cash and vouchers

Ecuador: Vouchers for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights

This study is part of a larger multi-country study by CARE entitled “Cash and Voucher Assistance for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Outcomes: Learnings from Colombia, Ecuador, Lebanon and Somalia.” Ecuador is both a transit and destination country for refugees and migrants from Venezuela and elsewhere. As of July 2020, over 400,000 Venezuelans were living in Ecuador. Venezuelan refugees and migrants have considerable health, psychosocial, and economic needs. Within these groups, women, adolescents, and LGBTQI people face heightened risks of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), human trafficking, and sexual exploitation as well as challenges to earning an income while in Ecuador. Although the public health system in Ecuador is free to all regardless of migration status, not all health – and especially SRH services – are covered in the public system. Furthermore, safe access to available services without discrimination based on nationality, sexual orientation/gender identity, or age is a barrier to access and uptake of SRH services in Ecuador. Read More...

Colombia: Vouchers for Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) Services

This study is part of a larger multi-country study by CARE entitled “Cash and Voucher Assistance for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Outcomes: Learnings from Colombia, Ecuador, Lebanon and Somalia.” As a result of Venezuela’s socioeconomic and political crisis, there have been massive migratory flows of people from Venezuela into Colombia.1 According to the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants, as of May 2020 over 1.76 million Venezuelans had fled to Colombia with many continuing to walk to and across the Southern Border with Ecuador as caminantes.

CARE Colombia began direct operations in the country in 2019, focusing primarily on the needs of Venezuelan
refugees and migrants in Pamplona, Norte de Santander and, later, Bucaramanga, Santander. Cash and Voucher
Assistance then (CVA) are primary modalities for CARE Colombia, particularly for its SRHR and protection portfolio.
Working with populations on the move as was was the case in this program, together with high levels of unmet SRHR needs resulted in a unique operating environment for a voucher intervention supporting SRHR programming.
This case study focuses on the design of the programming only. Due to the timing of the review, no substantive data on the user experience of the vouchers or outcomes could be captured. Read More...

Lebanon: Cash Transfers for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) within Protection

This study is part of a larger multi-country study by CARE entitled “Cash and Voucher Assistance for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Outcomes: Learnings from Colombia, Ecuador, Lebanon and Somalia.”
On August 4, 2020, an explosion in the port of Beirut left hundreds killed and thousands injured, damaged numerous neighborhoods – including hospitals and residential buildings – and left 300,000 people homeless. The economic, social, and psychological tolls of the blast were added to an already strained population suffering from an economic crisis and the impacts of COVID-19. The Lebanese Red Cross reported in a post-blast study2 that, of those surveyed, approximately 5% of respondents reported having family members who were pregnant or lactating and, of those households, 40% reported needing Maternal Child Health (MCH) services. A UNFPA report identified a decrease in SRH service availability due to facilities destroyed or damaged in the blast.
Prior to the blast, the Interagency Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) Task Force conducted an assessment with 562 women and girls across the country on the SGBV impact since the beginning of COVID-19. This assessment found that 51% of respondents felt less safe in their communities and only 30% reported accessing health services.4 Sixty-seven percent of respondents reported that the main barrier to accessing services was lack of money.5 Read More...

CASH AND VOUCHER ASSISTANCE FOR SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS LEARNINGS FROM ECUADOR, COLOMBIA, LEBANON, AND SOMALIA

CARE is committed to ensuring that projects with cash and voucher assistance (CVA) are designed with and for women and girls, addressing recipients’ needs, challenges, and opportunities. CARE has invested in research on how to make CVA work for women and girls through gender-sensitive approaches to framing processes and outcomes of the modalities. As a widely accepted method of increasing access to services and improving autonomy, dignity, and resilience, programming with CVA has been integrated into numerous sectors to improve the lives of displaced communities, particularly the most underserved. To date, CARE’s CVA has primarily been used for food security and livelihood outcomes and multisectoral outcomes via multipurpose cash (MPC) transfers. Now, aligned with its strategic intent, CARE is investing in sectoral areas where CVA is less often used and that are of primary interest for women and girls, including gender-based violence (GBV) response and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

Building on extensive experience with CVA and SRHR programming, CARE conducted a study to investigate how outcomes for the pilot initiatives using CVA for SRHR compare to global learnings, and to identify opportunities for strengthening and expanding pilots for long-term programming. The study reviewed programming in four contexts (Colombia, Ecuador, Lebanon, and Somalia). The initial study was undertaken by two consultants, one focused on Lebanon and Somalia and one focused on Colombia and Ecuador. Data collection included 25 remote key informant interviews (KIIs) with CARE staff at the global and country levels as well as staff from partner organizations, followed by After Action Reviews with each country team and a validation meeting. All activities were undertaken in either English or Spanish and transcripts were analyzed using data analysis software. Analysis was conducted both by country and across contexts to identify commonalities and thematic learning, mostly led by CARE technical advisors. Read More...

