Americas
The CALP Network provides capacity building, technical and coordination support to strengthen the community of practice in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. The CALP Network team working in the Americas are based in Washington, D.C. and Colombia.
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Featured Content
In Progress: A Review of Forms of Coordination Between Cash Working Groups and Social Protection Systems in the Americas
Report
This report provides a mapping of the initiatives and scope of coordination efforts aimed at linking humanitarian CVA with social protection in each country in the Americas that has a CWG or maintains similar coordination spaces.
People are on the move: Can the world of CVA keep up? Analysis of the use of CVA in the context of human mobility in the Americas
Report
This study proposes a new vision for the implementation of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) in contexts of human mobility in the Americas region.
Cash & Voucher Assistance Within Social Protection Preparedness in Central America, Mexico, and The Dominican Republic
Report
This report:
• Explores how humanitarian CVA adds value to and strengthens Social Protection programs while contributing to disaster preparedness in Mexico, Central America, and the Dominican Republic.
• Draws out real examples of best practice through two case studies from Honduras and the Dominican Republic.
• Maps humanitarian CVA and how it is linked to and used in Social Protection...
Honduras Case Study
Report
Bono Único - Deepening Preparedness In Social Protection Programs Using Cash and Voucher Assistance for Future Emergency Assistance
Dominican Republic Case Study
Case Study
Using Humanitarian Cash and Voucher Assistance Within Existing Social Protection Programs to Respond to the Covid-19 Pandemic
Microlearning video: CVA and Gender
Blog Post
This video provides an overview of the relationship between gender and cash and voucher assistance (CVA) structured around the humanitarian project cycle, which include: Assessment and response analysis: How to adjust the assessment processes to achieve a more accurate reflection of gender and markets. Design and implementation: How to use methods and protocols to reduce the potential...
The Provision of Cash and Voucher Assistance in the Response to the Venezuela Refugee and Migrant Crisis: Findings and lessons learned, Executive summary
Report
This study, for which data was compiled between March and April 2020, seeks to document lessons and good practices in the delivery of CVA in Ecuador and Colombia by humanitarian organisations and governments, in response to migrants and refugees from Venezuela. The purpose of this analysis is to catalyse the knowledge generated to date with an aim to improve current and future...
CVA in the Caribbean: Evidence Matrix
Guidelines and Tools
This spreadsheet, a supplementary resource to the Winds of Change: Lessons and Recommendations on the Use of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) for the Caribbean Atlantic Hurricane Season, provides an overview of studies on the use of CVA in the Caribbean between 2008 – 2019. The list is not comprehensive of all available publications, so if you note anything missing, we kindly request you to...
Mapping a Route-Based Approach to CVA: Feasibility in select contexts in the Americas
Report
This research looks at the feasibility of a route-based approach to CVA in the Americas, presenting its potential through three perspectives: people on the move, humanitarian organizations, and financial service providers (FSP).
Winds of Change: Lessons and Recommendations on the Use of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) for the Caribbean Atlantic Hurricane Season
Report
Evidence Matrix This briefing note has been commissioned by the the CALP Network in order to compile evidence on good practice and lessons learned to generate recommendations for humanitarian practitioners and other actors to take into consideration when designing cash and voucher assistance (CVA) in the Caribbean region. This briefing note is based on findings from 12 key informant (KI)...
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Cash, Food, or Vouchers? Evidence from a randomized experiment in Northern Ecuador
Report
The debate over whether to provide food assistance and the form that this assistance should take has a long history in economics. Despite the ongoing debate, little rigorous evidence exists that compares food assistance in the form of cash versus in-kind. This paper uses a randomized evaluation in...
How Effective are Cash Transfer Programmes at Improving Nutritional Status?
Report
Cash transfer programmes are a widely applied social protection scheme that has achieved successes in fighting poverty worldwide. A large literature has sprung up around these programmes, yet the relationship between cash transfer programmes and the nutritional status of recipient children is unclear. Can...
Oxfam GB Emergency Food Security and Livelihoods Urban Programme Evaluation
Report
The global urban population is now larger than the rural population. While rural areas in general remain worse off than urban areas, the number of people in urban poverty is growing fast, and urban dwellers are vulnerable to significant disasters. Development and humanitarian agencies are therefore...
Humanitarian Exchange: Special feature. New learning in cash transfer programming
Report
The special feature of this issue of Humanitarian Exchange, co-edited with Sarah Bailey and Breanna Ridsdel, focuses on new learning in cash transfer programming. While cash is now an accepted tool, and is increasingly being used in humanitarian response, most programmes are small and gaps in analysis and...
Review of emergency cash coordination mechanisms in the Horn of Africa: Kenya and Somalia
Report
In response to the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa in 2011, cash transfer programming (CTP) has been used extensively as a modality to meet humanitarian needs. Partly because the conditions permitted it (functioning markets, cash economies and delivery mechanisms), and partly because delivering...
