Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA)
End Of Project Evaluation Report For Emergency Food Assistance in Nakivale Project, Isingiro District
The Emergency Food Assistance in Nakivale (EFAN) project aimed to address the food security needs of vulnerable refugees in Nakivale settlement, Uganda, through a food voucher system. This project, running from November 2023 to October 2024, focused on groups such as pregnant and lactating women, children under two years, and child-headed households. The evaluation assessed the project’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability. Results showed significant improvements in food security, nutrition, and economic well-being, with 97.1% of beneficiaries reporting better meal frequency. However, challenges such as inadequate support for larger households and exclusion of older refugees were identified. The evaluation concluded with recommendations for expanding targeting criteria, extending project timelines, and integrating additional support to enhance long-term sustainability and resilience for refugees and host communities. Read More...
Examining Barriers to Family Planning Information, Products, and Services Among Ukrainian Refugees and Host Communities in Poland (English)
Cash and Voucher Assistance for Family Planning in Poland Assessment Report: This report examines barriers Ukrainian refugees and Polish host communities face in accessing family planning (FP) services. Refugees struggle with financial obstacles like transportation and private healthcare costs, compounded by Poland’s restrictive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) policies. The report highlights the potential of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) to improve access to FP services, with the need for contextual adaptation to Poland’s healthcare system.
Poland SRHR Stakeholder Workshop Learning Brief (August 2024): This brief shares insights from a workshop on sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) for Ukrainian refugees and Polish communities. It identified financial barriers, restrictive policies, and stigma as major challenges, and explored how CVA could improve SRH access by partnering with local stakeholders and adapting to Poland's restrictive policy environment. Read More...
Poland SRHR Stakeholder Workshop Learning Brief (August 2024): This brief shares insights from a workshop on sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) for Ukrainian refugees and Polish communities. It identified financial barriers, restrictive policies, and stigma as major challenges, and explored how CVA could improve SRH access by partnering with local stakeholders and adapting to Poland's restrictive policy environment. Read More...
Proyecto Máxima Perú: Rompiendo barreras, construyendo negocios
El proyecto “Máxima: Rompiendo barreras, construyendo negocios”, es desarrollado con el apoyo de Fundación Citi y tiene como objetivo que las poblaciones refugiada y migrante venezolana, quechua hablante, amazónica y afroperuana (así como migrantes de estos tres grupos) de zonas rurales y periurbanas de Lima, Ica, Huancavelica, San Martín y otras regiones del Perú, tomen mejores decisiones financieras para optimizar sus emprendimientos y economía familiar, considerando las barreras de género y culturales. Además, busca formar y/o fortalecer liderazgos en habilidades digitales, habilidades blandas e igualdad de género.
El proyecto Máxima tiene 2 componentes:
- Programa de capacitación en educación financiera y empresarial en español y en quechua para fortalecimiento de las competencias financieras.
- Acceso a información sobre productos financieros (ahorro, crédito, seguros, billeteras digitales) a través de campañas informativas de Inclusión Financiera en español y en quechua.
A través de estas acciones, el proyecto Máxima tuvo como meta atender a 3,500 personas con diferentes perfiles emprendedores: ideas de negocio, nuevo negocio y negocios en crecimiento. Al menos el 75% serían mujeres. Read More...
El proyecto Máxima tiene 2 componentes:
- Programa de capacitación en educación financiera y empresarial en español y en quechua para fortalecimiento de las competencias financieras.
- Acceso a información sobre productos financieros (ahorro, crédito, seguros, billeteras digitales) a través de campañas informativas de Inclusión Financiera en español y en quechua.
A través de estas acciones, el proyecto Máxima tuvo como meta atender a 3,500 personas con diferentes perfiles emprendedores: ideas de negocio, nuevo negocio y negocios en crecimiento. Al menos el 75% serían mujeres. Read More...
2023 Participant Based Survey: Titukulane Project – PaBS Outcome Report
Despite decades of robust government and donor investments in livelihoods, food security, nutrition, and resilience, over 50% of the population lives below the poverty line. Previous activities have not sufficiently reduced the number of chronically food and nutrition insecure households nor effectively enhanced the capacity of local and government structures to implement resilience focused policies and actions. To address these issues, the Government of Malawi developed a National Resilience Strategy 2018-2030 (NRS) to guide investments in agriculture, reduce impacts and improve recovery from shocks, promote household resilience, strengthen the management of Malawi’s natural resources, and facilitate effective coordination between government institutions, civil society organizations and development partners. CARE and consortium partners designed the Titukulane Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) which means “let us work together for development” in the local Chichewa language—to support pilot implementation of NRS in Zomba and mangochi districts. The Titukulane RFSA, implemented by CARE International in Malawi (CIM), aims to achieve sustainable, equitable, and resilient food and nutrition security for ultra-poor and chronically vulnerable households. Specifically, Titukulane is designed to increase households’ abilities to deal with shocks without experiencing food insecurity following a three-purpose approach:
1. Increased diversified, sustainable, and equitable incomes for ultra-poor, chronically vulnerable households, women, and youth.
2. Improved nutritional status among children under 5 years of age, adolescent girls, and women of reproductive age.
3. Increased institutional and local capacities to reduce risk and increase resilience among poor and very poor households in alignment with the Malawi NRS.
