West and Central Africa
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Why you need a plan A, B and C: Using cash in hard-to-reach contexts
Blog Post
Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) can be a valuable response choice in hard-to-reach areas, but it must be properly adapted to context with sufficient investment given to preparedness. Mirko Tommasi explains how preparing multiple plans, being flexible and ready to change plans fast and frequently is crucial for success in challenging contexts.
CVA for people on the move: Time for a new vision?
Webinar recording
This event presented the main findings of our recently released study 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. Additionally, invited guests discussed key issues on facing the topic of human mobility and CVA and answered questions from the audience. The event included two videos’ interventions: one...
Changes to US and UN economic sanctions may simplify CVA implementation
Blog Post
Recent changes to the UN and US economic sanctions regimes promise to improve cash transfer process across international borders, but changes might not be as quick or comprehensive as we would hope. We put eight questions to Rory Crew, who has looked into the matter for you.
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Payment Mechanisms and Anti-Poverty Programs: Evidence from a Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger
Report
Cash transfers have become an increasingly important component of social protection policies in both developed and developing countries. While such programs are often implemented electronically in developed countries, in many developing countries with weak financial infrastructure, such transfers are...
Preventing Acute Malnutrition Among Young Children in Crises: A prospective intervention study in Niger
Report
Governments and donor agencies need to know which preventative strategy is most effective, particularly among children under 2 years old who are most vulnerable to acute malnutrition. Here, the researchers compare the effectiveness of seven preventative strategies—including the distribution of...
Cash Transfers and Resilience: Strengthening Linkages Between Emergency Cash Transfers and National Social Transfer Programmes in the Sahel – Discussion Paper
Report
This discussion paper has been inspired by the exchanges that took place during the course of the learning event. It seeks to extend the discussion to include other actors working within the region, as well as in other regions confronted with the same questions. It proposes an initial approach to the...
Case Study: Preparing to Implement Relief Cash Transfer Programming at Scale
Case Study
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) worked with four pilot countries namely the Philippine Red Cross, the Vietnam Red Cross Society, the Senegalese Red Cross Society and the Chilean Red Cross, between May 2012 and December 2013 to support them with training and...
CTP factsheet – Senegalese Red Cross – cash transfer preparedness pilots
Report
The IFRC worked with four pilot countries between May 2012 and December 2013 to enable the National Societies to use cash transfer programming to address relief needs at scale, implementing it more rapidly and targeting a larger number of households. The Senegalese Red Cross was one of the four...
Cash transfers in Niger: The manna, the norms and the suspicions
Report
Cash transfers (CT) are a particularly fascinating case for the social anthropology of development and, more generally, for research on development, for three reasons: (a) because they are going through a period of considerable expansion, both in the intermediary countries and in the poorest countries,...
Examining Protection and Gender in Cash and Voucher Transfers
Case Study
With cash and voucher transfers increasing as a form of humanitarian assistance, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) teamed up to study the potential protection and gender impact of such transfers. While much research had been done about economic and market impacts of cash and...
CRS’ Emergency Flooding Response in Benin
Report
In response to flash flooding in northern Benin and widespread flooding in the southern departments of the country, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) organised 4 “humanitarian fairs” to meet the immediate needs of households most seriously affected. These fairs were unique in that they incorporated three...
Cash Preparedness in Senegal: Cash Transfer Mechanisms
Report
Recognizing the growing importance of cash-based responses in humanitarian interventions and building on its own experience of implementing cash transfer programs through local partner organizations in Senegal in 2010 and 2012, Oxfam America sought to hire a consultant to determine the most feasible...
Cash or Coupons? Testing the impacts of cash transfers versus vouchers in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Report
Despite the increased use of conditional and unconditional cash-transfer programs worldwide, a majority of social protection programs in both developed and developing countries use in-kind transfers and vouchers. This paper reports the results of a randomized evaluation of an unconditional cash transfer...
Enhancing WFP’s Capacity and Experience to Design, Implement, Monitor, and Evaluate Vouchers and Cash Transfer Programmes: Study summary
Report
With support from the Government of Spain, and in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) evaluated four pilot projects to assess the comparative performance of cash transfers, food payments, and vouchers on household food...
Evaluation of Concern Worldwide’s Emergency Response in Masisi, North Kivu, DRC (2012-2013)
Report
Populations in eastern DRC have faced serious humanitarian consequences resulting from years of conflict and instability. In Masisi territory in the province of North Kivu, Concern Worldwide has provided emergency assistance since 2008 in order to respond to humanitarian needs created by cycles of...
The Crisis in the Sahel – Special Feature
Report
The special feature of this issue of Humanitarian Exchange focuses on the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel region of Africa, where aid agencies estimate that more than 18 million people are affected by food insecurity. In response to this crisis, cash and vouchers programming has been largely used. 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...
Impacts of Food Vouchers on Local Markets: Reflections from CRS’ experience in Niger
Report
In mid 2010, CRS-Niger designed and carried out a food voucher program to assist the most needy one-third of households in the departments of Ouallam and Tillabéri due to the poor harvest in 2009 (CRS, 2010). The ADVANCE project was implemented in collaboration with a local NGO partner Association pour...
An Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis Study Liberia’s Slow Onset Crisis
Report
In 2010, contested elections in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire, and the violence that ensued, forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. As of 7th of July 2011, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had counted a total of 153,000 refugees crossing the border into Liberia....
Cash and Child Protection: How cash transfer programming can protect children from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence
Guidelines and Tools
This discussion paper examines the links between cash transfers and the positive and negative outcomes for children – in particular, the role cash transfers have played in protecting children from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. It aims to identify ways in which cash transfer activities could...
Child Protection Rapid Assessment Toolkit
Guidelines and Tools
The CPRA Toolkit provides all the information you need to conduct a CPRA over a five-week timeframe. The toolkit is divided into three parts: Part 1: a guide to CPRA provides an action plan with 6 key phases, giving guidance for tasks in each phase. Part 2: sample tools provides five key tools for...
Examining Differences in the Effectiveness and Impacts of Vouchers and Unconditional Cash Transfers
Report
The objective of this study is to examine the differences in the effectiveness and impacts of vouchers versus unconditional cash transfers in the Bushani camp of the Masisi territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo. As part of this research, the study team collected household data from over...
FAO Policy on Cash-Based Transfers
Report
This document articulates FAO’s roles with respect to supporting and implementing CTs linked to agriculture and food security in line with the Organization’s mandate and comparative advantages. It is based on FAO’s experience and expertise in supporting CT programming and details various CT...