Cash and Voucher Assistance’s Unfinished Business: CALP’s role in delivering on the big promise
The Big Promise of CVA
CVA is arguably the most impactful change in the humanitarian system over the past two decades, delivering choice and dignity to millions in crisis. Its slow growth, however, suggests that its full transformative potential is at risk. This report delves into CVA’s “unfinished business” and its role in enabling choice and dignity for crisis-affected people.
A Changing System
The humanitarian system faces mounting pressures:
- Escalating needs
- Geopolitical instability
- Technology governance
- Entrenched power imbalances
- The unfulfilled localization agenda
- Climate change
These challenges necessitate a systemic approach to change, exploring both incremental changes within the existing system and transformational pathways that reimagine humanitarian aid.
Two Pathways for Change
This report examines two pathways for change:
- Global/Outside-In: Focuses on incremental change through centralized coordination, standardized tools, and top-down resource allocation.
- Local/Inside-Out: Advocates for transformational change led by local communities, promoting an inclusive, decentralized, and networked ecosystem.
Key Findings
- CVA’s institutionalization has fueled significant growth but may limit its ability to adapt and accommodate diverse approaches.
- Humanitarian crises are increasingly shaped by climate change and conflict, demanding agile and context-driven programme design.
- CVA must refocus on demand-led decision-making, empowering crisis-affected communities.
- CALP’s role as a systems change leader requires reflection on power dynamics, inclusion, and its position within the evolving humanitarian ecosystem.
CALP’s Role in the Future of CVA
This report analyzes CALP’s contributions to systems change and proposes opportunities for its future role. It emphasizes the need for CALP to:
- Critically review how power is held within its network and prioritize equitable partnerships.
- Radically overhaul processes for inclusion and participation, ensuring locally-owned and driven CVA.
- Think forward and speak out, leading thought and driving accountability in critical areas like climate change and conflict.
- Evolve and adapt to the changing humanitarian environment, embracing bolder visions for humanitarianism.
Call to Action
This report serves as a call to action for CALP and its members to embrace systems change, ensuring that CVA delivers on its promise of choice and dignity for all people in crisis. It urges CALP to navigate the complex dynamics of the humanitarian ecosystem, promoting both incremental and transformational change to create a more just and equitable future for humanitarian aid.