cash and vouchers
Gender Assessment Cash and Voucher Assistance Feasibility Study in the Solomon Islands
Feasibility study partner CARE Australia commissioned a qualitative gender-sensitive analysis to inform the overall development of the Solomon Islands Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) Feasibility Study. The gender analysis was conducted with the support of Oxfam, Save the Children, World Food Programme, CARE Australia, Live and Learn and World Vision with funding support from DFAT through the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP) Disaster Ready Program. The study’s gender analysis is the first evidence produced in the Pacific region that examines the effect of CVA on women’s well-being and empowerment, aligned with the “Agenda for Collective Action” that was agreed following the Cash and Learning Partnership (CaLP) symposium on “Gender and Cash and voucher assistance” in Nairobi, Kenya in February 2018.
There is a growing body of research on the effects of cash and voucher assistance on protection and women’s empowerment outcomes in relation to development programming; however, less so in humanitarian settings and particularly relating to short-term CVA. Cash and voucher assistance is considered to be one of the most significant recent developments in humanitarian assistance, in addition to being poorly understood in some regions, including the Pacific. As a result, it is likely that many interventions fail to capitalize on opportunities to foster positive gender impacts or possibly lead to negative externalities, including gender-based violence affecting women and girls. For these reasons, the rise in CVA in humanitarian programming must be accompanied by an equal interest in ensuring CVA does not cause harm to women and girls or lead to a deterioration of gender relations in the home. It is important to undertake a gender analysis to understand context-specific gender norms and the implications of CVA on men, women, boys, girls, and other vulnerable groups in order to inform effective and high-quality programming. Read More...
There is a growing body of research on the effects of cash and voucher assistance on protection and women’s empowerment outcomes in relation to development programming; however, less so in humanitarian settings and particularly relating to short-term CVA. Cash and voucher assistance is considered to be one of the most significant recent developments in humanitarian assistance, in addition to being poorly understood in some regions, including the Pacific. As a result, it is likely that many interventions fail to capitalize on opportunities to foster positive gender impacts or possibly lead to negative externalities, including gender-based violence affecting women and girls. For these reasons, the rise in CVA in humanitarian programming must be accompanied by an equal interest in ensuring CVA does not cause harm to women and girls or lead to a deterioration of gender relations in the home. It is important to undertake a gender analysis to understand context-specific gender norms and the implications of CVA on men, women, boys, girls, and other vulnerable groups in order to inform effective and high-quality programming. Read More...
Final: Servicio de Diagnóstico sobre las Necesidades de Financiamiento y de Servicios de Desarrollo Empresarial en contexto Post-COVID 19 de los Empresarios de la Microempresa y Pequeña Empresa – MYPE
CARE Peru. El presente informe tiene como objetivo presentar los resultados del primer y segundo levantamiento de información y el diagnóstico para la identificación de las Necesidades de Financiamiento y de Servicios de Desarrollo Empresarial en contexto Post-COVID 19 de los Empresarios de la Microempresa y Pequeña Empresa – MYPE, durante el periodo de diciembre del 2020 a marzo del 2021. Para ello, se realizó una revisión del enfoque metodológico empleado, proceso y herramientas de recojo de información, en donde se detalló los elementos que permitieron y dificultaron dicho proceso. El diagnóstico consitió en el análisis de la información recogida en donde se tomará en cuenta la revisión de los hallazgos por variables del estudio, diferencias percibidas por grupo de participación (strivers y pre-strivers), así como de la diferenciación por género y resiliencia. Por otro lado, se presentan conclusiones enfatizando temas relacionados a su gestión empresarial como formas de financiamiento, conocimiento de plataformas y medios virtuales, conocimientos sobre estructuración de costos, demanda de microcréditos de los y las micro-empresario/as [63 pgs.] Read More...
Somalia: Cash Transfers via Mobile Money for Maternal Child Health 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.”
CARE Somalia has used Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) in its programs for over ten years. This includes CVA for food security and livelihoods, nutrition, WASH, and education, as well as multipurpose cash transfers. Since 2018, with support from Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) (now the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)), CARE Somalia has been implementing a food security and Livelihoods, health, nutrition, protection and WASH program. With BHA support, CARE currently supports 19 MCH facilities across Somaliland and Puntland that target children and pregnant and lactating women (PLW). Read More...
CARE Somalia has used Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) in its programs for over ten years. This includes CVA for food security and livelihoods, nutrition, WASH, and education, as well as multipurpose cash transfers. Since 2018, with support from Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) (now the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)), CARE Somalia has been implementing a food security and Livelihoods, health, nutrition, protection and WASH program. With BHA support, CARE currently supports 19 MCH facilities across Somaliland and Puntland that target children and pregnant and lactating women (PLW). Read More...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...