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Cash 101: Cash and Voucher Assistance Explained

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Coordination

As multipurpose cash disrupts traditional divisions of responsibility in the sector-based humanitarian sector, disagreements remain around how cash and voucher assistance (CVA) should be coordinated.

Background

Effective coordination can prevent gaps and overlaps in humanitarian responses, ensure the impact of CVA is optimised for the benefit of crisis affected populations, whilst also making the most of limited humanitarian funding. But the CALP Network’s State of the World’s Cash report found that cash coordination is seen as weak and ad hoc, and that this is having serious operational impact. 

Ninety-five donors, international and national NGOs, private sector actors and one UN agency have called for clarity on two key issues surrounding cash coordination: 

  • Who should be accountable for ensuring effective cash coordination, and 
  • What the scope of Cash Working Groups should be, including in relation to multipurpose cash. 

We urgently need to build on what works and provide clarity at the global level on the questions above, whilst adapting to different contexts. Clear decisions based on the impact on affected populations rather than agency politics are long overdue. 

Current priorities

We aim to contribute to progress on this issue on three levels: supporting Cash Working Groups at the regional level; contributing to practical solutions for cash coordination at the global level; and convening evidence-based discussion on the key issues, highlighting critical decision points and opportunities for progress. 

Latest

Slides for the Global CWG meeting – Oct 2021

Presentation

The enclosed slides for the 28 October meeting feature presentations from WFP, the Uganda and CAR CWGs and GSMA , as well as key links to key resources discussed.

29 October 2021

Cash Coordination Caucus – Proposed Strategy

Policy paper

The strategy document was developed by the EP’s office to delineate the objectives, composition and engagement structure of the cash coordination caucus in the Grand Bargain 2.0 process...

29 October 2021

Digital identity, biometrics and inclusion in humanitarian responses to refugee crises

Report

Digital identity and biometrics have long been divisive topics in the humanitarian sector. On the one hand, they have the potential to be more inclusive and reach people in need at scale due to perceived efficiency gains. A legal identity for everyone as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)...

6 October 2021

Good Practice Review on Cash Assistance in Contexts of High Inflation and Depreciation

Report

What is this? A compilation of good practices to assist humanitarian actors designing and implementing cash programmes, including multipurpose cash (MPC) and cash for sectoral outcomes. The rationale for this document is the growing challenge of inflation and currency depreciation in contexts in which...

5 October 2021

Cash Coordination Next Steps: An important meeting for humanitarian leaders

Event

Wednesday 15th September from 13.00 -14.00 UTC

15 September 2021 14:00-15:00 / Online / English

Hand over exercise – Infographic

Guidelines and Tools

The following catalogue summarizes some key Regional CWG tools that were core to the structure during the period April 2020- September 2021 – co led by IFRC, WFP , UNICEF Technical Secretariat – Technical Adviser- CashCap- For more details, refer to https://www.r4v.info/en/cva

14 September 2021

Exploring Self-Reliance at the Humanitarian-Development Nexus: A Longer-Term Review of MPCA Outcomes

Report

Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) is provided to extremely socio-economically vulnerable individuals to alleviate financial hardship. In Iraq, MPCA is intended to act as temporary consumption support so that households may eventually be linked with social protection assistance or return to...

30 August 2021

CALP Online: Core CVA Skills for Programme Staff Course

Course

Do you aim to continually develop your professional skills around Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA)? The CALP Network's online course will strengthen your CVA expertise and your ability to design and implement high-quality programming.

21 July 2021 / English / 3. Application

SPACE Overcoming barriers to coordinating across social protection and humanitarian assistance – building on promising practices

Policy paper

The importance of strong coordination between actors preparing, designing and implementing shock responses is well accepted. This has been highlighted specifically concerning shock responsive social protection (SRSP) as well as linking humanitarian action and social protection (HA-SP). However, despite...

30 June 2021

Cash 101: Cash and Voucher Assistance Explained

Explore the Cash 101