Voucher Solution at Concern Worldwide

Summary Of Current Voucher System

Concern Worldwide is currently using a physical voucher system to distribute products to beneficiaries. A similar Voucher- cash system was also used for cash transfer in areas without mobile network. The system involves issuance of valued voucher of a fixed amount per beneficiary, where the beneficiary presents the voucher to the vendor in exchange for a product in line with Concern commitment.

The current system involves the following process:-

• Designing and printing of the Vouchers:- Concern Worldwide normally designs and prints serialized vouchers to issue to the identified beneficiaries prior to the distribution date
• Beneficiaries’ identification: - Concern holds community forums, introduces the project and using a pre-defined criteria guides the participants on beneficiary identification. Most often the community leadership is engaged to confirm the right beneficiaries are reached.
• Procurement of vendor services: - Following the beneficiary identification, Project team shares the distribution clusters to guide the vendor procurement process. Concern procurement team then sends out request for quotations inviting interested applicants to apply. Number of vendors selected varies as they are cherry picked based on their quote values and geographical proximity to the beneficiaries. However, every distribution center is allocated only one vendor. It’s worth noting that livestock feeds are not readily available in the local market and hence the selected vendors have to source them from outside the ward/ sub-county/county.
• Issuance of the vouchers: - Once the vouchers are printed, Concern issues them to the identified beneficiaries, either directly using the Concern staff or identified clerks. This is normally done prior to the distribution day
• Redemption of the vouchers: - Once the supplies are ready, the vendor works together with the Concern team to distribute the livestock feeds.

Redemption process

• The beneficiary then present the Value voucher and their ID card to the vendor/ or their representatives (identified through the normal Concern Worldwide procurement process) in exchange for the feeds.
• The vendor (or his representative) together with Concern Worldwide (or appointed representative-hired as clerk), cross-check the details of the beneficiary against the approved beneficiary register (to ensure that the person presenting the voucher is the valid owner), then guides the beneficiary in signing( by either pen-5% or thumb print(95%) the redemption documents upon confirmation of the beneficiary details. Where one Vendor is selected to distribute feeds to several villages, he appoints representatives who works closely with Concern team to distribute feeds in the various centers for timely completion of the exercise. During this exercise each beneficiary is guided to sign at least 2 forms (one for the vendor to use for invoicing and one for Concern’s record). During this process, the Clerks supports the beneficiaries in filling of the details as majority are illiterate.
• A livestock production officer from the county is involved during distribution to examine the quality and quantity of feeds distributed to the beneficiaries. The process can take between 6 to 10 hours per day based on the number of beneficiaries per day, and rate of turn up during distribution by location.
• Following distribution, vendor then presents the redemption documents and invoice to Concern Worldwide to claim the payment for the distributed items.
• Concern Worldwide does reconciliation of the distribution and process payment.

Note: Distribution may happen in multiple locations at the same time
Definitions of terms and role of stakeholder: Clerk:
Person hired by Concern Worldwide as a casual to support the beneficiaries’ registration or feed voucher redemption process

Beneficiary

The intended recipient of either cash or products distributed by Concern Worldwide. The beneficiary is normally pre-identified using a selection criteria defined by Concern Worldwide during proposal development

Vendor

Also known as the supplier, is a person/organization identified in line with Concern procurement process to supply goods or services

Redemption Team

Comprises of Concern Worldwide/ or its representatives (also known as clerks), Vendor (or their representatives) and community cash/feed committee representatives. They play different roles as defined above to ensure successful distribution of any form of assistance to the community.

Concern Worldwide Role In The Process Include

• Designing and procurement of the vouchers
• Issuance of the vouchers to the beneficiaries
• Procurement of the vendor services
• Recruitment of the clerks to be involved in the distribution exercise
• Monitoring during and after the distribution to ensure the objectives are met and that the correct beneficiaries received their inputs
• Managing complaints system during the entire process