To meet these three purposes, the Titukulane RFSA provides households with a package of interventions, including: Care Groups with Nutritional Cash Transfers (NCT), Farmer Field Business Schools and crop marketing support, Village Savings and Loan Associations, Adolescent nutrition, Irrigation farming, Youth vocational training including start-up capital and Gender dialogues. Read More...
1. Increased diversified, sustainable, and equitable incomes for ultra-poor, chronically vulnerable households, women, and youth.
2. Improved nutritional status among children under 5 years of age, adolescent girls, and women of reproductive age.
3. Increased institutional and local capacities to reduce risk and increase resilience among poor and very poor households in alignment with the Malawi NRS.
To meet these three purposes, the Titukulane RFSA provides households with a package of interventions, including: Care Groups with Nutritional Cash Transfers (NCT), Farmer Field Business Schools and crop marketing support, Village Savings and Loan Associations, Adolescent nutrition, Irrigation farming, Youth vocational training including start-up capital and Gender dialogues. Read More...
Expanding Learning on the Effectiveness of Integrating Gender-based Violence Prevention, Mitigation, and Response and Cash and Voucher Assistance
This program aimed to include adult women and men, aged 18 years or older, who were survivors of or at risk of GBV, including those with diverse SOGIESC and those living with a disability or disabilities. CORPRODINCO caseworkers were all female and enrolled survivors who voluntarily disclosed an incident of GBV. Caseworkers assessed participants’ need for cash assistance for protection, examining the economic drivers of their exposure to GBV risks, as well as the financial barriers to their recovery; this process took place according to the program’s standard operating procedures, which were aligned with best practice guidance and tools. Survivors who met the program’s eligibility criteria and were enrolled were guided through the steps of the cash referral during GBV case management by their caseworker. Read More...
The Impact of Integrating Cash Assistance into Gender-Based Violence Response in Northwest Syria
Traditionally, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) have received aid in the form of in-kind assistance. Increasingly, however, cash and voucher assistance (CVA) is being used in humanitarian response to meet the diverse needs of those displaced by crisis and conflict. Preliminary findings by the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) indicate that CVA supports gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response activities, yet humanitarian GBV programming does not comprehensively or consistently consider using CVA. This is a critical gap, as a refugee, internally displaced, and migrant women and girls face multiple risks and incidents of GBV before, during, and after crises. Read More...
Integrated Cash and Gender-Based Violence Programming for IPV Survivors in Guayaquil, Ecuador
Migrant and refugee women and girls are vulnerable to a range of risks before, during, and after humanitarian crises. Intimate partner violence (IPV), a type of gender-based violence (GBV), is among the many protection-specific risks
they face. Traditionally, refugees and internally displaced persons have received aid in the form of in-kind assistance, such as food and blankets. Increasingly, cash and voucher assistance (CVA) is being used in humanitarian response to meet the diverse needs of those displaced by crisis and conflict, enhancing recipients’ autonomy over what they use the funds for. Read More...
they face. Traditionally, refugees and internally displaced persons have received aid in the form of in-kind assistance, such as food and blankets. Increasingly, cash and voucher assistance (CVA) is being used in humanitarian response to meet the diverse needs of those displaced by crisis and conflict, enhancing recipients’ autonomy over what they use the funds for. Read More...
An Operational Learning Brief on Integrating Cash Assistance into Gender-Based Violence Programming in Ocaña, Colombia
With the deterioration of the economic and political situation in Venezuela, a humanitarian crisis has spilled into 16 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, including Colombia. Colombia hosts 2.4 million Venezuelans as at
2021. Internal displacement and confinement escalated in 2019, due to a variety of armed non-state actors competing for income from narcotrafficking, human trafficking, and illegal mining.2 Despite being increasingly overshadowed by the Venezuelan migration crisis, the preexisting internal conflict in Colombia has ensured that the country has the second-largest number of internally displaced persons in the world (after Afghanistan), with an estimated 9.2 million people experiencing protracted displacement. Read More...
2021. Internal displacement and confinement escalated in 2019, due to a variety of armed non-state actors competing for income from narcotrafficking, human trafficking, and illegal mining.2 Despite being increasingly overshadowed by the Venezuelan migration crisis, the preexisting internal conflict in Colombia has ensured that the country has the second-largest number of internally displaced persons in the world (after Afghanistan), with an estimated 9.2 million people experiencing protracted displacement. Read More...
The Effectiveness of Cash Assistance Integrated into Gender-Based Violence Case Management for Forced Migrants, Refugees, and Host Nationals in Norte de Santander, Colombia: A Quasi-Experimental Mixed-Methods Evaluation
As a complement to core aspects of GBV case management, preliminary evidence finds that cash and voucher assistance (CVA) may strengthen survivors’ capacities to recover from GBV and enable access to services. For example, CVA can help a GBV survivor to pay the costs associated with fleeing an abusive relationship, such as temporary accommodation and transportation, and to access legal assistance. There may also be indirect pathways in which CVA could be used by survivors and individuals at risk to reduce their exposure to GBV, such as decreasing their financial dependence on abusive partners or family members and shifting power dynamics in intimate relationships. Read More...