CVA and GBV webinar series for gender and cash subworkstream 2020
Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) is now a common tool in humanitarian action used to meet the diverse needs of those displaced by crisis and conflict, and it is on the rise. Despite a push by several humanitarian actors since 2015, its use for protection outcomes – including to support the prevention of and response to gender-based violence (GBV) – trails behind that of all other sectors. As GBV is a risk in all humanitarian settings, it is essential that actors using CVA mitigate the GBV risks that may be associated with the use of the modalities.
CVA, while not always appropriate, can play a key role in the prevention of and response to GBV. It is essential to better understand how CVA can help prevent, mitigate, and respond to GBV. Building evidence on utilizing cash transfers is therefore much needed in order to strengthen the community of practice on responding to and preventing GBV and is key to advancing outcomes under the Call to Action Roadmap, the GBV AOR Strategy 2018– 2020, The Agenda for Collective Action, the Gender and Cash sub-workstream, and the Localization workstreams of the Grand Bargain, the Global Framework for Action and the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) Task Team on Cash for Protection.
The Gender and Cash sub-workstream of the Grand Bargain’s Cash Workstream organized an 8-part series of webinars on the topic in 2020 including:
Webinar 1: “Reducing risks of Gender-Based Violence in Humanitarian Cash and Voucher Assistance”
Facilitators: Joanna Friedman (independent consultant) and Luana De Souza-Monbaron (GBV AoR) funded by SDC via the GBV AoR, GBV AoR Webinar with the support of the Swiss Development Cooperation
Overview: Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) has been shown to contribute to the survival and resilience of vulnerable populations, but in order to maximize its effectiveness, humanitarian actors should establish gender-based violence risk prevention and mitigation measures. Cash is better able to achieve its intended results — allowing people and households to meet their basic needs, make the most appropriate choices for their family and live with dignity — when it includes protection and GBV risk mitigation, so that women, children and others can equally benefit. We often hear that CVA can be “empowering,” but it can also lead to increased tensions in couples, families and communities during crises. How can we maximize the benefits of cash and voucher assistance while reducing its potential to increase risks for women, children and others in humanitarian settings? This webinar will introduce you to the key questions to keep in mind and point you towards the most important tools and resources, based on recent field learning.
Webinar 2: “CVA and GBV Compendium: making the guidance into practical training”
Facilitators: Holly Welcome Radice, Cash and Markets Technical Advisor, CARE and Tenzin Manell, Senior Technical Advisor, Cash and Livelihoods, Women’s Refugee Commission with support from UNHCR
Overview: The Cash & Voucher Assistance and GBV Compendium: Practical Guidance for Humanitarian Practitioners (Compendium) was developed in 2019 through the collaborative effort of 15 organisations who contributed expertise to its inception, design and review. The Compendium assists humanitarian actors and crisis- and conflict-affected communities to: integrate GBV risk mitigation into CVA interventions; integrate GBV prevention into multi-sector programming using CVA when appropriate; and integrate CVA into GBV prevention and response when appropriate.
CARE and Women’s Refugee Commission, with support from UNHCR, developed an in-person training curriculum based on the Compendium, which is now available in English, French, Arabic and Spanish. Three training modules were drafted, each targeting a different audience: humanitarian practitioners using CVA, GBV specialists considering the use of CVA, and humanitarian country team staff/donors. The curriculum was piloted with field-based practitioners in Nairobi and revised based on lessons learned. The webinar will include an overview of the materials, share observations from the pilot training and make recommendations for the use of the materials across humanitarian contexts.
Webinar 3 “Comment atténuer les risques de Violence Basée sur le Genre dans les transferts monétaires?”
Facilitatrices: Joanna Friedman (consultante indépendante) et Luana de Souza-Monbaron (GBV AoR). Ce webinaire est financé par la Coopération Suisse via le GBV AoR.
