Middle East and North Africa
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Feasibility of Achieving Resilience by Linking Vulnerable Populations Receiving Humanitarian CVA to Development and Social Protection
Report
This report evaluates the capacities for establishing linkages between humanitarian CVA and state-led social protection in Iraq, Libya and Yemen.
Rapid Reflection on the Scale up of Cash Coordination- Türkiye/ Syria Earthquakes
Report
This rapid reflection piece looks at how cash coordination structures scaled up at the onset of the Türkiye/ Syria Earthquakes in February 2023. The short reports look at implications and good practices implemented by cash working groups in Türkiye, North West Syria, and Government-controlled areas of Syria; where they can also be relevant learning for other crises.
Locally-Led Responses to Cash and Voucher Assistance in the Middle East and North Africa: Barriers, progress and opportunities
Case Study
This research highlights moments of tension between the reported commitment of the humanitarian sector towards localization and the actual steps implemented to advance locally-led CVA. Subsequently, recommendations emphasize the responsibilities of the sector in order to expand locally-led approaches in an inclusive and practical way.
Investigating Operational Models for Multi-purpose Cash Delivery and Links to Social Protection: Spotlight on the Middle East and North Africa
Report
This piece of research looked at six case studies in the MENA region where CVA is being delivered at scale. It looked at the characteristics of the operational models of delivering multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA), and how that enables (or not) links with existing national social protection systems. The research found that there’s no one model that enables links between humanitarian MPCA...
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...
Multi-purpose cash assistance for Lebanese – Inter-agency Joint Learning Event Learning Brief
Case Study
On June 27th 2023, Mercy Corps co-organized with Acted, Concern and Oxfam a learning event on the implementation of Multipurpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) interventions for Lebanese. While the MPCA modality has been initiated and designed around the assistance to refugees, the provision of unconditional cash assistance for Lebanese is a recent development in the country. This requires an...
Cash for Rent Guidelines for Yemen
Guidelines and Tools
Since the start of a civil conflict in Yemen in March 2015, the country has remained in a state of emergency. Ongoing fighting and military activities have made it challenging for humanitarian workers to reach affected populations and meet their basic needs, such as food, water, and shelter. Displaced persons often live with relatives, friends, or in collective shelters that offer inadequate...
An Integrated Approach to Menstrual Hygiene Management: Awareness sessions and cash assistance for women and girls affected by crisis in Lebanon
Case Study
In 2022, UNFPA Lebanon worked with local partners to launch an integrated cash and awareness for menstrual hygiene management (MHM) initiative as a way to tackle the growing issue of period poverty amidst the country’s economic crisis. Through the pilot, over 2,600 vulnerable women and girls of reproductive age received cash assistance intended to cover the purchase of monthly menstrual...
UNFPA’s approach to CVA in the Arab region and Türkiye
Policy paper
UNFPA experience in different humanitarian contexts has shown that cash and voucher assistance (CVA) is a powerful instrument that can save lives, alleviate risks, and help women and girls escape abusive environments. By giving women and girls greater access to vital services and empowering them with the freedom to choose, UNFPA has found that CVA can directly contribute to the realisation of...
Conflict sensitive cash assistance in Lebanon: Conflict sensitivity toolbox 1
Guidelines and Tools
The Conflict Sensitivity Toolbox series is produced under UNDP Lebanon’s Tension Monitoring System. The toolbox forms part of the conflict sensitivity mainstreaming work under the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP) and has been produced in collaboration with House of Peace. In 2021, three Lebanon-specific guidance notes were developed to provide partners with practical tips for getting...
Survival minimum expenditure basket, minimum expenditure basket, gap analysis and transfer values for cash programming
Case Study
The CWG in Iraq has updated the SMEB and has designed a new MEB and gap analysis to inform the transfer values for cash programming in 2023. This document is a technical note with the summary of the values and the methodology.
With the coordination and technical support of CashCap and the Data analysis of REACH-Initiative.
Integrating Cash Assistance into Gender-Based Violence Case Management to Support GBV Survivors and Individuals at Risk in Jordan
Case Study
With support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) and CARE are leading an initiative on behalf of the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) Task Team on Cash for Protection (TTC4P) to expand access among field-level
practitioners to the requisite knowledge, skills, guidance, and tools to integrate cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and...
