Monitoring and Evaluation
Most M&E challenges, such as a lack of sufficient investment and capacities, are not specific to CVA. But those that are relate primarily to monitoring outcomes for unrestricted transfers. The flexibility of cash transfers can make it difficult to determine appropriate outcome indicators, as they may involve a combination of sector-specific and cross-cutting indicators. At the same time, there are limitations on gathering accurate data on how cash transfers are spent.
Grand Bargain signatories have committed to ensuring relevant M&E mechanisms are in place for cash, and increasing understanding of the costs, benefits, impacts and risks of cash relative to other modalities. Building on this, the GB cash workstream has action points including the development of common outcome indicators for multipurpose cash, and metrics for analysing value for money. Systematic value for money analysis has been limited by factors including a lack of agreed upon approaches, the need for quality outcome data, and the intensive nature of the analysis.
Current priorities
As part of the Grand Bargain cash commitments, the CALP Network has co-led (with USAID and CRS) the development of Multipurpose Cash Outcome Indicators. The draft for testing is currently available in English, French and Spanish via the library.
Related initiatives
Featured content
Multipurpose Cash Outcome Indicators – Final Draft for Testing
Guidelines and Tools
Note that the MPC indicators have now been revised. Please click here to access the updated Multipurpose Outcome Indicators and Guidance, which is available in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. Multipurpose Cash Outcome Indicators – Final Draft for Testing Multipurpose cash (MPC) is a type of assistance intended to enable people to meet their basic needs through local...
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 design, implementation, monitoring, and accountability of projects using cash and vouchers...
Cost-Efficiency Analysis of Basic Needs Programs: Best Practice Guidance for Humanitarian Agencies
Guidelines and Tools
The Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money Sub-Workstream is pleased to share the final output on Cost-Efficiency Analysis of Basic Needs Programs: Best Practice Guidance for Humanitarian Agencies (attached).
Cost-efficiency analysis estimates the ratio of program costs to outputs created, allowing you to compare cost-per-output for programs which all produced the same output. Such...
Thematic lead
Latest
Lesotho: A Safety Net to End Extreme Poverty
Report
The objective of this study is to help the government to decide what role safety net and transfer programs should play in the coming 5 to 10 years. It seeks to answer three questions: Can increased spending on transfers accelerate poverty reduction in the medium to long term? Which groups and aspects of...
Cross-Sector Cash Assistance for Syrian Refugees and Host Communities in Lebanon: An IRC programme
Case Study
This case study illustrates the challenges encountered and successes achieved during the implementation of cross sector cash transfer programming (CTP) in Lebanon. It examines issues including tensions between host and refugee households, the use of ATMs, market analysis and monitoring and evaluation.
Lesotho Child Grants Programme – The historic and future costs of the CGP and its affordability
Report
The purpose of this costing study is to review the historical costs of the Child Grants Programme (CGP) between October 2007 and December 2012, simulate the likely future cost of the programme, and assess the programme’s affordability under the current fiscal environment. This report presents the...
Humanitarian Needs Assessment – The good enough guide
Guidelines and Tools
Needs assessment is essential for programme planning, monitoring and evaluation, and accountability, however needs assessment is still a critical weakness of humanitarian response. Organizations urgently need to improve how they do assessments. The humanitarian community has been working on this issue...
Unconditional Cash Assistance via E-Transfer: Implementation lessons learned – Winterization support via CSC bank ATM card
Report
This document looks at the lessons learned from the Danish Refugee Council’s e-transfer programme designed to provide cash assistance to Syrian refugees in Lebanon using the CALP Network’s guidelines on e-transfers in emergencies as a point of reference for assessing adherence to best practices.
Support to Lesotho HIV and AIDs Response: Empowerment of Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children
Report
Oxford Policy Management (OPM) has been contracted by UNICEF Lesotho to undertake the final evaluation of the Project “Support to Lesotho HIV and AIDS Response: Empowerment of Orphans and Vulnerable Children”. The main objective of this evaluation is to provide decision makers in the Government of...
Humanitarianism in the Age of Cyber-warfare: Towards the Principled and Secure Use of Information in Humanitarian Emergencies
Report
Humanitarian assistance is driven by information. From early warnings to needs assessments to final evaluations, information determines priorities and resource allocation. In addition, a crisis drives people to collect and share personal information that they otherwise wouldn’t: the names of missing...
