What’s really happening with CVA in the Americas: changing the narrative

Is there humanitarian CVA in the Americas?

The stories we tell are sometimes more powerful than what the evidence shows us. In humanitarian spaces, narratives can mobilize resources and change how we support people in need. But what if the prevailing account of events is not what is really happening?   

Looking at the narrative on humanitarian CVA in the Americas, you might think that not much is happening in the region. Rarely is a CVA actor from Latin America or the Caribbean on a global panel and global CVA studies seldom mention an experience from the region. Yet we know that the actors have implemented humanitarian CVA in the Americas for over a decade. There are documented examples from Haiti in 2010, Bolivia in 2011 and Guatemala in 2013. Why is the prevailing narrative that there is nothing to look at in the Americas?   

Looking for CVA evidence from the Americas

Since 2018, there has been a shift in humanitarian CVA in the Americas. Political and social crises, dramatic shifts in human mobility, from the crisis in Venezuela, and climatic disasters, such as Hurricane Dorian and Tropical Storms Eta and Iota, significantly affected millions of lives across the region. And like the rest of the world, the Americas was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic that increased the economic volatility in the region. With those crises, we were sure that humanitarian CVA was rising in the Americas. But what evidence did we have? To understand, we commissioned a study, We Looked Back: Now Let’s Move Forward. The study sought to find the progress that was made with humanitarian CVA in the region amid all these crises.     

What are some of the things that the study showed us?     

• Humanitarian CVA increased: Funding of CVA programmes increased by 129% between 2018 and 2023. 

• There is CVA evidence from throughout the region: There are over 200 documented examples from 20 contexts.   

• CVA was used in many ways: In sudden onset crises, climatic disasters, protracted crises and for different sector outcomes. 

• There is innovation in CVA in the Americas: Themes like the use of CVA in gender–based violence response, human mobility, linkages to social protection systems and rental

Where is the evidence? 

Truth be told, there is a lot of evidence on humanitarian CVA in the Americas. But we found some gaps. With the evidence in hand, we began to ask questions. We asked:   

• Where and from whom is the evidence? The bulk of the evidence was from the most well-funded crises in the region and overwhelmingly from UN agencies, technical working groups or coordination bodies. Less than 2% was produced by local or national NGOs and 4% by governmental institutions. The Americas is a region with a long history of social protection with CVA and has vibrant civil society engagement. So, where is the evidence from these types of agencies and organizations?  

• What about risk and security management? Latin America is one of the most violent regions in the worldwith high rates of criminal gang activity, homicides and drug trafficking. However, there was almost no evidence specifically on risk and security management in relation to CVA. No doubt organizations are considering these challenges in their work, but where is the documented learning?  

• Whose experiences were documented?The evidence about working with people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ communities, older people and ethnic minorities was minimal. Often, these are the most vulnerable groups. Why are we not seeing their experiences or evidence on programming, especially for them?

Even though we saw these gaps in the evidence review, we knew that learning on those topics was happening. We asked ourselves, if it is not written, does it not exist?    

We asked participants this question at the ground-truthing workshop, which was fed into the review. We wanted to know what the network needs and want to make sure we align CALP’s work to those needs.

Workshop participants told us:  

1. Formal publications play a vital role and bottom-up knowledge creation is equally important.    
2. There is significant unpublished content on CVA from the region, but that evidence does not reach a wider audience.  
3. The evidence is shared in smaller, closed learning spaces which offer intimacy and safety for discussing sensitive issues.  
4. Workshop participants felt that undocumented learning still held value and embraced a shift towards prioritizing practical knowledge over academic studies.   

Learning to learn better with CVA actors in the Americas 

We challenged a narrative that we hoped was not true. And we were correct. There is a wealth of evidence of various experiences on humanitarian CVA throughout the Americas.  

We hope the humanitarian community outside the region will notice and bring actors in the Americas into global conversations.   

And in the process of this work, we found that we need to learn better together. 

First, we saw that more and different learning is needed in the region. Actors in the Americas told us they want to learn about CVA differently and from other contexts—not just the best-funded, largest ones. We need to understand the experiences of different types of populations. We also need to understand better and manage risks for CVA as the Americas is complex and, in many places, insecure for aid staff and CVA recipients.   

Second, we saw how evidence is generated matters.  A well-researched study is not always the answer. We all face difficult budget scenarios in the coming year; any organization’s budget may not stretch to include high-level research. However, we can design learning opportunities that cost little more than our time, such as exchanges between Cash Working Groups, informal topical discussions online or in person, or micro-case studies. This approach is also more inclusive for local and national organizations with smaller budgets. This way we can all start to change the narratives we tell and how we work in general.   

At CALP we aspire to convene, guide, influence and inspire actors on humanitarian CVA. We can only do this by making sure the stories we tell are grounded in evidence – the evidence of all actors – and by ensuring the evidence is heard and acted upon by all. In the Americas, we will continue in that direction. 

 

Main image: Cash professionals from Ecuador participate in a workshop organized by REACH and CALP. ©REACH/2024.