Integrating Cash Assistance into Gender-based Violence Case Management to Support GBV Survivors and Individuals at Risk in Jordan Snapshot
Case Study
Jordan is home to the second largest refugee population per capita in the world. The country’s population of 10,571,602 includes more than 760,000 refugees registered with the UN refugee agency. More than 80 percent live in urban areas rather than in refugee camps.
A recent assessment by CARE Jordan found that the lack of income opportunities, COVID-19, and community conflict were the most...
Integrating Cash Assistance into Gender-based Violence Case Management: Learnings from Colombia, Ecuador, and Northwest Syria
Case Study
In 2020-2022, WRC partnered with CARE in three locations, Ecuador, Colombia and Syria, to better understand the use of CVA in GBV case management. In Guayaquil, Ecuador, WRC and CARE worked with
three Ecuadorian organizations to strengthen the capacity of GBV service providers to use CVA within case management in response to intimate partner violence for migrant, refugee, and local...
Leaving No One Behind: Evidence from Lebanon on How Multi-purpose Cash Beneficiaries with Different Vulnerability Profiles Spend Income and Access Services
Case Study
This study aims to generate a more in-depth and nuanced understanding of the impact of MPC assistance on Syrian refugee households with different vulnerability profiles, and explores how complementary interventions can support severely vulnerable households to meet their basic needs and address issues beyond the reach of cash. Generating evidence on this topic will support WFP, donors, and...
Transitioning out of Humanitarian Cash Assistance in Iraq: Critical Actions to Ensure Gender-based Violence Risks are Mitigated and Prevented throughout the Transition
Case Study
In light of ongoing efforts to transition away from humanitarian Cash assistance in Iraq, a two-day workshop took place in Erbil on June 22 which gathered more than 32 gender-based violence (GBV) and cash and voucher assistance (CVA) actors with the goal of identifying priorities for the transition period related to GBV mainstreaming in humanitarian Cash and Social Protection assistance. This...
From Risk to Choice: Cash within GBV Case Management in Jordan
Case Study
In 2021, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Jordan piloted the integration of cash assistance within gender-based violence (GBV) programming. The pilot targeted GBV survivors and women at risk of GBV – including Jordanians, Syrian refugees and refugees of other nationalities – within the framework of GBV case management. Two modalities were used: one-off Emergency Cash...
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Stepping up CVA with COVID-19: Paving the way we respond to future crisis
Report
COVID-19 has thrown the world into lockdown and taken a tremendous toll on the health, social, and economic status of vulnerable communities, households, and individuals. Limitations on daily activities and an over-arching health crisis, restrictions on movement, closures of schools and businesses have...
Gaza Multi-Purpose Cash Programme: Endline Evaluation
Report
This report presents the key findings of the pilot Gaza Multi-Purpose Cash Program (GMPC) implemented by Mercy Corps Palestine in the Gaza Strip during 2019-20. The aim of the programme was to allow 1,227 poor and food insecure households to meet their varied basic needs, by delivering three cash...
Use of Foreign Currency for Designing of Assistance Packages in Yemen_Fina
Guidelines and Tools
The Yemeni Rial (YER) during the course of 2020 has shown high levels of volatility in its value against foreign currencies, in particular, the United States Dollar (USD). As program budgets are calculated in USD or EUROs, but cash transfers are made in YER, the reduction in the value of the YER against...
Multi-purpose Cash Transfers and Health Among Vulnerable Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
Report
This briefing sheet summarizes findings from a research study conducted from May 2018 through July 2019 to evaluate the impact of MPC on health care-seeking and expenditures by Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The study compared approximately 173 households receiving multipurpose cash transfers (MPC) from...
Multi-purpose Cash Transfers and Health among Vulnerable Syrian Refugees in Jordan
Report
This briefing sheet summarises findings from a research study conducted from May 2018 through July 2019 to evaluate the impact of MPC on healthcare-seeking and expenditures by Syrian refugees in Jordan. The study compared approximately 429 households receiving multi-purpose cash transfers (MPC) from UNHCR...
