Protection and Cash and Voucher Assistance
How can Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) support protection outcomes? Please find a brief summary below, and for the very latest information, refer to the Global Protection Cluster Task Team on Cash for Protection.
The Protection Sector is concerned with the safety, dignity and rights of people affected by disaster or armed conflict and comprises four areas of responsibility – Child Protection, Gender-Based Violence, Mine Action, and Housing, Land and Property. Protection activities may involve preventive actions that aim to stop, prevent or alleviate the worst effects of abuses, remedial actions to help people recover, and environment-building actions to create or consolidate an environment conducive to full respect for the rights of individuals and groups.
CVA is used to address a range of household and individual protection needs. This includes cash assistance for basic needs for persons with special requirements and acute vulnerabilities, single parents with multiple dependents, unaccompanied minors, persons with disabilities, survivors of violence and other categories of people deemed at heightened protection risk. CVA might also be used as part of a sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) prevention and response, and to support displaced people by assisting voluntary return.
For further information and resources, visit the GPC Task Team on Cash for Protection page on the Global Protection Cluster website.
Related content
Recommendations on Cash for Protection for General Protection Actors
Report
The aim of this document is to offer recommendations on the use of Cash for Protection interventions in Ukraine, including to create a common understanding among humanitarian partners, and to harmonize practices. This includes: ● Defining Cash for Protection & its objectives ● Scenarios for possible use of Cash for Protection ● Core Elements for using Cash for Protection ● Links...
Cash For Protection Global Workshop Report
Report
The aim of the C4P workshop was to bring together practitioners across different organisations and agencies working in cash and protection to share existing policies and practices, promote a joint understanding of what “cash for protection” entails, and outline minimum requirements and key approaches to promote globally and integrate into program design. The workshop focused to first,...
Guidance Note on the Cash and Voucher Assistance Coordination and Reporting
Guidelines and Tools
The objective of this guidance note is: (1) Inform about the CBI TWG about the MPCA and its coordination; (2) Inform about reporting tools for MPCA and sectoral cash activities.
Humanitarian Cash Transfers and Intimate Partner Violence in South Sudan
Case Study
Cash-based programming, an intervention commonly provided to people affected by humanitarian crisis, has the potential to affect IPV positively or negatively. This study, however, found no evidence that this cash-based project had any significant effect on IPV. However, the relationship between cash transfers and IPV was found to be complex. Stakeholders should consider local context, gender...
Does Cash Assistance Help During Acute Food Insecurity?
Case Study
Cash-based programming is an intervention commonly provided to people affected by humanitarian crisis. Although focusing on the relationship between cash transfers and intimate partner violence, this study also explored links between cash and food insecurity. It finds that seasonal cash for work may not have substantial lasting benefits on food security within the context of crisis level food...
Post-Distribution Monitoring (PDM) – Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance
Case Study
Starting August 2022, WFP collaborated with the Ministry of Social Policy (MoSP) to serve people who had registered for humanitarian assistance through the E-dopomoga platform. Using the E-dopomoga registry, WFP oriented its cash assistance towards parts of the country closest to the frontline and most impacted by the war as well as towards groups of people with specific vulnerabilities. This...
Alignment Options for Humanitarian Cash with the Ukrainian Social Protection System
Report
Cash assistance, and multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) specifically, are a vital part of the humanitarian response in Ukraine. Over half of the projects listed in the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan have a cash transfer or voucher component. By June 2023, approximately 8 million people received multi-purpose cash assistance from 50 organizations (Ground Truth Solutions, 2023). Cash-based...
Onward Bound: Evaluating Cash and Voucher Assistance for Migrants on Sahel’s Migration Trail – Research and learnings from the Sahel region
Report
This research – a collaboration between the British Red Cross and Samuel Hall – provides evidence on the opportunities and challenges to integrate cash and vouchers assistance (CVA) as a support modality in migration programming in the context of transit migration in the Sahel. While CVA has become increasingly common and popular among implementing agencies and donors, there is limited...
Cash is King: Impact of the Ukraine war on illicit financial flows in South Eastern Europe
Case Study
The primary goal of this report is to assess the major enablers and vulnerabilities of illicit finance in the eight Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. More concretely, the study aims to analyze the primary IFFs sources and channels in the region, and identify any emerging...
Alternative Approaches to Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance Delivery in Active Conflict Contexts
Case Study
On April 15, 2023, violent clashes erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This conflict has had dire consequences, forcing people to flee. Both displaced and host communities, as well as those who have chosen to remain in sheltered locations, are grappling with immediate livelihood losses and the struggle to meet their basic needs. Escalating food...
WFP Cash Policy: Harnessing the power of money to help people survive and thrive
Policy paper
WFP’s new cash policy centres on people’s experiences, their stories and hopes for the future. By sending people cash, we can effectively and efficiently support them to meet their food, nutrition, and other essential needs, while at the same time bringing unique benefits that can help people break the vicious cycle of poverty and vulnerability and bring multipliers for local...
Saving Lives and Assets: The value of nexus “Cash” approaches to Anticipatory Action and Social Protection during climate-induced crises
Report
As a follow-on reflection from an inter-agency panel presentation at the ECHO EHF 2023, panelists highlight the importance of drastically changing “gear” to scale up pre-crisis Anticipatory Action investment, leveraging the “nexus” enabler – cash. Humanitarian needs have reached an unprecedented high. Today, around 339 million require lifesaving humanitarian assistance. Multiple...