Norwegian Refugee Council
15 January 2020
Contributions
E-Cash Pilot: Digital Solutions for Rural Communities
Report
An innovative digital cash project piloted by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province has successfully demonstrated a new and more secure way of providing humanitarian assistance while significantly enhancing the inclusion and resilience of rural populations. “I’ve just used e-cash to buy beans, cooking oil, sweets, tea, sugar, matches, and salt....
20 February 2024
Data Sharing in Humanitarian Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA): A look at risks, threats and mitigation technologies
Report
This research, conducted by The Engine Room between March and October 2023, was commissioned by the Norwegian Refugee Council in collaboration with the DIGID consortium to map risks and threats related to data sharing in CVA, and to evaluate potential technological approaches that might mitigate these risks. The research forms part of a broader initiative focused on interoperability and data...
28 November 2023
Beneath the Surface: Exploring the economic dynamics of Sudan’s crisis for humanitarians.
Report
This report has been produced to provide NRC Sudan with a diagnostic of the current macroeconomic challenges in Sudan and the state of the financial system, and an analysis of the key risks that these problems pose for humanitarian programming and operations. The first section of the document provides essential background information about Sudan that informs the understanding of the current...
31 October 2023
Operational Alignment of Humanitarian Cash Programming with Ukraine’s Social Protection System
Report
This paper explores the extent to which humanitarian Multipurpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) in Ukraine has been able to leverage different elements of the delivery chain of national social protection (SP) programming. The basis of this paper is the framework developed by Seyfert et al., in their 2019 paper Unbundled: A Framework for Connecting Safety Nets and Humanitarian Assistance in Refugee...
September 2023
Alignment Options for Humanitarian Cash with the Ukrainian Social Protection System
Report
Cash assistance, and multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) specifically, are a vital part of the humanitarian response in Ukraine. Over half of the projects listed in the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan have a cash transfer or voucher component. By June 2023, approximately 8 million people received multi-purpose cash assistance from 50 organizations (Ground Truth Solutions, 2023). Cash-based...
August 2023
Open Partner Survey for Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) in Response to a Crisis
Report
The open partner survey for cash and voucher assistance (CVA) in response to a crisis is a collaborative effort between REDLAC and the Regional Cash Working Group (R4V), with technical support from CashCap/NORCAP and the participation of multiple organizations. This report provides an analysis of the survey and presents key findings based on responses from 107 key informants representing...
17 July 2023
Cash Working Group De-activation in Iraq
Case Study
The humanitarian context in Iraq has evolved significantly in the past years, advancing towards recovery and sustainability for the conflict-affected population. During 2022, the humanitarian coordination structure worked on a process to phase out, in line with the transitional context. Clusters and the Cash Working Group (CWG) designed exit strategies that concluded with their de-activation...
May 2023
Mapping of Sectoral CVA Interventions – Iraq
Guidelines and Tools
After the de-activation of the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG) led by UN OCHA in 2022, in January 2023 the Cash Working Group (CWG) transitioned into the Iraq Cash Forum (ICF), a technical advisory and coordination platform for cash partners in Iraq. The ICF sits under the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and has a broader mandate compared to its predecessor encompassing cash activities...
May 2023
Understanding the Impact of a Humanitarian Cash Transfer (HCT) Program in Colombia
Case Study
The Venezuelan humanitarian crisis represents one of the largest displacement crises in the world, on the order of 6.1 million people (UNHCR 2022a). Colombia currently hosts more than 1.82 million Venezuelans, 60 percent of whom are in irregular situations that prevent them from accessing public services, putting a strain on the Government of Colombia’s (GOC’s) capacity to deliver...
May 2023
Pilot Project Report on Cash for Protection Assistance to Vulnerable Internally Displaced Persons in Chuiba and Eduardo Mondlane, Pemba, Cabo Delgado
Case Study
It is estimated that around 800,000 people have been displaced in Cabo Delgado because of armed conflict and violence since 2017. Of these, 71.1% are in the host community leaving with their relatives or/and in rented houses, 21.5% in relocation sites and 7.3% in communal transit shelter (UNICEF, 2022). IOM DTM data suggest that as of February 2022 around 151,987 individuals were living in and...
24 October 2022
Savings Groups in Emergencies Learning Brief
Guidelines and Tools
We know that savings groups work – and that they are powerful. But, in emergencies, we must revisit some of our approaches and assumptions. Integrating savings groups into more humanitarian programming – and doing it better – holds significant potential to improve the outcomes of humanitarian aid. In 2021, 8 organizations – committed to improving and understanding this process – came...
