Cash Assistance in DRC: Evaluation of procurement procedures and constraints [Elan RDC, 2020]

While cash assistance is ramping up in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), competition for service provision from the country’s private sector is limited. Open tenders generally receive very few bids, while contracting opportunities often go unseen according to financial service providers (FSPs). This report sheds light on the constraints affecting cash assistance-related procurement for humanitarian actors and FSPs. Specifically, it examines procurement for cash assistance programmes to understand how requirements, procedures and expectations can be better aligned to encourage more competition and ensure efficient, reliable financial services for humanitarian actors and their beneficiaries in the DRC. To do so, 16 humanitarian actors and 10 FSPs were surveyed via semi-structured interviews in Kinshasa and Goma from late January to early March 2020.