Review of Cash-transfer Coordination in Haiti following the Earthquake of January 2010
Case Study
This study, commissioned by the CALP Network, aims to review and document the coordination of cash transfer programmes (CTP) implemented from the emergency phase in Haiti. It is part of a wider review of CTP coordination in emergency situations which includes three case studies (Pakistan, Haiti and the...
Meta-Evaluation of ACF Fresh Food Voucher Programmes
Report
ACF commissioned a meta-evaluation of 5 of its fresh food voucher programmes implemented between 2009-2011 during emergencies in Bolivia, Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya, Haiti, Pakistan and the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT). The programmes were all paper cash-vouchers exchanged for fresh foods in...
Cash and Shelter: A Workshop on Using Cash Transfer Programming for Emergency and Early Recovery Shelter
Presentation
A power point presentation to provide guidance to programme managers, programme implementers and programme support staff when selecting cash as a potential response tool in emergency shelter programmes.
ACF Meta Evaluation: Fresh Food Vouchers (poster)
Report
This one-page poster shows a summary of the meta evaluation of 5 Fresh Food Voucher programmes in Bolivia, Haiti, Daadab Kenya, the oPT and Pakistan.
E-payments in Emergency Cash Transfer Programming
Guidelines and Tools
This 2-pager summarises some of the main features, benefits and challenges of 4 different electronic payment methods that can be used to deliver cash transfers in an emergency: pre-paid cards, smart cards, mobile money and mobile vouchers. It is drawn from the CALP Network research on New Technologies in...
Social Cash Transfers and Financial Inclusion: Evidence from four countries
Report
This focus note from CGAP looks at social cash transfers and how this is being used to improve financial inclusion. To do so they look at examples from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and South Africa. The focus note compares the various payment approaches, how these interlink with the respective government...
Comparative Study of Emergency Cash Coordination Mechanisms
Report
Based principally on three cases studies (Pakistan, Haiti, and the Horn of Africa), the objective of this comparative study is to draw on lessons learnt for better coordination of cash transfer programmes (CTP) in future emergencies. This study has been commissioned by the CALP Network and conducted by...
Helping Families, Closing Camps: Using rental support cash grants and other housing solutions to end displacement in camps
Guidelines and Tools
Rental Support Cash Grants have enabled over 14,000 families to move from Haiti’s displacement camps into safe housing. Since October 2010, ten months after the January 12th earthquake, these grants of $500 US Dollars covering one year of rent have proven to be a fast, effective and relatively...
An Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis study Changing Responses to the Haiti Earthquake
Report
Good practice standards guidelines and evaluations all emphasise the importance of including markets in emergency situation and response analysis. While this approach has become more widely accepted by international organisations in recent years, in practice it is clear that support is still needed to...
Haiti – Unconditional Cash Transfers: Lessons Learnt
Report
The challenges of responding to the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti were huge and varied, prompting agencies to think and act creatively. Christian Aid’s partners were at the forefront of the humanitarian response, distributing cash to people affected by the disaster two weeks after the earthquake...
Impact Evaluation of Cash, Food Vouchers, and Food Transfers among Colombian Refugees and Poor Ecuadorians in Carchi and Sucumbíos
Report
This report is the final impact evaluation of the World Food Programme’s Food, Cash, and Voucher intervention and contains analysis on outcomes including food security, social capital, anemia, and gender issues. Due to the targeting of Colombian refuges and poor Ecuadorians in Northern Ecuador, it also...
Evaluation Report Fresh Food Voucher – ACF Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Case Study
This report presents and discusses the results of a pilot study to deliver vouchers, which can be exchanged for fresh foods, to indigenous communities in rural areas of the Bolivian Chaco. This intervention is meant as an emergency measure as a result of the prolonged drought that had endangered the food...
Cash transfers: Evidence paper
Report
This DFID evidence paper provides a synthesis of current global evidence on the impact of cash transfers in developing countries in achieving a range of social and economic policy objectives. It examines design and implementation choices for tailoring programmes to particular objectives, notably social...
Red Card: Repair and Development in Chile: the CALP Network Newsletter Supplement, July 2011
Report
This article is a supplement to the Cash Learning Bulletin of July 2011. The article describes how the IFRC used prepaid debit cards to enable earthquake-affected families in Chile to purchase shelter materials.
CCT Programmes and Women’s Empowerment in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador
Report
Latin America’s efforts to alleviate poverty have resulted in reducing poverty in twelve countries, most strikingly in Mexico and Brazil. The adoption of Cash Transfer programmes in much of the region is credited with helping to bring this reduction about. These programmes are widely promoted as a cost...