19 September 2022
Savings Groups in Emergencies Training Slide Deck
Guidelines and Tools
This Training Slide deck provides actionable guidance to organizations to promote or work with Savings Groups in emergency settings. We know that Savings Groups work – and that they are powerful. But, in emergencies, we must revisit some of our approaches and assumptions. Integrating Savings Groups into more humanitarian programming – and doing it better – holds significant potential to...
19 September 2022
Supporting Digital Payments in Cash Programming
Case Study
This report is intended to assist the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and other humanitarian actors to leverage digital payment systems such as mobile money in their humanitarian cash transfers. FSD Africa commissioned Strategic Impact Advisors (SIA) to examine the challenges and opportunities of providing digital financial services (DFS) in Sudan, particularly to displaced populations and...
August 2022
The Changing Landscape of Cash Preparedness: Lists, Risks and Relationships
Report
What are feasible lead times to deliver CVA to recipients in the Horn of Africa? What are the barriers and enablers to ensuring a timely and high quality humanitarian response? What does it take for organizations to be effectively prepared?
August 2022
Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB): A guide to calculate the transfer value
Guidelines and Tools
The Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) for the Philippines outlines the minimum culturally-adjusted items for survival of a household of five for one month, post Typhoon. The basket comprises the basic energy requirements of 2,100 kilocalories per day, shelter needs for disaster-affected households, non-food items, WASH, health, clothing and education items as well as necessary services, basic...
June 2022
Paving Pathways to Self-Reliance in Iraq: Exploring Referral Pathways from Cash to Livelihoods Assistance to increase program participants’ resilience in conflict-affected areas of Iraq
Report
This piece of research was commissioned to explore and identify best practices for referral pathways from MPCA to livelihoods assistance for programme participants, and subsequently to generate recommendations for programme implementers and donors. The research focused on the operational models used by CLCI partners NRC and DRC in the past for referring socio-economically vulnerable households...
February 2022
Field Handbook for Rental Housing Market Assessment – Latin America and the Caribbean
Guidelines and Tools
The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and REACH with the support of CashCap/NORCAP and the collaboration of the R4V Shelter Sector, established an ad hoc, time-limited working group to support more and better collaborative...
2022
Humanitarian Cash Transfer: A reference guide for practitioners in the Philippines
Guidelines and Tools
This reference guide strives to provide parameters for context-adapted cash transfers. It includes a set of minimum operating standards, discussed with the CWG membership. In particular, the following themes were the subject of detailed discussions and considered as key issues for CVA practitioners in a survey done in March: Standardization of the targeting process; Harmonization of transfer...
2022
Cash Coordination Caucus – Proposed Strategy
Policy paper
The strategy document was developed by the EP’s office to delineate the objectives, composition and engagement structure of the cash coordination caucus in the Grand Bargain 2.0 process (https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/grand-bargain-official-website/grand-bargain-20-framework-and-annexes-deenesfr-0).
29 October 2021
Exploring Self-Reliance at the Humanitarian-Development Nexus: A Longer-Term Review of MPCA Outcomes
Report
Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) is provided to extremely socio-economically vulnerable individuals to alleviate financial hardship. In Iraq, MPCA is intended to act as temporary consumption support so that households may eventually be linked with social protection assistance or return to income-generating activities after the period of shock has passed. The long-term effects of the...
30 August 2021
Gender Analysis of Livelihoods Programming and Individual, Household and Community Dynamics in Iraq
Report
Women throughout the world are constrained in their economic activities, and face major challenges trying to pursue better paid and more productive jobs, including in Iraq. Iraq is in a time of change after ISIS and in light of the pandemic. Though economic upheaval brings hardship, it also can open doors for women’s economic empowerment. Understanding how current livelihood and economic...
30 August 2021
Financial Inclusion in Fragility: Wealth, Saving, Borrowing and Lending in Iraq
Report
Access to credit and savings are critical to a household’s resilience to shocks. Socio-economically vulnerable populations in Iraq often bear the brunt of the crises and respond by using accessible financial coping mechanisms. By having access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs, households can use them to cope with crises and invest in pathways out...