Linking CVA and Social Protection in the MENA Region – Crib sheet
Report
Building linkages between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP) has become an increasingly prominent topic over the past five years and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been at the centre of this evolution. The objective of this resource set (the...
Linking CVA and Social Protection in the MENA Region – Lebanon Case Study
Report
Building linkages between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP) has become an increasingly prominent topic over the past five years and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been at the centre of this evolution. The objective of this resource set (the...
Linking CVA and Social Protection in the MENA Region – Iraq Case Study
Report
Building linkages between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP) has become an increasingly prominent topic over the past five years and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been at the centre of this evolution. The objective of this resource set (the...
Linking CVA and Social Protection in the MENA Region – Yemen Case Study
Case Study
Building linkages between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP) has become an increasingly prominent topic over the past five years and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been at the centre of this evolution. The objective of this resource set (the...
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...
Analysis of key value chains (wheat and wool), with a special focus on the light manufacturing sector in Mosul
Report
DRC has commissioned this study with the end objective of providing access to market opportunities for privately-owned small and medium enterprises and job opportunities for conflict-affected men, women and youth. For that purpose, DRC has taken a marketsystem and value-chain approach to development and...
COVID-19 impacts on Prices and Markets in Iraq
Report
The COVID-19 crisis in Iraq has caused severe economic disruptions in Iraq that will affect vulnerable households the most. The Cash Consortium for Iraq (CCI) has two streams of ongoing data collection on prices and markets, monitoring the retailer and the consumer perspective across five governorates....
Presentation for the CALP Network’s webinar on remote registration and verification in the COVID-19 response
Presentation
Watch the webinar recording here Speaker presentations from the CALP Network’s 14 July 2020 webinar on: Peril or pitfalls?: Emerging practices on remote registration and verification in the COVID-19 response Remote CVA programming has been highlighted as a key challenge for the community of practice in...
Currency in Crisis: Ways forward for GOAL Cash and Voucher Assistance in North-West Syria
Report
Currency depreciation and price inflation are two of the main factors that influence Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) programming in North-West Syria. Between August 2019 and July 2020, the Syrian Pound (SYP) has dropped 161% against the US Dollar (USD), and the current trend of rapid depreciation in the...
Currency in Crisis: Ways forward for GOAL Cash and Voucher Assistance in North-West Syria
Report
FULL STUDY VERSION Currency depreciation and price inflation are two of the main factors that influence Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) programming in North-West Syria. Between August 2019 and July 2020, the Syrian Pound (SYP) has dropped 161% against the US Dollar (USD), and the current trend of rapid...
Social Protection Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in the MENA/ Arab States Region
Policy paper
This paper reflects on an ongoing initiative of the Regional UN Issue-Based Coalition on Social Protection (IBC-SP). The Group, co-chaired by ILO and UNICEF, was established in June 2020, bringing forward the activities started under the previous Regional UNDG group. The IBC-SP gathers regional experts...
Cash and Voucher Assistance Case Studies – Yemen and Afghanistan
Report
Evidence and feasibility of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) for sexual and reproductive health services in humanitarian emergencies. There is limited evidence about the effectiveness and feasibility of CVA, and about its overall effect on SRHR outcomes, particularly in humanitarian settings. Therefore,...
Collaborative Cash Delivery Network – Grand Bargain – Collaboration Agreement Accomplishments 2020
Report
The Collaborative Cash Delivery (CCD) Network is pleased to present its achievements against the commitments made by our global members’ CEOs at the 2019 Grand Bargain Summit as part of our global collaboration agreement. We know we are better together, and in this time of increasing pressure on the...
Returns from Iran and Pakistan Funding Needs
Report
As of 23 June 2018, 348,506 undocumented Afghan returnees have crossed back into Afghanistan from Iran. The months of April and May have witnessed an average of 20,000 returns each week. The total represents a 50% increase of returns over the same period in 2017. The larger return is associated with a...
The Impact of The COVID-19 Development on Beneficiaries of Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) Program
Report
As of 19 April 2020, the Ministry of Health reported more than 86,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases with almost 2,000 deaths in Turkey. The Government of Turkey has introduced a series of containment
measures, including closing of schools, shopping malls and businesses; a curfew for individuals above 65 or...
