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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.

Latest

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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

A Review of Cash Transfer Programming and the the CALP Network 2005–2015 and Beyond

Report

The core purpose of this review, commissioned by the CALP Network, is to evaluate the CALP Network’s progress since inception and examine the status and continued needs of cash programming in emergencies. Cash transfer programming (CTP) represents a significant shift in the way humanitarian aid can...

2014

A Guide to Calculating the Cost of Delivering Cash Transfers in Humanitarian Emergencies – With reference to case studies in Kenya and Somalia

Report

The emergence of cash transfers as a viable alternative to in-kind aid – such as food or shelter materials – for households affected by humanitarian disasters has been documented for some years now. Under certain conditions, when local markets are able to accommodate increased demand and prices will...

2014

Examining Protection and Gender in Cash and Voucher Transfers – Summary

Report

In any humanitarian intervention – including those using cash and vouchers – assistance agencies need to identify the most appropriate, effective, and efficient way of helping crisis-affected households meet their needs. In doing so, they need to consider the protection and gender issues surrounding...

2013

Enhancing WFP’s Capacity and Experience to Design, Implement, Monitor, and Evaluate Vouchers and Cash Transfer Programmes: Study summary

Report

With support from the Government of Spain, and in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) evaluated four pilot projects to assess the comparative performance of cash transfers, food payments, and vouchers on household food...

2013

Executive Brief: Engaging with markets in humanitarian responses

Policy paper

In late 2012-early 2013, WFP and Oxfam collaborated on a piece of research that aimed to understand how humanitarian agencies are currently engaging with markets and how this work might evolve. The research culminated in the writing of this brief.

2013

Global Learning Event Report: Cash transfer programming and preparedness

Report

As the investment in cash transfer programming (CTP) continues to grow, there is a desire to find ways to carry out this approach faster, more often and more effectively. As a result, the integration of CTP into preparedness and contingency planning is becoming more important. A global learning event on...

2013

Examining Protection and Gender in Cash and Voucher Transfers – Report

Report

With cash and voucher transfers increasing as a form of humanitarian assistance, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) teamed up to study the potential protection and gender impact of such transfers. While much research had been done about economic and market impacts of cash and...

2013

Cash Transfer Programming Engaging National Society Leadership: Guidance and materials to support internal advocacy

Guidelines and Tools

This guidance provides the materials required to run an awareness session for senior representatives of a National Society on the nature of cash transfer programming, its challenges and benefits. National Societies work in different contexts and as such the materials will need to be adapted to suit the...

2013

Comparative Review of Market Assessments Methods, Tools, Approaches and Findings

Guidelines and Tools

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2013

The Crisis in the Sahel – Special Feature

Report

The special feature of this issue of Humanitarian Exchange focuses on the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel region of Africa, where aid agencies estimate that more than 18 million people are affected by food insecurity. In response to this crisis, cash and vouchers programming has been largely used. In...

September 2012

Household-Based Cash Transfer Targeting Strategies in Zimbabwe: Are we reaching the most vulnerable children?

Report

Census data, collected in July 2009, from 27,672 children were used to compare the effectiveness, coverage and efficacy of three household-based methods for targeting cash transfers to vulnerable children in eastern Zimbabwe: targeting the poorest households using a wealth index; targeting HIV affected...

2012

The Impact of Economic Resource Transfers to Women versus Men: A Systematic Review

Report

This systematic review examined the question: “what is the evidence of the impact on family well-being of giving economic resources to women relative to the impact of giving them to men?” This review is of interest to policy-makers and funders in developed and developing countries, given the recent...

2012

An Introduction to Cash-Based Interventions in UNHCR Operations

Policy paper

This document provides an introduction and basic guidance on the use of cash-based interventions and tackles key issues of relevance to UNHCR in the form of questions and answers. It also provides an overview of UNHCR’s experience in using cash-based interventions.

2012

Comparative Review of Market Assessments Methods, Tools, Approaches and Findings – SWOT Analysis

Guidelines and Tools

This document makes a comparative review of  different market assessments methods,tools, approaches and findings. A swot analysis of the Emergency Market Mapping Analysis (EMMA), Market Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis (MIFIRA) and World Food Programme Trader Survey (WFP TS) is...

2012

Cash 101: Cash and Voucher Assistance Explained

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