Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and Partnership Toolkit – 10 principles

This year(2020) has called for a strong reflection on what we mean by partnership and how we work responsibly within CVA programs in support of localizaiton. For example, what do equitable and equal partnerships look like and why they are critical for accountable and quality humanitarian programs? In what ways does partnerships and local leadership facilitate better responses for those affected by crisis? By working on practical approaches to partnerships within CVA programming this toolkit brings together two critical but often separate areas of work; localization and CVA.

The need to focus on partnerships within CVA has been further enhanced by the context of COVID-19 through which many international agencies have scale down direct presence and relied partners based closer to communities. Working in partnership in the context of COVID-19 must ensure that risks are not just transferred to partners (safe programming, etc.) but shared and mitigated through a partnership approach that equally represents international and national actors.

This Oxfam CVA and Partnership Toolkit is a practical and short set of tools that integrate partnership practices into the CVA project cycle. This toolkit aims to address some of the practical barriers to better partnerships in CVA and has been designed in consultation and collaboration with 20 humanitarian partners, including 16 local actors working in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, Nepal, Iraq, Afghanistan, Philippines and Oxfam country offices.