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Cash 101: Cash and Voucher Assistance Explained

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Tracking Cash and Voucher Assistance

We have committed to strengthening the scale and quality of cash and voucher assistance (CVA), but to measure our progress against this commitment, we must agree to a shared approach to collecting and analyzing data.

Grand Bargain signatories committed to increase the use of CVA, and to use common markers to measure these increases. Although the volume of CVA is beginning to be more effectively tracked, technical and policy challenges remain. These include:

  • Defining what data to collect, and how
  • Ensuring commitment to and use of data categories and systems
  • Addressing shortcomings of existing reporting systems which have often not been designed to include or disaggregate cash, vouchers, and other modalities
  • Reaching common agreement on standard categories for reporting to avoid incomplete and inconsistent data.

Current priorities

From 2017 to 2019, the CALP Network co-led the Grand Bargain Cash sub-workstream on Tracking CVA with DG ECHO, with the main objective of agreeing minimum requirements for tracking CVA. This includes the integration of CVA into key interagency reporting systems and platforms, namely OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS) and HPC Project Module, the International Aid Transparency Initiative’s (IATI) Data Standard, and 3W (Who does What, Where) reporting. The sub-workstream on Tracking CVA has now been merged into the Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money sub-workstream, which the CALP Network will continue to co-lead.

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2015

Humanitarian Cash Transfers and the Private Sector

Policy paper

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2015

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This study sought to understand remittance flows into Syria, and established that various Informal Value Transfer Systems (IVTS) are used, to the exclusion of the formal banking sector. Registered and unregistered hawala, courier services and family connections are used. Remittances have played an...

2015

Humanitarian Cash Transfers: Cost, value for money and economic impact

Policy paper

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2015

Doing Cash Differently: How cash transfers can transform humanitarian aid?

Policy paper

This report commissioned by the Overseas Development Institute highlights why giving aid directly in the form of cash is often a highly effective way to reduce suffering and to make limited humanitarian aid budgets go further. The publication, ,written by the High Level Panel on Humanitarian...

2015

Know Your Customer Standards and Privacy Recommendations for Cash Transfers

Guidelines and Tools

This report reviews how Know Your Customer (KYC) standards – rules designed to combat criminal money laundering and terrorism financing – are applied in humanitarian cash programs. The report examines the practices of aid agencies and their processing of the personal information of...

2015

State of Evidence on Humanitarian Cash Transfers

Policy paper

The “State of evidence on humanitarian cash transfers” background note provides a brief summary of the evidence base on humanitarian cash transfer programming. The report also outlines the types of evidence on cash transfers, findings on key issues and gaps. This publication is an output of the...

2015

Challenges and the State of Play of Interoperability in Cash Transfer Programming

Guidelines and Tools

This study explores the factors driving the design of interoperability for Cash Transfer Programming. It outlines the rapidly changing environment in which digital services are emerging, the types of digital collaborations that could be enabled, and the key design challenges that confront effective...

2015

Kit for Autonomous Cash transfer in Humanitarian Emergencies (KACHE)

Guidelines and Tools

The present document reports the development of the Kit for Autonomous Cash transfer in Humanitarian Emergencies (KACHE), built upon Red Rose ONE system© supported by the WFP’s Cooperating Partners’ Innovation Fund (CPIF). Firstly, it gives a brief description of the main features of the kit....

2015

Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient: Evidence from Cash Transfer Programs Worldwide

Report

Targeted transfer programs for poor citizens have  become increasingly common in the developing world. Yet, a common concern among policy makers – both in developing as well as developed countries – is that such programs tend to discourage work. We re-analyze the data from 7 randomized controlled...

2015

Value for Money of Cash Transfers in Emergencies

Report

The objective of this study is to analyse evidence on the Value for Money (VfM) of cash transfers. The study reviews evidence on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of cash, vouchers and in-kind transfers, in order to support a more structured analysis of the VfM of different transfers. It is based...

2015

Unconditional Cash Transfers for Assistance in Humanitarian Disasters: Effect on use of health services and health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries

Report

Unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) for humanitarian assistance during disasters may improve health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by giving recipients additional income. This study sought to assess the effect of UCTs on health services use, health outcomes, social determinants of health,...

2015

Scaling Up Existing Social Safety Nets to Provide Humanitarian Response: A case study of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme and Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net Programme

Policy paper

A case study of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme and Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net Programme. This thematic report has been undertaken as part of a 2013 research study entitled, Is Cash Transfer Programming ‘Fit for the Future’? The research was commissioned by the the CALP Network and...

2014

Cash and Vouchers Manual – Second edition

Guidelines and Tools

This second edition of the Cash and Vouchers Manual captures the latest corporately endorsed business processes and procedures, providing the most up-to-date tools (i.e. analytical, assessment, monitoring) that have been developed through close intra-departmental collaboration between Headquarters...

2014

Government Uptake of Cash Transfer Programming: Trends, characteristics and potential implications for international humanitarian actors in emergency response

Policy paper

Trends, characteristics and potential implications for international humanitarian actors in emergency response. This thematic report has been undertaken as part of a 2013 research study entitled, Is Cash Transfer Programming ‘Fit for the Future’? The research was commissioned by the the CALP...

2014

Cash Transfers and Temptation Goods: A review of global evidence

Report

Cash transfers have been demonstrated to improve education and health outcomes and alleviate poverty in various contexts. However, policy makers and others often express concern that poor households will use transfers to buy alcohol, tobacco, or other “temptation goods”. This paper reviews 19...

2014

Coordination and Cash Transfer Programming

Policy paper

This thematic report has been undertaken as part of a 2013 research study entitled, Is Cash Transfer Programming ‘Fit for the Future’? The research was commissioned by the the CALP Network and undertaken by the Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP), King’s College London. The overall...

2014

Financing of Cash Transfer Programming

Policy paper

This thematic report has been undertaken as part of a 2013 research study entitled, Is Cash Transfer Programming ‘Fit for the Future’? The research was commissioned by the the CALP Network and undertaken by the Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP), King’s College London. The overall...

2014

Cash 101: Cash and Voucher Assistance Explained

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