Coordination
Background
Effective coordination can prevent gaps and overlaps in humanitarian responses, ensure the impact of CVA is optimised for the benefit of crisis affected populations, whilst also making the most of limited humanitarian funding. But the CALP Network’s State of the World’s Cash report found that cash coordination is seen as weak and ad hoc, and that this is having serious operational impact.
Ninety-five donors, international and national NGOs, private sector actors and one UN agency have called for clarity on two key issues surrounding cash coordination:
- Who should be accountable for ensuring effective cash coordination, and
- What the scope of Cash Working Groups should be, including in relation to multipurpose cash.
We urgently need to build on what works and provide clarity at the global level on the questions above, whilst adapting to different contexts. Clear decisions based on the impact on affected populations rather than agency politics are long overdue.
Current priorities
We aim to contribute to progress on this issue on three levels: supporting Cash Working Groups at the regional level; contributing to practical solutions for cash coordination at the global level; and convening evidence-based discussion on the key issues, highlighting critical decision points and opportunities for progress.
Featured content
Cash Coordination – LIVE timeline
Page
The latest updates on cash coordination as they unfold.
95 Organisations Sign Letter Calling for Strengthened Cash Coordination
News
Today a letter signed by 95 organisations was handed into the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) urging the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) to take a decision on the leadership and scope of cash coordination in the coming year.
Is cash transforming the humanitarian system or is the system limiting how cash is used?
Blog Post
At the State of World’s Cash 2020 launch event, Sorcha O’Callaghan, Director of Humanitarian Policy Group at ODI warned that, “Cash offers a huge transformative potential, but as far as the system is privileging the interest of the agencies over people in crisis, we won’t be able to see it”. If you missed the State of the World's Cash 2020 launch we're sharing highlights. Quote 4...
State of the World’s Cash 2020 Chapter 5 summary: Coordination
Report
There has been very limited progress on cash coordination since 2017. Cash continues to challenge the established coordination and funding architecture, and efforts to resolve outstanding questions around cash coordination have failed. Despite the lack of global agreement, Cash Working Groups are pushing forward and contributing to improved programming, and generating new approaches. This...
Cash Coordination Tip Sheet
Guidelines and Tools
This tip sheet sets out established best practice, key guidance and resources for all aspects of cash coordination, intended as a clear, accessible and action-oriented guide for those engaged in coordination of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) at the field level.
Introducing the Cash Coordination Tip Sheet
Webinar
The CALP Network has developed a tipsheet setting out established best practice and key guidance and resources for all aspects of cash coordination, intended as a clear, accessible and action-oriented guide for those engaged in coordination of cash and voucher assistance at the field level.
Cash Coordination: A proposal from members in MENA
Blog Post
Earlier this year the CALP Network undertook regional consultations to explore options for cash coordination. This blog lays out recommendations from participants from the Middle East and North Africa who sketched out what cash coordination, and coordination more broadly, could look like in future to support a more effective, efficient and accountable response.
Thematic lead
Latest
2020 Cash and Voucher Programming (CVP): Roadmap and milestone achieved
Report
In 2020, World Vision has implemented cash and voucher programming like never before – not least due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related social protection transfer scale-ups. From 2019 to 2020, we have seen a 28 % increase of our cash, voucher based programming, moving towards enabling affected...
CCI COVID-19 Impacts on Prices and Markets in Iraq
Report
The COVID-19 crisis in Iraq has caused severe economic disruptions in Iraq that will affect vulnerable households the most. The Cash Consortium for Iraq (CCI) has two streams of ongoing data collection on prices and markets, monitoring the retailer and the consumer perspective across five governorates....
The Unblocked Cash Experience in Vanuatu
Case Study
This report provides details of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council’s (VBRC) role and approach to supporting the businesses in the Oxfam UnBlocked Cash humanitarian programme in 2020-2021 in Vanuatu. While this report documents the learnings using blockchain technology, by sharing the key details...
Considerations for Cash and Voucher Assistance in Education in Emergencies Needs Assessments
Guidelines and Tools
This document presents some of the main considerations to keep in mind pertaining to Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) when conducting Education in Emergencies (EiE) needs assessments. Section 1 introduces some key CVA concepts within the needs assessment process and Section 2 serves as a checklist for...
“We are all vulnerable here”: Kenya’s pandemic cash transfer program riddled with irregularities
Report
This report is based on Human Rights Watch research in 11 of the 14 informal settlements in Nairobi county. Nairobi is among the 21 counties the Kenyan government selected, out of the country’s 47 counties, to implement cash transfers to cushion the most vulnerable households against the impact of the...