Résumé: Le transfert monétaire (TM) est aujourd’hui un outil incontournable pour assurer la survie et promouvoir la résilience des populations vulnérables. Cependant, il est nécessaire que les acteurs humanitaires qui utilisent cet outil mettent en place des mesures d’atténuation et de prévention des risques de Violence Basée sur le Genre (VBG). Le TM permet aux familles vulnérables une couverture de leurs besoins de base. Afin que ces familles puissent faire des choix adaptés à leurs besoins, il est crucial d’intégrer la composante protection dans le TM. En effet, cela assure que les femmes, les enfants et les autres personnes vulnérables dans le foyer puissent en bénéficier de manière équitable et en toute dignité. Les TM sont parfois perçus comme une solution qui amène du pouvoir et de l’autonomie aux gens, toutefois, ils peuvent aussi amener des tensions importantes dans les couples, les familles et les communautés. La question est donc, dans un contexte de crise humanitaire, comment maximiser les bénéfices des transferts monétaires tout en diminuant au maximum les risques potentiels qu’ils amènent pour les femmes, les filles et les autres personnes vulnérables? Ce webinaire présente les éléments clés à retenir pour atténuer les risques VBG dans les TM, tout en partageant les outils, ressources et meilleures pratiques du terrain.
Webinar 4: “Utilizing Cash and Voucher Assistance within Gender-based Violence Case Management
to Support Crisis-Affected Populations in Ecuador”
Facilitators: Tenzin Manell, Senior Technical Advisor, Cash and Livelihoods, Women’s Refugee Commission; Alexandra Moncada, Country Director CARE Ecuador; Catalina Vargas, Latin America and Caribbean Regional Emergency Coordinator, CARE
Overview: With support from Sweden’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Women’s Refugee Commission, CARE, Fundación Quimera and The Latin American Platform of Sex Workers (PLAPERTS) partnered to advance the Call to Action Roadmap in Ecuador by strengthening the capacity of GBV and CVA service providers to leverage CVA within case management services in the prevention of and response to GBV for crisis-affected populations. This project leveraged two key resources in the integration of CVA and GBV in El Oro province: The Toolkit for Optimizing Cash-based Interventions for Protection from Gender-based Violence: Mainstreaming GBV Considerations in CBIs and Utilizing Cash in GBV Response and the Cash & Voucher Assistance and Gender-Based Violence Compendium: Practical Guidance for Humanitarian Practitioners.. One hundred GBV clients (including survivors and individuals at risk) were supported with cash transfers within GBV case management based on rolling case disclosure. Partners conducted monitoring of CVA referrals to ensure that CVA fulfilled its intention within GBV case action plans and did not expose clients to further harm. The webinar will share processes undertaken (including enhancing referral pathways, building staff capacities and establishing safe delivery mechanisms), successful outcomes for GBV clients and lessons learned to inform scaling in Ecuador and Latin America.
Webinar 5: “Process for a CVA actor integrating gender and managing GBV in CVA projects”
Facilitator: Maja Tønning, Global Humanitarian Advisor, DCA
Overview: Throughout 2019 DCA has focused on strengthening the integration of gender and management of GBV in cash and voucher assistance. To support staff in country offices and DCA’s local partners to work strategically with this, DCA developed a set of tools that will make it easier to adopt a gendered approach in CVA. This presentation gives an overview of the process towards making gender and GBV in CVA more tangible to non-gender experts at country and field levels. It furthermore includes examples of some of the results we have seen from GBV and Gender Analysis conducted in contexts with ongoing CVA projects.
