Operational Models
The CALP Network’s State of the World’s Cash Report identifies different types of operational model, including consortia and alliances, shared cash delivery mechanisms, single agency cash delivery, and integration of systems.
“The overall structure through which agencies work jointly…to deliver cash and voucher programming…in situation response and analysis, program design and implementation.”
Our working definition of an operational model.
Scaling up CVA offers opportunities to transform how humanitarian aid is delivered. It has implications for the roles of different agencies within various operational models, and the potential for models to link to social protection systems. It will also impact the nature of partnerships with financial service and technology providers, and how different models interact with other forms of assistance, beyond cash.
Current priorities
Since late 2016, the CALP Network has been coordinating a learning agenda to help answer these questions:
- What operational models are available to agencies implementing CVA?
- How do different models improve the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of CVA in different contexts?
- Which operational models are most appropriate in which contexts?
We will continue to collate and disseminate the evidence base for operational models.
We are also a partner in the Cash Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning Organizational Network (CAMEALEON) consortium, led by Norwegian Refugee Council, which is responsible for independent monitoring and evaluation of WFP’s Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) in Lebanon. This includes research and analysis regarding value for money and accountability in the operational model.
Featured content
Operational Models: Accountability to affected people
Webinar
MEAL in Emerging Operational Models
Webinar
CTP Operational Models Analytical Framework
Guidelines and Tools
The State of the World’s Cash Report launched by the CALP Network in February 2018 highlights trends in the uptake of various operational models for the delivery of cash at scale in humanitarian response. Current decision making on the choice between these various operational models is highly influenced by context, and by the policies and approaches of donor agencies. Decision making on...
Thematic lead
Latest
Cash or in-kind? Why not both? Response Analysis Lessons from Multimodal Programming
Report
This research reviews lessons learned about response analysis from multimodal responses, that is, responses in which practitioners determined that more than one response modality between cash,vouchers, and in-kind, was a “best fit” or in which the conclusions about “best fit” changed over...
Cash Delivery Mechanism Assessment Tool
Guidelines and Tools
In line with its commitment to institutionalise the use of Cash-Based Interventions (CBIs), the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released the Operational Guidance for Cash-Based Interventions in Displacement Settings (“the Guidelines”) dated 4 February 2015, to...
The use of CTP in Kenya: Reflecting on the 2016/17 Drought Response
Report
This workshop report is packed with useful ideas and information, reflecting the lively discussions which took place at a workshop in June 2017 about the use of CTP in the Kenya drought response. Discussions touched on multiple issues including coordination; cash transfer values; lack of awareness...
Cash Transfers in Remote Emergency Programming
Guidelines and Tools
In emergencies with significant access challenges for humanitarian actors, the use of Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) has great potential to help provide life-saving support to the most vulnerable people. CTP may not require a heavy and consistent staff presence, is not subject to the same logistical...
The Impact of Earned and Windfall Cash Transfers on Livelihoods and Conservation in Sierra Leone
Report
This study by Bulte et al. measures the impact of a cash transfer programme aimed at alleviating poverty and reducing pressure on the natural environment in Sierra Leone. Researchers offered aid to 91 rural communities, which are dependent on slash-and-burn agriculture in three forms: as windfall...
Using Cash for Shelter: An Overview of CRS Programs
Report
Cash continues to gain prevalence as a modality for humanitarian agencies to help people meet multiple and diverse needs in the wake of a crisis. It provides people with the dignity of choice, and is often significantly more cost-efficient than the delivery of in-kind aid. In programs with a shelter...
Using Cash for Shelter: Flood Emergency Response in Serbia
Case Study
The devastating floods that affected the Balkans in May 2014 affected 1.6 million people, 22 percent of Serbia’s population, and have set the country’s economic development back decades. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) conducted rapid assessments in 13 villages in the municipalities of Šabac, Valjevo,...
Using Cash for Shelter: Windows of Slovyansk
Case Study
After pro-Russian separatists declared republics in Eastern Ukraine in April 2014, Slovyansk became a focal point of fighting between government forces and rebels until the Ukrainian military retook the city in early July. Slovyansk saw the heaviest fighting of any urban area and many city dwellers fled....
