Middle East and North Africa
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Feasibility of Achieving Resilience by Linking Vulnerable Populations Receiving Humanitarian CVA to Development and Social Protection
Report
This report evaluates the capacities for establishing linkages between humanitarian CVA and state-led social protection in Iraq, Libya and Yemen.
Rapid Reflection on the Scale up of Cash Coordination- Türkiye/ Syria Earthquakes
Report
This rapid reflection piece looks at how cash coordination structures scaled up at the onset of the Türkiye/ Syria Earthquakes in February 2023. The short reports look at implications and good practices implemented by cash working groups in Türkiye, North West Syria, and Government-controlled areas of Syria; where they can also be relevant learning for other crises.
Locally-Led Responses to Cash and Voucher Assistance in the Middle East and North Africa: Barriers, progress and opportunities
Case Study
This research highlights moments of tension between the reported commitment of the humanitarian sector towards localization and the actual steps implemented to advance locally-led CVA. Subsequently, recommendations emphasize the responsibilities of the sector in order to expand locally-led approaches in an inclusive and practical way.
Investigating Operational Models for Multi-purpose Cash Delivery and Links to Social Protection: Spotlight on the Middle East and North Africa
Report
This piece of research looked at six case studies in the MENA region where CVA is being delivered at scale. It looked at the characteristics of the operational models of delivering multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA), and how that enables (or not) links with existing national social protection systems. The research found that there’s no one model that enables links between humanitarian MPCA...
Cash Working Group De-activation in Iraq
Case Study
The humanitarian context in Iraq has evolved significantly in the past years, advancing towards recovery and sustainability for the conflict-affected population. During 2022, the humanitarian coordination structure worked on a process to phase out, in line with the transitional context. Clusters and the Cash Working Group (CWG) designed exit strategies that concluded with their de-activation...
Multi-purpose cash assistance for Lebanese – Inter-agency Joint Learning Event Learning Brief
Case Study
On June 27th 2023, Mercy Corps co-organized with Acted, Concern and Oxfam a learning event on the implementation of Multipurpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) interventions for Lebanese. While the MPCA modality has been initiated and designed around the assistance to refugees, the provision of unconditional cash assistance for Lebanese is a recent development in the country. This requires an...
Cash for Rent Guidelines for Yemen
Guidelines and Tools
Since the start of a civil conflict in Yemen in March 2015, the country has remained in a state of emergency. Ongoing fighting and military activities have made it challenging for humanitarian workers to reach affected populations and meet their basic needs, such as food, water, and shelter. Displaced persons often live with relatives, friends, or in collective shelters that offer inadequate...
An Integrated Approach to Menstrual Hygiene Management: Awareness sessions and cash assistance for women and girls affected by crisis in Lebanon
Case Study
In 2022, UNFPA Lebanon worked with local partners to launch an integrated cash and awareness for menstrual hygiene management (MHM) initiative as a way to tackle the growing issue of period poverty amidst the country’s economic crisis. Through the pilot, over 2,600 vulnerable women and girls of reproductive age received cash assistance intended to cover the purchase of monthly menstrual...
UNFPA’s approach to CVA in the Arab region and Türkiye
Policy paper
UNFPA experience in different humanitarian contexts has shown that cash and voucher assistance (CVA) is a powerful instrument that can save lives, alleviate risks, and help women and girls escape abusive environments. By giving women and girls greater access to vital services and empowering them with the freedom to choose, UNFPA has found that CVA can directly contribute to the realisation of...
Conflict sensitive cash assistance in Lebanon: Conflict sensitivity toolbox 1
Guidelines and Tools
The Conflict Sensitivity Toolbox series is produced under UNDP Lebanon’s Tension Monitoring System. The toolbox forms part of the conflict sensitivity mainstreaming work under the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP) and has been produced in collaboration with House of Peace. In 2021, three Lebanon-specific guidance notes were developed to provide partners with practical tips for getting...