Better Gender Outcomes in Food Assistance through Complementary and Multi-Modal Programing

With an objective of contributing to the knowledge base of promising practice using a combination of modalities to deliver food security and gender outcomes, this study reviews Food for Peace (FFP), DFSA (Development Food Security Activity), EFSP (Emergency Food Security Program), and OFDA projects that explicitly or implicitly incorporated gender-focused programming [55 pages]. Read More...

Beyond Economic Empowerment The Influence of Savings Groups on Women’s Public Participation in Fragile and (post) Conflict-Affected Settings Every Voice Counts

Women’s meaningful participation and influence in public processes in fragile and (post) conflict-affected settings (FCAS) is not only necessary to achieve inclusive development but is a fundamental human right. Unfortunately, in most contexts, men are overrepresented in decision-making and women do not have equal voice in the decisions that affect their lives. Some evidence suggests that the economic empowerment of women opens up opportunities for them to participate in public decision-making processes. One such means for economic empowerment in FCAS is savings groups. Savings groups are small, community-based groups that can provide members a safe space to save money, take small loans, and make investment decisions. Globally, women have made advances in improving their income and access to savings, as well as increased their entrepreneurial endeavours as a result of their participation in savings groups. Research also shows that women’s participation in savings groups improves their confidence, skills, and ability to influence household decision-making. This prompts the question: do these benefits of women’s participation in savings groups extend into the public sphere? In other words, does women’s participation in savings groups influence their public participation1 and decision-making? Through a mixed methods investigation across five countries (18 villages) in Africa and South Asia (Burundi, Mali, Niger, Pakistan, and Sudan), using CARE’s Gender Empowerment Framework, this research investigated the differences in outcomes between women who participate in savings groups under three CARE programmes: Every Voice Counts (EVC), Women on the Move (WoM), and Latter Day Saints Charities (LDS) Recovery Support for Vulnerable Households programmes [74 pages]. Read More...

Improving Adolescent Reproductive Health and Nutrition through Structural Solutions in West Hararghe Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia Abdiboru Project Final

The final evaluation is divided into three parts, qualitative, quantitative and triangulation final reports.
Triangulation: this project objective was to empower girls through improved reproductive health, nutrition, and education in rural West Hararghe, Ethiopia. It examines the effectiveness of two different set of interventions- a combination of structural and induvial interventions Vs structural, individual, and community level interventions against a control group. Ethiopia is one of the countries in the world characterized by high level of early marriage. In most cases, when girls marry, they move to their husband’s household and are socially isolated, work long hours, and have very little say in decisions that affect them. Keeping girls in schools is essential to their future wellbeing, and Ethiopia has made significant progress on its commitments. But in rural areas, it has been difficult to achieve high levels of secondary schooling for girls. Nutrition is deeply interconnected with reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health. Household gender dynamics often mean that girls are more food-insecure than their male counterparts. Female adolescents, those living in a household with food insecurity and high dependency ratio are more likely to suffer from household food allocation. Schooling, early marriage and nutritional status and overall girls’ empowerment are interrelated maters. They have a complex relationship one affecting the other significantly.

Addressing the issues in package is believed to bring the maximum benefit in improving the social, health and development of adolescent girls and thus empowering them in multiple dimensions. Yet programs that focus sectorally, targeting health indicators of women and girls while ignoring the broader context that radically constricts their choices, have not generated significant or sustained impact over the long term. The structural context in which girls live is the main driver of their reproductive, maternal, and nutritional health and educational opportunities. Read More...

