The Cash Working Group Philippines - Terms of Reference, August 2022

Introduction

The Philippines is uniquely conducive to cash and voucher assistance (CVA) because the country has generally functioning markets, existing cash transferring systems and an active government that recognizes the benefits of cash assistance in humanitarian response.

Since 2008, the Government of the Philippines, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), has been using a conditional cash transfer (CCT) platform to deliver its social protection programme, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Programme, more commonly known as the 4Ps.

In 2009, humanitarian agencies implemented CVA as a relief and recovery response post Typhoon Ketsana that struck densely populated urban areas in the northern parts of the country. Since then, agencies have progressively used CVA in humanitarian programming: in 2011 for Tropical Storm Washi, to assist more than 20,000 flood-affected Filipinos in Northern Mindanao; in 2012 for Typhoon Bopha (Pablo), which struck Eastern Mindanao, central Visayas and Palawan affected over 6.2 million people. It is then that Cash Learning Partnership (CALP) facilitated the establishment of the first Cash Working Group (CWG).

A considerable scale-up in CVA occurred post Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in 2013 when it is estimated that as much as 40% of all humanitarian assistance was delivered in cash. Since then, CVA in the Philippines enjoyed consistent and growing attention.

Most recently, in response to Typhoon Rai (Odette) the CWG expanded rapidly to become one of the most numerous working groups in the ICCG, meeting as frequently as twice a month. It is estimated that about 60% of the CERF funding was dedicated to CVA and most humanitarian agency adopted it as a default modality.

Throughout the humanitarian response to Typhoon Odette the CWG has provided space for a variety of actors involved in cash transfer programming: NGOs, UN agencies and the government of the Philippines (DSWD).
From the onset of the response the facilitation and coordination of the CWG was assumed by OCHA, with Oxfam as chair and WFP as co-chair of the group (subsequently referred to as “co-chairs”). The leading role was then shifted to the co-chairs with OCHA in support function.

This document strives to update and clarify the CWG structure, its objective, purpose, membership and leadership.