Survival minimum expenditure basket, minimum expenditure basket, gap analysis and transfer values for cash programming
Case Study
The CWG in Iraq has updated the SMEB and has designed a new MEB and gap analysis to inform the transfer values for cash programming in 2023. This document is a technical note with the summary of the values and the methodology.
With the coordination and technical support of CashCap and the Data analysis of REACH-Initiative.
Integrating Cash Assistance into Gender-Based Violence Case Management to Support GBV Survivors and Individuals at Risk in Jordan
Case Study
With support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) and CARE are leading an initiative on behalf of the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) Task Team on Cash for Protection (TTC4P) to expand access among field-level
practitioners to the requisite knowledge, skills, guidance, and tools to integrate cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and...
Integrating Cash Assistance into Gender-based Violence Case Management to Support GBV Survivors and Individuals at Risk in Jordan Snapshot
Case Study
Jordan is home to the second largest refugee population per capita in the world. The country’s population of 10,571,602 includes more than 760,000 refugees registered with the UN refugee agency. More than 80 percent live in urban areas rather than in refugee camps.
A recent assessment by CARE Jordan found that the lack of income opportunities, COVID-19, and community conflict were the most...
Integrating Cash Assistance into Gender-based Violence Case Management: Learnings from Colombia, Ecuador, and Northwest Syria
Case Study
In 2020-2022, WRC partnered with CARE in three locations, Ecuador, Colombia and Syria, to better understand the use of CVA in GBV case management. In Guayaquil, Ecuador, WRC and CARE worked with
three Ecuadorian organizations to strengthen the capacity of GBV service providers to use CVA within case management in response to intimate partner violence for migrant, refugee, and local...
Leaving No One Behind: Evidence from Lebanon on How Multi-purpose Cash Beneficiaries with Different Vulnerability Profiles Spend Income and Access Services
Case Study
This study aims to generate a more in-depth and nuanced understanding of the impact of MPC assistance on Syrian refugee households with different vulnerability profiles, and explores how complementary interventions can support severely vulnerable households to meet their basic needs and address issues beyond the reach of cash. Generating evidence on this topic will support WFP, donors, and...
Transitioning out of Humanitarian Cash Assistance in Iraq: Critical Actions to Ensure Gender-based Violence Risks are Mitigated and Prevented throughout the Transition
Case Study
In light of ongoing efforts to transition away from humanitarian Cash assistance in Iraq, a two-day workshop took place in Erbil on June 22 which gathered more than 32 gender-based violence (GBV) and cash and voucher assistance (CVA) actors with the goal of identifying priorities for the transition period related to GBV mainstreaming in humanitarian Cash and Social Protection assistance. This...
From Risk to Choice: Cash within GBV Case Management in Jordan
Case Study
In 2021, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Jordan piloted the integration of cash assistance within gender-based violence (GBV) programming. The pilot targeted GBV survivors and women at risk of GBV – including Jordanians, Syrian refugees and refugees of other nationalities – within the framework of GBV case management. Two modalities were used: one-off Emergency Cash...
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MEB and Transfer Value Guide
Guidelines and Tools
This document is the harmonized Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) and transfer value of the Libya Cash & Markets WG (CMWG) for April – June 2017 (Q2). Currently the data available is only enough to inform calculations for Libyans (IDPs and host).
Libya Humanitarian Cash Working Group (CWG) Key Messages on Government Payments
Report
The purpose of this document is to address one of the primary concerns of stakeholders prioritising the delivery of cash based interventions in Libya:
The majority of beneficiaries receiving cash assistance are already have other sources of income (government payments in particular) Therefore they do not...
Cash transfers for refugees. The economic and social effects of a programme in Jordan
Report
The world is now experiencing the biggest refugee crisis since the second world war, with around 21.35 million refugees reported in 2015 (UNHCR, 2016a). Those countries with the highest outflow of refugees – Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia in 2015 – are facing ongoing conflicts that are unlikely...
Challenging the System: Humanitarian Cash Transfers in Iraq
Report
Cash transfers have been used in Iraq to meet the critical basic needs of a highly vulnerable population, providing them dignity and flexibility in a context of uncertainty and economic need. Although Iraq is an appropriate context for the use of cash transfers, factors including government acceptance,...
