Workshop Report – Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) in Northern Syria: Where are we now and where do we want to be?

This report summarizes the outcomes of a one day workshop on Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) that was organized by the Cash-Based Responses Technical Working Group (CBR-TWG) for Northern Syria on April 28th 2015 in Gaziantep, Turkey. The workshop was attended by a wide group of stakeholders from the humanitarian community currently supporting cross border activities in Northern Syria. This included: donors; UN agencies; cluster coordinators; strategic decision makers; and technical advisers from NGOs involved in CTP. The idea of the workshop was initiated in 2014 by the CBR-TWG and received significant interest from donors, NGOs and some clusters. The main aim of the workshop was to advocate for joint efforts in scaling up cash based programming in Syria built on a common understanding of where we are with cash transfer programming in Syria currently; the challenges, successes and learning; and what the strategic direction is from implementing organizations and the donor community going forward. Furthermore, the workshop was intended to give direction to the CBR-TWG on priority areas of focus for 2015.

The workshop was facilitated by experts from NGO members of the CBR-TWG. The day involved different activities including presentations by the facilitators, participatory group discussions and plenary sessions focused on critical topics related to CTP in northern Syria.