25 June 2021
Financial Inclusion in Fragility: Wealth, Saving, Borrowing and Lending in Iraq – Summary Report
Report
Access to credit and savings are critical to a household’s resilience to shocks. Socio-economically vulnerable populations in Iraq often bear the brunt of the crises and respond by using accessible financial coping mechanisms. By having access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs, households can use them to cope with crises and invest in pathways out...
25 June 2021
Making Market Assessments Fit for Your Purpose
Webinar recording
Watch the webinar recording here. Market assessments form an essential and integral part of an overall response analysis to inform humanitarian programme design. Findings from market assessments help with decisions about adequate transfers of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and the appropriate transfer modality. That’s why it’s crucial for people working on CVA to be able to correctly...
7 May 2021
Sudan – Gedaref Joint Cash Risk assessment
Report
Since the crisis in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in November 2020 over 60,000 people have sought refuge in neighbouring Sudan and were mostly accommodated in camps re-established in Gedaref State. Cash is has been utilised as a response modality and is being considered further by several agencies. This report, led by UNICEF on behalf of the sub-national Cash Working Group (CGW) in Gedaref, is...
17 February 2021
How to Incorporate Cash and Voucher Assistance into a Nutrition Response
Guidelines and Tools
There is a growing recognition that Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA), i.e. the provision of cash transfers and vouchers to targeted beneficiaries, can contribute to improving maternal and child nutrition by impacting on the underlying determinants of adequate nutrition. The main purpose of this Guidance Brief is to provide the nutrition sector generic guidance to more routinely consider, and...
21 December 2020
Multi-Sector Market Assessment Guidance and Toolkit
Guidelines and Tools
Markets play a vital role in the lives of displaced persons and their host communities. Humanitarian actors increasingly rely on market-based programme responses to help crisis affected populations meet their needs through local markets. Market assessments should be an essential and integral part of the overall response analysis to inform humanitarian programme design and the appropriate...
18 December 2020
Nutrition-Sensitive Diet in Somalia
Case Study
Economic access is one of the most significant barriers to achieving a nutritious diet, particularly in rural areas across Somalia. Somalian meals consist of mainly staple commodities (maize, sorghum, rice, wheat and pasta), oil and, with limited consumption of nutritious foods, such as fruits and vegetables. The majority of the Somali population consumes more frequently an energy-based diet...
7 October 2020
Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis: Linking humanitarian Cash and Social Protection in practise
Report
This paper seeks to demonstrate practical ways in which NGOs are linking their humanitarian work to social protection and the added importance of this in the context of COVID-19, following from the earlier work of CCD outlining the role of NGOs to
improve the access to and delivery of social protection in crises and the COVID-19 advocacy paper. This is written for signatories of the Grand...
27 July 2020
Statement on Likely Impacts of COVID-19 on Humanitarian Cash Transfers in Yemen
Report
The COVID-19 pandemic has now spread to the Middle East. Countries across the region are imposing measures to prevent further spread of the virus. Currently there are no confirmed cases in Yemen, but it is highly likely that COVID-19 will eventually reach the country. Organizations are shifting funding and activities to respond to the COVID-19 emergency, focusing on the two pillars of...
April 2020
Collaborative Cash Delivery (CCD) Network Global Collaboration Agreement
Guidelines and Tools
The annual meeting of the Grand Bargain (GB) – a facilitation group made up of global humanitarian leaders from Sweden, the US, OCHA, UNICEF, IFRC and InterAction – held on 27th June saw the presentation of a letter of intent endorsed by the CEOs of the Collaborative Cash Delivery (CCD) Network partnership. The 15 international non-governmental organisations operate in every crisis context...
2019
Evaluation of the 2017 Somalia Humanitarian Cash-Based Response
Report
After several years of poor rainfall, the humanitarian community responded to a famine alert issued in January 2017 with a significant scale-up of funding and programmes. Having originally published a 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) in November 2016, by May 2017, the Somalia Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) revised the HRP upwards to target 5.5 million people needing assistance. The UN,...
August 2018
Evidencing the Value for Money of the CCI’s Cash and Legal Programmes
Report
Value for Money (VfM) considerations are an increasingly common requisite in humanitarian programmes. The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) supports the adoption and scale-up of cash programming in humanitarian settings where appropriate, as both a more effective means for people to meet their basic needs in crisis, and a more cost-efficient modality than traditional forms...
2018
Cash alone is not enough: a smarter use of cash
Guidelines and Tools
Cash based interventions (CBIs) enable crisis affected people to make choices and prioritise their own needs. They also support markets critical to survival and recovery of communities. NRC is committed to increasing the use of cash across its programmes. Yet, cash based interventions are not a perfect stand-alone solution and will have to be used smartly and in combination...