Restoring Water Supply System and improved Sanitation and Hygiene Practices in West Mosul, Iraq – Phase III Endline

With funding support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Czech Republic (MoFA Czech), CARE implemented a six-months project aimed at restoring water supply system and improved sanitation and hygiene practices in West Mosul, Iraq. The project is implemented in West Mosul in Al-Zanjili, Al-Ghazlani, Rajam Hadeed and Al-Jadeed neighbourhoods targeting IDPs, host communities and returnees with 47,500 direct beneficiaries. Through the approval of a modification in October 2020 the scope of work was expanded on both the environmental sanitation and water rehabilitation components of the project, increasing the project target population by an additional 25,000 beneficiaries, making the total number of the beneficiaries 72,500.
The endline evaluation seeks to analyze the endline values for key water, hygiene and sanitation project indicators planned in the proposal and to assess the impact and effectiveness the project, relevance and sustainability. The study used a mixed methodology, including a quantitative survey on 560 respondents in Al-Ghazlani (271) and Al-Zanjili neighbourhoods (289), and qualitative interviews with key informants from the neighbourhoods and the stakeholders from the government [27 pages]. Read More...

CYCLONE IDAI RESPONSE AND RECOVERY PROJECT IN MANICALAND PROVINCE: CHIPINGE AND CHIMANIMANI DISTRICTS Baseline

CARE International in Zimbabwe and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Consortium are currently visible in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts through -support from ECHO. The consortium is currently implementing early recovery interventions which seek to address the immediate WASH and basic needs of the Cyclone Idai affected populations. The interventions are centred on a community-based integrated approach focused on building local capacities and empowering communities to regain control over their lives and become more resilient using a robust cash-based component. Targeting a total of 9 wards in Chimanimani and Chipinge districts, CARE and IRC consortium are maximizing the geographic reach and multi-sectoral coverage of the Action using a harmonized, closely coordinated, gender-sensitive consortium approach. The project is targeting households which were affected by the Cyclone Idai disaster, those whose shelter was completely or partially destroyed. Other vulnerability attributes such as elderly people, People with Disabilities, pregnant and lactating women, child headed households, and Internally Displaced People among other attributes were used for appropriate targeting.
The consortium is currently providing community-driven livelihoods support in four targeted wards through a Cash for Work program that was designed to rebuild community productive assets. The project is also implementing integrated WASH support interventions in 2 wards in Chipinge district and 1 ward in Chimanimani district whilst implementing the Multi-Purpose Cash Transfer project in 4 wards in Chimanimani district. The consortium conducted a baseline survey in both districts for all the interventions underway to facilitate evidence based monitoring and evaluation as well as to match targets with the expected project outcomes. The results will be used for both guiding project implementation and determining project impact by providing the datum for measurement [23 pages].
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ESTUDIO DE SATISFACCIÓN DE BENEFICIARIAS DEL PROYECTO ELECTRONIC FOOD VOUCHERS “CANASTAS VIRTUALES” Electronic food vouchers for coping with new challenges

El 15 de marzo de 2020, luego de declarar la OMS como pandemia por Coronavirus (COVID19), el Estado Peruano declaró Estado de Emergencia Nacional e inicio de una cuarentena. Las medidas gubernamentales implementadas, si bien contuvo inicialmente la propagación de la infección, generó impacto negativo en la calidad de vida de las familias en situación de pobreza y pobreza extrema (20,5% según INP 2018) y los programas de apoyo y subsidio generados por el gobierno, no eran suficientes. El periodo de cuarentena agudizó la situación de precariedad de una economía peruana altamente informal, un sistema sanitario débil y evidenció las limitaciones de acceso que tenían las familias a medios de comunicación virtual.
Bajo este contexto CARE Perú, entiende que estos impactos repercuten en mayor medida a las mujeres y niñas, y entre otros a los pequeños emprendedores, como los dueños de bodegas. Existen en el país alrededor de 500,000 bodegas1 y más del 60% son emprendidas por mujeres, estas bodegas han presentado una caída de más de un 50% en sus ventas. En este sentido, CARE Perú diseñó una intervención innovadora de doble impacto, que consideró abordar a las familias en situación de vulnerabilidad y contribuir en la reactivación de las bodegas de las localidades donde ellas radican, aplicando mecanismos que involucran el uso de la tecnología.

El Proyecto se denominó “Electronic food vouchers for coping with new challenges”, financiado por Fundación Coca Cola, conocido como “Canastas virtuales Coca Cola”, el cual fue implementado entre mayo y octubre de 2020 y tuvo como objetivo beneficiar a 800 familias de Lima, Junín, Arequipa y Piura, mediante la entrega de un kitCARE (canasta familiar de productos alimenticios nutritivos) por tres oportunidades (más de 3500 canastas), adquiridos en una bodega a través de una plataforma virtual, que operaba como una pasarela de pago, para más del 70% de las beneficiarias, el otro grupo de 30% utilizó otro medio. Estudio de satisfaccion [44 pages]. Read More...

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