The Impact of the Harmonized Social Cash Transfer Programme (HSCT) in Zimbabwe on the Local Economy
Report
Local economy-wide impact evaluation (LEWIE) simulation methods are used to assess the likely impacts of cash transfers on the local economy. When the Harmonized Social Cash Transfer Programme gives money to beneficiary households, they spend it, buying goods and services. As this cash swirls around...
Payment Mechanisms and Anti-Poverty Programs: Evidence from a Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger
Report
Cash transfers have become an increasingly important component of social protection policies in both developed and developing countries. While such programs are often implemented electronically in developed countries, in many developing countries with weak financial infrastructure, such transfers are...
PCPM’s Cash for Shelter Program in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon: Evaluation and lessons learned
Report
The aim of this report is to provide an evaluation of the activities of Polish Centre for International Aid (PCPM) cash for shelter programme in the Akkar district in Lebanon. The evaluation has been focused on the long-term results of the humanitarian aid provided by PCPM to the Syrian refugees in Akkar...
Humanitarian Assistance through Mobile Cash Transfer in Northern Afghanistan: An evaluation of a DFID pilot project in Faryab, Jawzjan, and Samangan
Report
In response to the 2011 severe drought that pushed vulnerable rural households into food insecurity in 14 provinces of Northern Afghanistan, DFID has committed to address emergency needs in northern Afghanistan with nutrition, food security and farming inputs. Samuel Hall Consulting, a Kabul-based...
Policy Brief: Impacts of Unconditional Cash Transfers
Policy paper
This policy paper looks at a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the unconditional cash transfer program implemented by the NGO GiveDirectly in Western Kenya between 2011 and 2012, in which poor rural households received unconditional cash transfers through the mobile money system M-Pesa. Importantly,...
Child Grants Programme Impact Evaluation Follow-up Report – Executive Summary
Case Study
The Lesotho Child Grants Programme (CGP) is an unconditional social cash transfer targeted to poor and vulnerable households. It provides every quarter a regular transfer of between M360 and M7501 to poor households with children that are selected through a combination of Proxy Means Testing (PMT) and...
Understanding the Interaction Between Women’s Economic Empowerment and Gender Based Violence: Study on ACF’s cash transfer programme in northern Uganda
Report
This paper presents findings of a qualitative study conducted in Northern Uganda, on the effects of a cash transfer programme on gender relations and GBV in a post – conflict context. The intervention in focus is Action Against Hunger |ACF International (ACF)’s ‘Combating Gender Based Violence and...
Child Grants Programme Impact Evaluation Follow-up Report
Report
The Lesotho Child Grants Programme (CGP) is an unconditional social cash transfer targeted to poor and vulnerable households. It provides every quarter a regular transfer of between M360 and M7501 to poor households with children that are selected through a combination of Proxy Means Testing (PMT) and...
Community Baseline: A Survey On Resilience In South Central Somalia
Report
A comprehensive understanding of the socio-economic and environmental context of intervention is essential to the success of any resilience-building program. Based on this premise, the BRCiS has taken a series of steps to strengthen its knowledge and understanding of key variables and dynamics in its...
Insufficient Evidence? The Quality and Use of Evidence in Humanitarian Action
Report
This paper (and the ALNAP meeting on which it is based) is underpinned by the sense that ‘at present, humanitarian decisions are often based on poor information’ (DFID, 2012: 5) and are ‘anecdote, rather than evidence, driven’ (Mazurana et al., 2011: 1). Even when evidence is available, decisions...
Cash Emergency Preparedness (CEP) Assessment: Myanmar
Policy paper
Cash transfer programming (CTP) in emergencies is not new in Myanmar, with the first examples going back at least to Cyclone Nargis in 2009. CTP has also been used in humanitarian settings such as Kachin State. However, CTP is not yet being widely used for the current conflict context in Rakhine State due...
Impact Evaluation: Evaluation of the impact of food for assets on livelihood resilience in Nepal
Report
This evaluation, conducted by an independent team between January and July 2013, assessed the outcomes and impacts of the food-for-assets (FFA) components of two WFP programmes in Nepal: country programme (CP) 100930 (2002–2007) and protracted relief and recovery operation (PRRO) 106760 (2007–2010)....
UNHCR Cash Transfer Programmes Working Group Inter-Agency Market Monitoring System
Report
The UNHCR engaged the Consultants for technical assistance in developing an inter-agency market monitoring system (MMS) to facilitate a national assessment of cash transfer programmes (CTP) within Lebanon. The request for assistance followed consensus among the International...