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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Women and Girls Choose: Cash Assistance in GBV Case Management Saves Lives
Policy paper
As part of a coordinated response to gender-based violence (GBV), UNFPA and its partners provide a structured GBV case management process to survivors that can include referrals to medical, legal and other specialised services. This process provides a follow-up to challenges that a survivor may be facing,...
2021 Cash And Voucher Programming (CVP) Roadmap Milestones Achieved
Report
Summary Report of World Vision’s global progress report and milestones (against WV’s global Cash Roadmap Strategy) in Cash Voucher Assistance (Cash Voucher Programming-CVP) facilitated by World Vision in over 44 countries, reaching more than 6.7 Mio vulnerable people (78 % in Fragile Contexts) in...
Adaptation of Operational Activities to Humanitarian Crises – COVID-19 pandemic
Report
Turkish Red Crescent’s (TRC) Kızılaykart Cash Based Assistance Programmes Coordinatorship continues to work relentlessly with the aim to develop shock-responsiveness and continue to alleviate human suffering caused by conflicts, involuntary migration and socioeconomic challenges in the face of the...
Linking MPCA to longer-term solutions in Iraq: Strategic and operational revision workshop
Report
The CWG in Iraq organized a 2-day workshop to discuss strategic and operational components and revise the MPCA approach, in line with the transitional context to durable solutions. This is a report with the summary and key decisions taken during the workshop and it can serve as a case study on linking...
Paving Pathways to Self-Reliance in Iraq: Exploring Referral Pathways from Cash to Livelihoods Assistance to increase program participants’ resilience in conflict-affected areas of Iraq
Report
This piece of research was commissioned to explore and identify best practices for referral pathways from MPCA to livelihoods assistance for programme participants, and subsequently to generate recommendations for programme implementers and donors. The research focused on the operational models used by...
Applying the Common Approach ‘Resourcing Families for Better Nutrition’ in Humanitarian Responses. Cross-Country Learning Report
Report
From 2021 to 2022, Save the Children implemented ‘Cash + for Nutrition’ in programming in three countries at risk of famine: Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Yemen.
With funding from Save the Children Italy and technical support from Save the Children UK and the consulting firm InformEd International,...
Cash for Work: Standard Operation Procedures
Guidelines and Tools
The humanitarian crisis in Iraq is one of the largest, with the fastest displacement rate since 2014. Vulnerable population in Iraq include both the recent and long-term displaced, those who remained in conflict areas, those who returned to newly liberated areas (NLAs), and communities hosting displaced....
Livelihoods Policy Brief No. 2: Conditional Cash Grants during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Iraq, January 2022
Policy paper
The Iraqi economy faces a long road to recovery from several recent crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted labour markets and private sector functioning throughout 2020, 2021 and continuing into 2022. Options available to policy makers to invest in the Iraqi private sector include...
SMEB and MPCA Transfer Value for Iraq 2022
Guidelines and Tools
SMEB and Transfer Value narrative document documenting the revision process and final decision for the MPCA Transfer value 2022 in Iraq
Iraq MPCA Vulnerability Model Review 2021: Technical Report
Guidelines and Tools
A new socio-economic vulnerability assessment tool (SEVAT) used to target vulnerable IDP, returnee, and host community households eligible for multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) in Iraq was developed in 2021. Actors delivering MPCA in Iraq have used a harmonised tool to identify households since 2016...
Lebanon Case Study: Integrating Cash Assistance into GBV Case Management
Report
As part of the humanitarian response in Lebanon, UNFPA Lebanon piloted the integration of cash assistance within GBV case management services. UNFPA implemented three different types of cash assistance: one-off emergency cash assistance, recurrent cash assistance, and cash for transport. These forms of...
Cash at a Crossroads: Getting It Right for Affected Communities
Report
The great increase in the use of cash assistance has been one of the humanitarian sector’s success stories. Just as cash offers more flexibility for affected communities, it demands more ingenuity from the humanitarian sector. With the modalities of cash programming now receiving attention at the...
Livelihoods Capacity and Needs Assessment of Vulnerable Households in the Gaza Strip
Report
Throughout 2019 to 2021, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe in Gaza has collaborated with the Palestine Association for Education and Environmental Protection (PAEEP), a registered local non-profit organization. To further expand the evidence base for the design
of future projects, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and...
Meeting Needs Index – guidance note
Guidelines and Tools
The Meeting Needs Index, or MNI, is a proxy measure of household welfare, providing a single-figure composite indication of how able a household is to meet multiple basic needs. It was first developed and utilized by Mercy Corps in the Gaza Strip, then at larger scale by the Gaza Protection Consortium, as...
Good Practice Review on Cash Assistance in Contexts of High Inflation and Depreciation: Case Study Lebanon
Report
This case study accompanies CALP’s Good Practice Review on Cash Assistance in Contexts of High Inflation and Depreciation. It is intended to illustrate the process of situational analysis, response analysis and response option selection presented in the GPR. The learning from this case study has also...
Digital identity, biometrics and inclusion in humanitarian responses to refugee crises
Report
Digital identity and biometrics have long been divisive topics in the humanitarian sector. On the one hand, they have the potential to be more inclusive and reach people in need at scale due to perceived efficiency gains. A legal identity for everyone as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)...
Good Practice Review on Cash Assistance in Contexts of High Inflation and Depreciation: Case Study Yemen
Report
This case study accompanies CALP’s Good Practice Review on Cash Assistance in Contexts of High Inflation and Depreciation. It is intended to illustrate the process of situational analysis, response analysis and response option selection presented in the GPR. The learning from this case study has also...
Good Practice Review on Cash Assistance in Contexts of High Inflation and Depreciation
Report
What is this? A compilation of good practices to assist humanitarian actors designing and implementing cash programmes, including multipurpose cash (MPC) and cash for sectoral outcomes. The rationale for this document is the growing challenge of inflation and currency depreciation in contexts in which...
Assessment Of Financial Service Providers – CVA In Yemen
Report
In 2020, 24.3 million people in Yemen (approximately 80% of the population) needed some form of humanitarian and protection assistance, and half the population suffered acute food insecurity.1 Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) is a critical part of the humanitarian response in Yemen, bringing...
A Review of the CALP Network’s Work in the MENA Region and More Broadly 2018-2020
Report
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region exemplifies many of the successes and challenges for humanitarian CVA; programming ranges from large-scale initiatives such as the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) to NGO cash consortia to sector-specific initiatives. In this context, the CALP Network has...