Cash and Voucher Assistance Essentials for Nutrition Cluster Information Managers
Guidelines and Tools
CVA refers to all programmes where cash transfers or vouchers for goods or services are directly provided to recipients. In the context of humanitarian assistance, the term refers to the provision of cash transfers or vouchers directly to individuals, household or community recipients; not to governments...
Cash and Voucher Assistance Guidelines for Lao PDR
Guidelines and Tools
Cash and voucher assistance is becoming increasingly popular in Lao PDR in delivering humanitarian assistance, rehabilitation and development focused projects. In supporting the cash and voucher assistance agenda in Lao PDR, the Cash Working Group was established as a working group for local and regional...
How to Incorporate Cash and Voucher Assistance into a Nutrition Response
Guidelines and Tools
There is a growing recognition that Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA), i.e. the provision of cash transfers and vouchers to targeted beneficiaries, can contribute to improving maternal and child nutrition by impacting on the underlying determinants of adequate nutrition. The main purpose of this Guidance...
Beware of the Crocodile: Quantitative Evidence how Universal Old Age Grants distort the Social Assistance Systems of Low-Income Countries
Policy paper
This paper compares two approaches to establishing or improving social assistance systems in low and lower-middle income countries. Taking Eswatini and Lesotho as examples of the mainstream approach, it provides quantitative evidence on the social protection outcomes of social assistance systems that are...
Gender Equality and Gender-Based Violence Risk Mitigation in Cash and Voucher Assistance: Vanuatu Case study
Report
The case study was created with the inputs of Oxfam Vanuatu and UNFPA Vanuatu. It demonstrates the meaningful connection of cash and voucher assistance and gender at a response level. Vanuatu is one of the world’s most remote locations and particularly vulnerable to cyclones and other natural hazards....
Perception survey of aid recipients in Somalia
Report
Before the first case of COVID-19 was officially confirmed on 16 March 2020, Somalia was in a state of emergency resulting from the worst locust infestation in 25 years. With food supplies already under threat, the infestation was exacerbated by heavy floods, which not only displaced half a million...
Cash Barometer Nigeria
Case Study
After more than a decade of conflict and violent insurgency by the non-state armed group Boko Haram, some 7.9 million people in Nigeria’s Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states (collectively known as the BAY states) were expected to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2020. Since the onset of Covid-19,...
BIEP program 2020-2021 launch workshop
Training
Cameroon: Country mapping – large scale cash transfers for COVID-19 response
Report
A rapid exploratory review aiming to identify recommendations for strengthening linkages between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance and national social protection mechanisms.
Kenya Cash Working Group 4-Ws
Report
The Kenya Cash Working Group’s (KCWG) operational information map (4 Ws) that illustrate the various Cash and Voucher Interventions in the country as of July 2020. Humanitarian agencies are responding to different emergencies in Kenya including Rapid-Onset flooding, Desert locust invasion and COVID-19...
Haiti Country Mapping: Large-Scale Cash Transfers for COVID-19
Report
As COVID-19 impacts on health, livelihoods, and well-being of all people around the world, the UN Under Secretary General – Emergency Relief Coordinator called on international community for a recovery package of USD90 Bn necessary to support 700 million extremely vulnerable people around the world. In...
Joint Financial Service Providers mapping-Iraq 2020
Report
FSP mapping covering financial infrastructure and the environment in Iraq, FSP`s capacity to current and increased demand, FSPs presence and area coverage, transactions and payment approval process and fees, regulations and required documentations, advantages, disadvantages, challenges, risks and...
How to build a Humanitarian Response Plan that makes a difference: tips on accountability and cash
Blog Post
It’s humanitarian planning season once again! The CALP Network’s Sophie Tholstrup and Ground Truth Solutions’ Meg Sattler reflect on how to use the humanitarian planning process to build more effective, people-centred responses.
CVA: Your Role as a GBV Coordinator (UNFPA / GBV AoR)
Guidelines and Tools
UNFPA’s Humanitarian Office and the GBV Area of Responsibility have developed this guidance on “CVA – Your Role as a GBV Coordinator,” for GBV coordination group leads and partners in humanitarian settings. Its purpose is to outline the practical ways in which GBV Coordinators should support GBV-...
The Provision of Cash and Voucher Assistance in the Response to the Venezuela Refugee and Migrant Crisis: Findings and lessons learned – Main report
Report
This study, for which data was compiled between March and April 2020, seeks to document lessons and good practices in the delivery of CVA in Ecuador and Colombia by humanitarian organisations and governments, in response to migrants and refugees from Venezuela. The purpose of this analysis is...