District Readiness Assessment (DRA) Tool: Expediting G2P Payments

This focus note discusses Direct Assessment Readiness, a tool developed by MicroSave to assess the readiness of factors critical for successful implementation of government to person (G2P) payments. In particular, the tool assesses the readiness of stakeholders responsible for effective and efficient payment of government benefits in a particular geography. The primary focus of DRA is on front end implementation agencies and cash-in cash-out (CICO) networks. The note covers the following sections in detail:

• Scope of DRA with a focus on the role of major stakeholders including the central government, state governments, district administration, payment delivery channels, and beneficiaries;
• Objective of DRA with a focus on specific inputs that DRA provides which include quantifiable parameters to assess readiness, capturing the overall strengths and weaknesses of CICO agent networks, and assessing readiness of stakeholders to transfer G2P payments in an efficient manner;
• Indicators for assessments of district G2P readiness including transaction point coverage, CICO quality, CICO sustainability, beneficiary data digitization, department and payment distribution channel readiness, and beneficiary awareness.