Webinar 6: “Utilizando programación de transferencias monetarias (PTM) de dentro de los servicios de gestión de casos de violencia basado en género para apoyar a las poblaciones afectadas por crisis en Ecuador”
Facilitators: Holly Welcome Radice, Cash and Markets Technical Advisor, CARE; con representantes de CARE Ecuador, Fundación Quimera, y PLAPERTS
Overview: Con el apoyo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Suecia (MOFA); Women’s Refugee Commision, CARE, Fundación Quimera y La Plataforma de Personas que ejercen trabajo Sexual (PLAPERTS) generaron una alianza para fortalecer la Guía de la iniciativa (Call to Action). En ese marco se logró reforzar la capacidad de los proveedores de servicios contra la Violencia Basada en Género (VBG) a fin de aprovechar los Programas de Transferencia Monetaria (PTM) dentro de los servicios de gestión de casos específicamente en la prevención y respuesta ante la VBG en poblaciones afectadas por crisis. El proyecto apalancó dos recursos claves en la integración de PTM y VBG en la Provincia de El Oro, en Ecuador, específicamente: Kit para optimizar las intervenciones basadas en dinero en efectivo (CBI) para la protección contra la violencia de género: Principales consideraciones sobre la VBG en las CBI y cómo utilizar las transferencias monetarias en respuesta a la VBG y el Compendio de asistencia en efectivo y vales contra la violencia por razón de género: Directrices prácticas para profesionales humanitarios. Cien personas (incluyendo sobrevivientes y personas en riesgos a VBG fueron apoyados con transferencias monetarias dentro de la gestión de sus casos. Los socios realizaron monitoreo y seguimiento después de las transferencias para asegurar que se pudiera medir el impacto dentro de los planes de acción de los casos evitando la revictimización y no exponer a las participantes a riesgos adicionales. El webinar compartirá los procesos utilizados (incluyendo mejoramiento de las vías de referencia, fortaleciendo capacidades de los equipos y estableciendo mecanismos de entrega seguras), resultados exitosos para las participantes y lecciones aprendidas para compartir la experiencia sobre el uso de transferencias monetarias en manejo de casos de VBG en Ecuador y América Latina.
Webinar 7: Women’s experiences of violence during cash transfer programs in emergency settings: Learnings from Raqqa Governorate, Syria & Recommendations for Risk Mitigation
Facilitators: Alexandra Blackwell, Research Coordinator IRC
Overview: Cash and voucher assistance is an efficient way to deliver assistance in emergency settings, and evidence demonstrates that cash programs have consistent positive impacts on food security and other health and economic outcomes in these contexts. Nevertheless, while evidence from development settings shows that cash has the potential to reduce intimate partner violence and increase empowerment for women and girls, there is a dearth of rigorous evidence from acute humanitarian settings. In response to this evidence gap, the International Rescue Committee conducted an evaluation of a cash program in Raqqa Governorate, Syria. The aim was to examine the effect of a cash for basic needs program on outcomes of violence against women, and women’s empowerment. This webinar will explore the results of the IRC’s study in Raqqa Governorate, Syria and recommendations for risk mitigation for cash assistance in emergency settings, including the Safer Cash Toolkit.
Webinar 8: Safer Cash: Practical Tools to Mitigate Risks to Women and Marginalized Groups in CVA Programming
Facilitators: Elizabeth Tromans, Senior Technical Advisor, Cash & Emergencies (IRC) and Lauren Emerson, Gender Equality Specialist (IRC)
Overview: The Safer Cash Toolkit has been designed to address the challenge of insufficient information available to systematically identify the risks that people, particularly women and marginalized groups, may face as a result of receiving and using cash assistance in humanitarian programs. The toolkit is designed for cash practitioners to capture the minimum amount of information to ensure that organizations can make informed decisions on how to design, implement and adjust Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) programs at a field level to prevent and minimize harm. The objectives of the toolkit are to: 1. Generate awareness and understanding of potential protection risks when participating in CVA programs and who is most affected by such risks through training; 2. Ensure CVA programs are systematically collecting and using data based on the potential risks to the target population to inform program design; 3. Monitor the risks, and where possible, make-adjustments in the current program cycle or learn for the next program cycle. In this webinar, we will provide an overview of the toolkit, explaining the ways that it is and is not applicable for GBV risk identification and mitigation, and discuss ways that the toolkit has been applied to ongoing CVA programs.