2017
Enacting urban cash for work programmes in Lebanon in response to the Syrian refugee crisis
Guidelines and Tools
Humanitarian crises in cities require responses that reflect the urban context,address urban challenges, and provide urbanised solutions. This paper focuses on providing guidance on good practice in cash for work (CfW) programmes. Focusing on Lebanon and the Syrian refugee crisis, the paper provides nine principles for better programming outcomes. The principles include issues such as...
2017
Cash Transfers in Remote Emergency Programming
Guidelines and Tools
In emergencies with significant access challenges for humanitarian actors, the use of Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) has great potential to help provide life-saving support to the most vulnerable people. CTP may not require a heavy and consistent staff presence, is not subject to the same logistical barriers as in-kind assistance, and can often continue during peaks of disruption and...
August 2016
Rapid Assessment for Markets: Bidibidi Refugee Settlement
Report
The Rapid Assessment of Markets (RAM) conducted within the Bidibidi Refugee Settlement and in the surrounding Ugandan towns and trading centres sheds some light upon the rapidly developing network of marketplaces within one of the world’s fastest growing refugee settlements. The RAM highligthed key challenges and opportunities for cash-based interventions and supported decision-making...
2016
Determining the Value of Cash Grants in Remote Access Areas
Guidelines and Tools
This review aims to complement the work of NRC within the framework of the ECHO funded Remote Cash Project by providing a comparative analysis of different means of determining the size of cash grants, with the development of practical recommendations for approaches that can be used in hard to access areas. This report aims to highlight how the collective use of tools and approaches in...
2016
Supporting Dignified Choices ‘Paper Plus’ Cash Voucher Programming in Camps in Jordan
Report
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Jordan has directly assisted close to 400,000 vulnerable Syrian refugees in both formal camps and host communities since it began operations in November 2012. NRC is the lead partner of UNHCR in Zaatari and Azraq camps in providing refugees with shelter and the management and distribution of nonfood items (NFIs). In the second half of 2014 NRC began...
1 May 2015
Voices and Views of Beneficiaries on Unconditional Cash Transfers – Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal and the Philippines
Report
Providing cash in humanitarian emergencies is expanding and the topic is well under discussion within the humanitarian sector with topics ranging from high-level consideration of cash as a tool to transform humanitarian aid, the significance of cash as a way to support beneficiary choice and dignity while stimulating livelihoods and economic recovery, and the retooling of aspects of the...
2015
The Impact of Cash Transfer Programmes on Protection Outcomes in Afghanistan
Report
Although cash-based interventions (CBIs) are increasingly used to deliver humanitarian assistance in support of more traditional in-kind emergency distributions, there is now a growing, global acceptance among stakeholders of the need to pay closer attention to the positive and negative impact of CBIs on key protection components. The aim of the study is to identify the effects and impact of...
2015
Transcript: Market Analysis for Urban Humanitarian Response
Presentation
This is the transcript for ALNAP’s 12th urban webinar. The recording can be viewed here. This webinar focused on how market analysis can support effective urban humanitarian response. Alexandre Gachoud from Oxfam, Laura Phelps from NRC and independent consultant Emmeline Saint shared their experiences of doing market analysis and understanding in urban response.
2015
Cash Learning Partnership
Guidelines and Tools
The CALP Network aims to ensure that, by the end of 2015, timely humanitarian response will routinely consider appropriate and accountable
cash transfer programmes at scale.
2015
Remittances to Syria: What works, where and how
Report
This study sought to understand remittance flows into Syria, and established that various Informal Value Transfer Systems (IVTS) are used, to the exclusion of the formal banking sector. Registered and unregistered hawala, courier services and family connections are used. Remittances have played an increasingly important role in Syrians’ household income in the last ten years, although the...
2015
Community Baseline: A Survey On Resilience In South Central Somalia
Report
A comprehensive understanding of the socio-economic and environmental context of intervention is essential to the success of any resilience-building program. Based on this premise, the BRCiS has taken a series of steps to strengthen its knowledge and understanding of key variables and dynamics in its areas of operations in Somalia. The community baseline here presented is an integral part of...
