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Cash 101: Cash and Voucher Assistance Explained

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Markets

Well-functioning markets are a lifeline for people affected by crises. Effective cash and voucher assistance (CVA) uses and supports local markets. Market analysis must therefore be a key part of the response cycle, for cash programming and other forms of humanitarian assistance.

When designing a humanitarian intervention and deciding whether to use CVA, a market analysis should be part of the overall response analysis. Supporting markets to function well has been shown to lead to faster recovery and increased resilience in disaster affected areas.

Many organizations have invested in the development of tools to support market analysis and are considering market-based programming more holistically. This includes interventions that use the market (such as cash transfers to affected populations), as well as interventions that directly support markets (such as conditional grants to traders to get their market back up and running).

Latest

Karamoja Market Assessment

Report

A market assessment of the feasibility of cash transfers in the Karamoja region – Executive summary

2017

Checking Back – Using Cash and Vouchers in Somalia: Recommendations from the 2011-12 Somalia Drought Response

Report

This paper brings together recommendations from some of the key reports and evaluations from the 2011 Somalia drought response. The process of preparing this paper involved reviewing 17 reports and identifying five that had recommendations which could be useful for all agencies involved the current...

2017

Multisectoral Basic Needs and Market Assessment Moyo Uganda

Report

A multisectoral basic needs and market assessment done in Palorinya settlement and the host communities within Moyo district. Focuses are on basic needs and cash feasibility, the education system gaps, the firewood issues and access to loans and credit.
Data were gathered in December 2017, with...

2017

Using Cash and Vouchers in Somalia in 2017: The Need to Build on Learning from the 2011-12 Somalia Drought Response

Report

During the 2011-12 drought response in Somalia, cash and vouchers were distributed at scale – a response that was unusual in such a context at that time. In 2017 cash is accepted as highly appropriate and is a major part of response plans. While it may not always be possible to apply all best...

2017

Rapid Market Assessment Sofala Province, Mozambique

Report

The joint TDY between USAID/FFP and FEWS NET Mozambique to Sofala Province, Mozambique had two distinct objectives: 1) Assess current food security and market conditions including: a) Scale of humanitarian assistance relative to needs
b) Understand maize market structure, conduct and performance
c)...

2017

Collecting Prices for Food Security Programming

Guidelines and Tools

As a contribution towards standardizing price data collection, this paper aims to explore the core issues related to setting up a price monitoring system, also in countries where no such system currently exists. It describes the factors a country office needs to consider when designing such a system,...

2017

Rapid Assessment for market report : West Kenya and Informal settlements in Kenya.

Report

Two locations namely Mathare and Kibera slums in Nairobi as well as Kisumu, Migori and Homabay counties in West Kenya were affected by post election skirmishes after the Kenya General Elections of 8th August 2017. In September 2017 Kenya Red Cross conducted a post crisis market assessment to establish how...

2017

Multi-sector Market Assessment: Companion Guide and Toolkit

Guidelines and Tools

The Multi-sector Market Assessment: Companion Guide and Toolkit provides step-by-step guidance and ready-to-use tools to enable non-specialist staff to conduct market assessments and undertake market monitoring. The purpose of this Companion Guide and Toolkit is to enable Multi-Functional Teams to...

January 2017

Monitoring 4 CTP: Monitoring Guidance for CTP in Emergencies

Guidelines and Tools

This guidance provides a central resource to promote a common understanding of the most important monitoring considerations for humanitarian projects using cash transfer programming (CTP). The primary audience for this guidance is field-level practitioners, from organisations directly involved in the...

2017

Improving Uptake of Multi-Sector CTP in West Africa: Learning Event Report

Report

In December 2017, the CALP Network and the IRC came together to organize a two-day learning event to align understanding and share experiences of countries working on the definition of Minimum Expenditure Baskets, and to contribute to bridging capacity gaps in Market Analysis, a critical step for CTP...

2017

Feasibility of Multi-purpose Cash Transfers in N’Guigmi

Report

This assessment was conducted by World Vision’s Emergency Program in the Lake Chad Basin. The objective was to: 1) Do a comprehensive needs assessment of the affected populations in the area, 2) Specify the amount of the minimum expenditure basket 3) Evaluate the market capacity and feasibility of...

2017

CTP in the Ethiopia Drought Response: Using Learning to Shape Action

Report

This workshop, convened by the CALP Network and the Ethiopia Cash Working Group, reflected on the use of cash transfers in the 2017 drought response. Key findings were: Cash helped address immediate needs and contributed to meeting some of the drought response objectives. There were significant...

2017

Fitting aid to context: community experiences of aid delivery in northern Syria

Report

The ongoing conflict in Syria has left 13.5 million Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance. Several local and international organisations provide aid to northern Syria, but their chosen modalities fail to effectively meet community members’ needs.  While aiming to respond to immediate short-term...

2017

Aid in context: the importance of market-based approaches to aid delivery in northern Syria

Report

With the Syrian conflict now in its seventh year, 13.5 million Syrians need humanitarian aid. But aid in northern Syria focuses inflexibly on food kits that are expensive to administer, designed to satisfy short-term needs. Many people sell their food aid to pay for other urgent needs. This
undermines...

2017

Improving the Uptake of Humanitarian Market Analysis

Guidelines and Tools

Market assessments and market-based programming are now widely considered best practice in humanitarian programming, especially among food security and livelihoods actors. They are embedded in various standard-bearing initiatives, and there are a number of tools for emergency market analysis and...

2017

Interim Guidance Note on Determining Cash Transfers Values for Food Security

Guidelines and Tools

The objective of this guidance note, as laid out in the Terms of Reference, is to: Leverage FSC partners’ knowledge and experience to develop guidance on cash transfer value logic for both unconditional and relevant food security cash for work/assets3 programming. It focusses on acute food insecurity...

2017

Cash 101: Cash and Voucher Assistance Explained

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