Gender Based Violence and Cash and Voucher Assistance: Tools and guidance

There is increasing momentum among Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) actors in the humanitarian sector to consider linkages between GBV and CVA in all CVA projects at all stages of the project cycle.
Integrating gender and CVA was set as a priority action under the Grand Bargain Cash Workstream in 2018. During the 2020 Grand Bargain meeting, gender considerations in CVA were widely cited by signatories and the meeting concluded with a priority to: “Continue efforts to ensuring consistent analysis of gender and gender-based violence concerns in needs assessments and analysis, including with cash partners…”.

CVA is traditionally implemented in sudden-onset or protracted crisis, successfully targeting the most vulnerable rights holders. But opportunities remain to increase the effectiveness and safe delivery of CVA by establishing stronger GBV risk prevention and mitigation measures. As a minimum, GBV risk mitigation must be included in all CVA projects and all CVA actors should have a basic understanding of how to mitigate GBV risks. The importance and urgency of linking GBV and CVA have become even clearer with the COVID-19 pandemic, where GBV risks for women, girls and other vulnerable groups have increased due to mobility restrictions, loss of income opportunities, and increased care burdens. Overall, efforts to mitigate, prevent, and respond to GBV risks need to be mainstreamed.
This includes:
• Optimizing the use of CVA to enhance the protection of rights holders;
• Mitigating any risks of violence that are (potentially) increased because of a CVA programme (safe programming and do no harm)
• Using CVA to reduce risks and potential exposure to violence (e.g. reduce the use of negative coping strategies)
• Enabling economic empowerment and resilience for at-risk community members;
• Considering complementary activities to make CVA gender-aware and gender transformative;
• Inclusion of CVA in GBV case management and referral services

The necessity to understand risks of GBV and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) linked to CVA programmes has supported the development of various resources and tools for CVA actors to integrate into project design, implementation, monitoring and coordination. The resources focus on GBV risk mitigation in CVA, but also the opportunities that CVA can create in mitigating exposure to GBV risks. Moreover, the available guidance helps CVA actors integrate GBV prevention into multi-sector programming, and when appropriate, integrate CVA into GBV prevention and response.

This comparative overview enables agencies to quickly select and test the most relevant guidance, tool or combination of tools to fit their context and programmes.

This document is an output of the gender and cash sub workstream of the Grand Bargain’s Cash Workstream, designed with the input of various members, led by Key Aid Consulting and funded by CARE.