2014
Community Baseline: A Survey On Resilience In South Central Somalia Summary
Report
A comprehensive understanding of the socio-economic and environmental context of intervention is essential to the success of any resilience-building program. Based on this premise, the BRCiS has taken a series of steps to strengthen its knowledge and understanding of key variables and dynamics in its areas of operations in Somalia. The community baseline here presented is an integral part of...
2014
The CALP Network Level 2 Training – Module 2 – When to use cash transfers?
Guidelines and Tools
The objective of the Level 2 training is to strengthen the capacity of humanitarian actors in cash transfer programme design and implementation, to share recent research and learning, and encourage advocacy, institutionalisation and coordination in cash transfer programming (CTP). This training follows the project cycle and addresses the challenges and tools to be put in place at each step of...
2014
The CALP Network Level 2 Training – Module 1 – An Introduction to CTP
Guidelines and Tools
The objective of the Level 2 training is to strengthen the capacity of humanitarian actors in cash transfer programme design and implementation, to share recent research and learning, and encourage advocacy, institutionalisation and coordination in cash transfer programming (CTP). This training follows the project cycle and addresses the challenges and tools to be put in place at each step of...
2014
The CALP Network Level 2 Training – Module 3 – Selecting, designing and implementing CTPs
Guidelines and Tools
The objective of the Level 2 training is to strengthen the capacity of humanitarian actors in cash transfer programme design and implementation, to share recent research and learning, and encourage advocacy, institutionalisation and coordination in cash transfer programming (CTP). This training follows the project cycle and addresses the challenges and tools to be put in place at each step of...
2014
NRC – EMMA on Credit, Rental and Water Market Systems, Urban Goma, DRC, Nov 2014 – Executive Summary
Report
Hundreds of thousands of people are continuously forced to flee violence in eastern DRC due to armed groups attacks and inter-ethnic conflict. In the Kivus, the majority of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) have been in a state of protracted and repeated displacement for many years. Urban IDP populations are unknown, but believed to be large, and the saturation of camps and sites around...
2014
DRC Cash and Vouchers Food Security Evaluation (2014)
Report
People in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have long faced protracted conflict and instability resulting in the displacement of populations. In order to provide households affected by new displacements with timely access to food, ECHO funded the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC)...
2014
Global Learning Event: Coordination of Cash Transfer Programming in Emergencies
Report
The CALP Network convened a learning event, hosted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society on 27th November 2012, to explore the issue of the coordination of cash
transfers in emergencies. The meeting provided a platform for dialogue with actors from the UN system, NGOs, donors and other stakeholders.
27 November 2012
The CALP Network 4th Global Learning Event: Global innovations and lessons learned from response in South and South-East Asia (Final report)
Report
The 4th CALP Network Global Learning Event was held in Bangkok, Thailand on the 16th and 17th February 2011, hosted by the CALP Network in partnership with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). This inter-agency event was designed to present the latest thinking and evidence-based research in cash transfer and voucher programming (CTP) as well as to...
February 2011
Support to IDP Education and Pupils Transition from ABE to Formal School in Puntland
Report
This report discusses the findings and recommendations from the final evaluation of a pilot project that aimed at: (i) enabling 1,000 displaced and other vulnerable children in IDP settlements around Bossaso, Puntland, to access quality primary education and (ii) improving the learning environment in 10 partner schools. The evaluation focused on assessing the effectiveness of providing...
2011
Cash Delivery Service Providers in Zimbabwe
Report
Over the past few years Zimbabwe has witnessed a significant increase in the use of cash transfers within policies and programs providing humanitarian aid. This has resulted is an increasing desire on the part of humanitarian agencies to partner with private sector financial service providers in the delivery of cash to the beneficiaries within relief and recovery programs. In order to...
2011
The Impact of Cash Transfers on Local Markets: A Case Study of Unstructured Markets in Northern Uganda
Case Study
This report explores the effects of cash transfers on local markets. It tests the hypothesis that ‘cash transfers to poor households lead to integration of markets in remote areas and strengthen existing well-integrated market systems’. To test the hypothesis, a case study was conducted in Northern Uganda to assess the effect of cash transfers on unstructured markets. The case study is...
April 2010
Delivering money: Cash transfer mechanisms in emergencies
Report
This report documents lessons learned in cash transfer programming in emergencies, with a particular focus on the practicalities of how to deliver money to beneficiaries. It provides guidance for project managers needing to make choices about how to efficiently and effectively deliver cash, and explores the many different delivery mechanisms available, including newer approaches such as mobile...
2010