Using Cash for Shelter: Winter Resilience for IDPs in Eastern Ukraine
Case Study
Continued conflict in Eastern Ukraine during 2014 caused internal displacement of over 1.46 million people by September 2015, and another 1,123,800 fled to other countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Rapid assessments carried out by Catholic Relief Services found that...
Cash transfer resilience tool
Guidelines and Tools
The objective of this tool is to help humanitarian agencies at the country level better prepare for emergency response using cash transfers. This tool aims to guide humanitarian organizations to preposition cash transfer services and implement partnership (framework) agreements with FSPs by...
Using Cash for Shelter: Rent Assistance for Syrian Refugees
Case Study
Over 600,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Jordan since 2011; 80 percent of these live in urban or peri-urban locations rather than in camp settings. Families in this situation must pay rent for their shelter, and are therefore subject to shifts in rental market values. Rents have inflated substantially...
Using Cash for Shelter: Displaced and Recent Returnee Households Invite Recovery in Eastern DRC (DRIVE) Internal Conflict and Displacement
Case Study
The Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC, has endured multiple conflicts since 1996, including armed conflict in Eastern DRC in 2012 and 2013. In December 2014, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the DRC reported that the armed conflict had internally displaced 2.72...
UNHCR Cash Assistance: Improving refugees lives and supporting local economies
Report
UNHCR’s Cash-Based Interventions (CBI) support the most vulnerable Syrian refugees living within the host community in Jordan. Thanks to generous donor support last year, over 30,000 households received monthly cash assistance, winterisation cash, and cash for health, totalling nearly US $ 85 million....
Using Cash for Shelter: Malawi Floods and Rains Recovery Program
Case Study
In January 2015, heavy rainstorms and floods affected 630,000 people in Malawi. Protracted immersion or flow of water damaged or destroyed dwellings and displaced over 170,000 people, with timber and roofing material also lost to the floods. Catholic Relief Services conducted a physical survey of...
Using Cash for Shelter: Cash Transfer for Transitional Shelter
Case Study
An earthquake measuring 7.6 magnitude struck near the coast of West Sumatra, Indonesia, on September 30, 2009, affecting over 1.25 million people. Catholic Relief Services conducted rapid needs assessments in October 2009, identifying shelter as the most urgent need. Over 80 percent of the houses in some...
Using Cash for Shelter: Project Daijok ("Helping Each Other")
Case Study
After a major earthquake in the Philippines in October 2013, Catholic Relief Services reached 5,000 families with emergency shelter materials, water and hygiene kits, and emergency latrines. In November 2013, CRS staff conducted a housing and market assessment in three of the worst‑hit municipalities of...
Can E-transfers Promote Financial Inclusion in Emergencies: A Case Study from Bangladesh
Report
The Electronic Cash Transfer Learning Action Network (ELAN) launched research to build an evidence base around connecting emergency electronic transfer (e-transfer) recipients with additional financial services. They wanted to learn if, when, and how e-transfers can promote sustained uptake and use...
Can E-Transfers Promote Financial Inclusion in Emergencies: A Case Study from Zimbabwe
Case Study
The Electronic Cash Transfer Learning Action Network (ELAN) launched research to build an evidence base around connecting emergency electronic transfer (e-transfer) recipients with additional financial services. They wanted to learn if, when, and how e-transfers can promote sustained uptake and use...
IOM Cash-Based Transfer – Update and Case Studies
Report
Cash-based transfers have a long history in the support of people on the move. Cash or vouchers have been an element of the International Organization for Migration’s resettlement support for people moving to new countries, or returning to countries they had to leave. Increasingly over the last decade,...
Supporting Dignified Choices ‘Paper Plus’ Cash Voucher Programming in Camps in Jordan
Report
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Jordan has directly assisted close to 400,000 vulnerable Syrian refugees in both formal camps and host communities since it began operations in November 2012. NRC is the lead partner of UNHCR in Zaatari and Azraq camps in providing refugees with shelter and the...