Cash Transfer Programming: Lessons from northern Iraq
Report
In situations of conflict, disaster and protracted crisis, displaced persons not only face physical threats but are also confronted with the challenge of economic survival. High levels of general unemployment or legal barriers to labour market entry often restrict access to jobs and income, and...
Libya Humanitarian Cash Working Group (CWG) Key Messages
Report
The purpose of this document is to provide key messages of the Cash Working Group (CWG) that can be used in discussions with humanitarian stakeholders. This document is not designed to be passed to interlocutors, but rather inform CWG members on key points to raise in discussions.
As the movement for cash transfer programming advances, how can we ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind in cash transfer programming for emergencies?
Report
It is estimated that 15% of the world’s population has a disability and evidence has shown that those with a disability are likely to be disproportionately affected when a crisis hits. In a 2015 global consultation carried out by Handicap International, 75% of respondents living with a disability, the...
E-Transfers for Hygiene through Red Rose in Northern Syria
Report
Cash is receiving a lot of attention globally and is currently being scaled-up at the highest level. On the 9th February 2016, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched his report for the World Humanitarian Summit, calling for cash-based programming to be the ‘default method of support for affected...
Untapped Humanitarian Demand: A Business Case for Expanding Digital Financial Services
Report
The International Rescue Committee, commissioned Strategy Impact Advisors to build a return on investment (ROI) model to estimate whether or not a business case exists for expanded coverage of digital financial services in crisis-prone areas (Lebanon and the Philippines). This analysis provides...
Finding Economic Opportunity in the City: Lessons from IRC’s Cash and Livelihoods Programmes in Cities within Lebanon and Jordan
Report
This report looks at IRC’s experiences in cash assistance and livelihoods programming in Lebanon and Jordan in the context of the Syrian regional response. It explores opportunities and challenges inherent to cash and livelihoods programming, identifying good practices and ways to integrate other...
Cash Working Groups: A preliminary mapping
Report
Brief overview of the state of cash working groups in emergency settings.
Impact Evaluation of the Multipurpose Cash Assistance Programme
Report
The Syrian crisis is currently in its sixth year, with over one million Syrians still living in Lebanon as refugees. Nearly 60% of all financial resources pledged by UN agencies and INGOs were to secure basic assistance for Syrian refugees, mainly to support them in meeting food and healthcare needs. In...
Pre-Crisis Market Analysis: Credit, Drinking Water and Wheat Flour Market Systems
Report
Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was captured by ISIS in June 2014 and remains under their control. The Iraqi army has vowed to recapture Mosul and the speculation is that a counter-offensive is imminent – a military operation which could have dramatic humanitarian implications. A large influx of...
Cash-based Response Feasibility Assessment in Northern Syria
Case Study
As the conflict in Syria extends beyond the fourth year, there is need for a widespread humanitarian response focused on urban areas that addresses humanitarian needs and promotes resilience for the 13.5 million people in need of protection and humanitarian assistance within Syria. The majority of...
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: 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...
Cash-based programming to address hunger in conflict-affected South Sudan: A case study
Report
For some time aid agencies and donors have recognised the benefits of utilising markets to deliver food assistance. And for almost as long, cash-based programming has been effective in doing this by improving people’s ability to purchase sufficient nutritious food. Addressing hunger through cash...
ELAN Workshop Report: E-Transfers in Iraq and Syria
Report
This report outlines the main conclusions and takeways of ELAN workshop held in Iraq. The event was organized to meet the following objectives: Introduce participants to the what, why, and when of e-transfers. Explore solutions to the particular challenges of using e-transfers in Iraq and Syria. Share...
Giving Better: Lessons from Cash Grants for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
Report
Cash grants to the poor have proven to be an effective form of aid for reducing poverty. Direct cash assistance is inexpensive to administer and allows recipients to buy what they want and need, rather than what experts think they need. Recent research shows that cash grants also work well for assisting...
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...