the global and country level and will go through an assessment and
its own tendering process. What we are, however, looking for in this tender is the capability of the PSP
to have a solution that integrates with a data management system or if not, provide a platform in which
payments can be made in a secure way.

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 IV. Scenarios

The following are two main scenarios to consider:

1. A global payment solution for the IFRC to support NS in implementing CVA
 Using an API with the data management system
 In the instance where the API is unavailable, to be used by IFRC staff (or delegated
administration to NS staff and volunteers), using role-based access to process
payments by geography, projects and distributions.
2. National Societies joining the Global Framework Agreement set up their own platform account
(separate from the IFRC global one) and manage it autonomously.
 This allows National Societies to not be locked in to the IFRC’s system and
infrastructure and can apply their own customizations and local specificities, as
necessary.
 Allows National Societies to leverage the same pricing model and standard terms and
conditions (including data protection and SLA).
 Allow for global volume discount based on collective cash activities across the RCRC
network.

V. Proposed Timeframe

The following is a tentative schedule for implementation of the IFRC’s global PSP solutions.

VI. Requirements

PSP is requested to fill in the "RTM – Aggregator” file, including:

- “RTM” tab for general and Aggregator RTM specific requirements
- “Data protection” tab
Refer to “Terminology” tab for acronyms and definitions, when completing.

The "RTM – Aggregator” file is Annex 2.1 of the Request for Proposal.

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 Screenshot of the "RTM – Aggregator” file

On the “RTM” tab, please complete:

 Validation Status (Column G) – Indicate with Y, N, or P
o Y - Fully meets requirement, readily available out of the box or with very minor
configuration (inclusive of setup cost)
o N - Does not meet requirement currently; will need significant development (for a fee)
or is not something that is planned or envisioned for the solution to do
o P - Partially meets requirement and may need some customization; have done for other
clients; have workarounds available
 If Partially or Does Not Meet requirement, please indicate the level of effort to implement the
requirement (Column H) - Indicate with L, M, H
o L - Low effort to implement. A few hours.
o M – Medium effort to implement. 1 to 5 days of development.
o H – High effort to implement. More than 5 days of development
 Comments/Questions (Column I) - Please enter any comments or use this field to answer follow
up questions asked for in the requirements column. You may also add any assumptions made
for these requirements.
o If requirement will be released as part of the vendor’s roadmap, please indicate the
release date in this section.

VII. Data Protection

PSP is requested to fill in the “Data Protection” tab of the "RTM – Aggregator” file.
Refer to the “Terminology” tab for acronyms and definitions, when completing.

On the “Data Protection” tab, please complete the following for Requirement IDs DP001-DP009:
 Validation Status (Column G) – Indicate with Y, N, or P
o Y - Fully meets requirement, readily available out of the box or with very minor
configuration (inclusive of setup cost)
o N - Does not meet requirement currently; will need significant development (for a fee)
or is not something that is planned or envisioned for the solution to do
o P - Partially meets requirement and may need some customization; have done for other
clients; have workarounds available
 If Partially or Does Not Meet requirement, please indicate the level of effort to implement the
requirement (Column H) - Indicate with L, M, H
o L - Low effort to implement. A few hours.
o M – Medium effort to implement. 1 to 5 days of development.
o H – High effort to implement. More than 5 days of development
 Comments/Questions (Column I) - Please enter any comments or use this field to answer follow
up questions asked for in the requirements column. You may also add any assumptions made
for these requirements.
o If requirement will be released as part of the vendor’s roadmap, please indicate the
release date in this section.

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 On the “Data Protection” tab, please complete the following for Requirement IDs DP010-DP043:
 Comments/Questions (Column I) - Please enter your answers in this field. If supplementary
documentation is provided, still provide a high-level answer and reference the supplementary
document in the field.

VIII. Global Framework Agreement

The Global Framework Agreement is valid for two years with possible extension for another two years
(maximum).

IFRC reserves the right to sign Framework Agreements with one or more providers and signing a
Framework Agreement does not give any exclusivity to the selected provider(s). It means that, in case
of operational needs or due provider’s performances, IFRC reserves the right to contract with other
providers until any issue is solved.

IX. Technical Proposal Content

In addition to completing the "RTM – Aggregator” file, please provide a technical proposal and a high-
level workflow for Aggregated services, detailing the full payment cycle from RCRC to PSP to recipient
and all players involved in the process.

PSP responsibilities
Overall, the primary responsibility of a PSP is to ensure secure, efficient, and reliable payment
processing for the project.

Key responsibilities of a Payment Service Provider:

Check Category Details

✓ Payment Providing a reliable online platform to process payments.
Platform
✓ Payment Facilitating the acceptance and processing of various payment
Processing solutions, which could include bank, mobile money, remittance,
card, eVoucher solutions, or a combination of these.
✓ Security and Ensuring a high level of security for sensitive payment data through
Compliance encryption, tokenization, and adhering to industry-standard security
protocols like PCI DSS, ISO/IEC 2700x, and other relevant
certifications.
✓ Fraud Implementing robust fraud detection and prevention measures to
Prevention safeguard against fraudulent transactions and unauthorized access.
✓ Payment Providing merchants and agents with the necessary tools and APIs
Gateway to integrate the PSP's payment gateway with their websites or
Integration applications.
✓ Payment Handling payment reconciliation processes to ensure accurate and
Reconciliation timely settlement of transactions between merchants, agents, RCRC
and PSP.
✓ Customer Offering customer support services to address payment-related
Support inquiries, disputes, and issues promptly and efficiently.
✓ Currency Facilitating currency conversion for international transactions to
Conversion accommodate recipients from different countries.
✓ National Facilitating single-country payments.
transfers
✓ Reporting PSP provides relevant reporting for management and financial
needs.
✓ Risk Assessing and managing payment risks associated with specific
Management industries, geographies, or transaction types.

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 ✓ Compliance Adhering to relevant financial regulations, such as AML (Anti-Money
with Laundering) and KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements.
Regulatory
Standards
✓ Due Diligence PSP conducts due diligence on partners, agents and merchants to
ensure a quality service.

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