Call for Proposals: Closing the data gap towards an efficient remittances market in Africa

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL FRIDAY, 5 APRIL AT 23:59 GMT+1

In January 2019, IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) and the European Union (EU) launched the Platform for Remittances, Investment and Migrants’ Entrepreneurship in Africa (PRIME Africa), aimed at reducing the cost of remittances and maximizing their impact in the African continent. This initiative responds to the commitment of achieving both Objective 20 of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (promoting faster, safer and cheaper transfer of remittances and foster migrants’ financial inclusion), and target 10.c of the Sustainable Development Goals (reducing to less than three per cent the transaction costs of migrants’ remittances while eliminating corridors with costs higher that five per cent by 2030).

Estimated total remittance flows towards and within Africa are impressive, yet they are likely to underestimate actual flows, particularly for remittances directed towards rural areas where unregulated methods to remit funds dominate. Achieving SDG 10c and Objective 20 will require a decisive engagement of the remittance industry that fosters competition. However, for this to happen public and private sector stakeholders will require further and detailed market data in order to identify and engage in evidence-based opportunities.

In this sense, extended and publicly available market intelligence will be critical towards new remittance-related product introduction, market expansion and business linkages among different remittance and financial service providers.

In order to address these needs, IFAD’s FFR is launching a global Call for Proposals (CfP), aimed at identifying sound methodologies for collecting and analysing remittance markets´ data in Africa, along with its most relevant corridors. In particular, the CFP will be aimed at reducing the remittances market data deficit in Africa by collecting and processing transparent data that both enables the design of industry benchmarks and the assessment of on-going and future undertakings in this sector. In particular, the objectives of this CfP are aimed at:

• seeking availability of quantitative data of market trends (flows, cost, market shares, etc.) in continental Africa and selected countries, and respective intra-regional and EU related corridors;
• maintaining a continuous stocktaking of all key market actors contributing to market transparency and competition assessment; and
• identifying and monitoring the respective regulatory environment landscape relevant to money transfer activities.

The proposed methodologies under this CfP should also enable the identification of [seven] specific countries in Africa for which a more in-depth data collection and analysis could lead to the creation of roadmaps of opportunities for market enhancement. To guarantee consistency in market development and expansion, the proposed methodologies should ensure the creation of a publically available database/document repository, to be updated on a regular basis throughout the duration of the initiative (2019-2023).

Through a competitive process described in the documentation provided below, this Call for Proposals will finance projects up to €700,000 for the 4-year project.

Deadline to receive proposals is 18:00 GMT on 28 March 2019.

Prior to submitting a project proposal, applicants should check their institution's eligibility (Annex I) and then, submit their proposal using the templates below, along with the following documents:

• A completed eligibility questionnaire (Annex I)
• The organizational profile
• All requested documents (Annex II - V)

The documentation should be then sent to [email protected], ensuring that the email subject line clearly specifies “FFR Call for Proposals 2019: [PROPOSAL NAME AND ORGANIZATION]”.

For further information, please contact [email protected].