Digital Payments
Digital technology is transforming the way we respond to emergencies. Innovations range from how we identifying people eligible for assistance, to data collection for assessments and monitoring, to communication with crisis-affected communities. Digital payment systems, including mobile devices, electronic vouchers, and cards – when used appropriately – can deliver timelier, more secure, more cost effective, and inclusive assistance. But as the volume of data we collect, store and share about people grows, we must ensure that our data protection systems keep pace and that we understand and mitigate for the risks inherent in new technologies.
Featured Content
Podcast: Is informed consent possible in humanitarian CVA?
Podcast
Episode 2 of the CashCast tackles data responsibility with Amos Doornbos, Linda Raftree, James Eaton Lee and Ric Tighe
Consent and Ownership in the Shift to Digital Cash and Voucher Assistance
Blog Post
Part of committing to cash and voucher assistance (CVA) is committing to going digital and collecting data. While they are two different things, they are deeply intertwined. And while an...
E-Transfers and operationalizing beneficiary data protection
Course
This two hour course will provide humanitarian practitioners with the necessary steps to operationalize the protection of beneficiary data in programmes using electronic transfers, or e-transfers.
Latest
Confidence and usage of ATMs
Report
The World Food Programme (WFP) supports Syrian refugee families living in extreme poverty in Lebanon by providing them with multi-purpose cash (MPC) transfers to meet their basic needs. WFP loads the assistance on an e-card, called the Red Card, each month and programme participants are able to withdraw...
Minding the (financial and digital) gap! – How informal social safety nets leverage digital & cash enablers in COVID-19 pandemic
Presentation
Minding the (financial and digital) gap! – How informal social safety nets leverage digital & cash enablers in COVID-19 pandemic: In every context, strengthening the links between cash transfers, savings groups and digitisation contributes to resilient recovery from COVID-19. Representatives of...
Cashing in: Turning challenges into opportunities when evaluating humanitarian cash assistance
Report
The use of cash transfers in humanitarian action has implications for evaluative activity. On the one hand, the utility of some evaluations has been strengthened by the increased attention that has been paid to evaluating cash transfers, the agreement of common outcome indicators and the creation of...
“Doing no harm” in the digital age: What the digitalization of cash means for humanitarian action
Policy paper
Cash transfers have changed the way the humanitarian sector delivers assistance, and at the same time, digitalization is changing the way our world works in fundamental ways. The digitalization of cash means that the simple click of a button can put money in the hands of hundreds of thousands, if not...
Towards shock-responsive social protection: lessons from the COVID-19 response in Pakistan
Report
The stringent lockdown measures and global economic slowdown, due to COVID-19, are likely to increase the poverty rate in Pakistan by 35 percentage points in urban areas and 32 percentage points in rural areas. The report documents the Government of Pakistan’s social protection response to mitigate the...
2020 Cash and Voucher Programming (CVP): Roadmap and milestone achieved
Report
In 2020, World Vision has implemented cash and voucher programming like never before – not least due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related social protection transfer scale-ups. From 2019 to 2020, we have seen a 28 % increase of our cash, voucher based programming, moving towards enabling affected...
CASH ON THE MOVE – Adapting Multi-Purpose Cash ‘Plus’ Assistance to support people on the move in Peru
Report
In 2019 and 2020, with the support of USAID´s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (formerly FFP and OFDA), Save the Children implemented
a multi-purpose cash ‘Plus’ program in response to the influx of Venezuelan migrants into Peru.
Households that were only transiting through the cities where they...
Mobile money enabled cash assistance: User journeys in Burundi
Report
GSMA’s Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation programme teamed up with Ground Truth Solutions to apply a human-centred design approach to understand the user journeys of Concern Worldwide’s cash recipients in Burundi. It provides insights into how humanitarian organisations and mobile money providers can...
Stepping up CVA with COVID-19: Paving the way we respond to future crisis
Report
COVID-19 has thrown the world into lockdown and taken a tremendous toll on the health, social, and economic status of vulnerable communities, households, and individuals. Limitations on daily activities and an over-arching health crisis, restrictions on movement, closures of schools and businesses have...
The Provision of Cash and Voucher Assistance in the Response to the Venezuela Refugee and Migrant Crisis: Findings and lessons learned – Main report
Report
This study, for which data was compiled between March and April 2020, seeks to document lessons and good practices in the delivery of CVA in Ecuador and Colombia by humanitarian organisations and governments, in response to migrants and refugees from Venezuela. The purpose of this analysis is...