Attachments
UNFPA AND CASH AND VOUCHER ASSISTANCE (CVA)
With the goal of meeting the 2030 deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UNFPA is leading global efforts to achieve three worldchanging objectives: to end preventable maternal deaths, to end the unmet need for family planning, and to end gender-based violence (GBV) and all related harmful practices, including child marriage and female genital mutilation.
In support of these goals, UNFPA has in recent years been working to integrate cash and voucher assistance (CVA) interventions into its existing GBV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) response programming globally.2 CVA is an appropriate tool to help address the needs of women and girls in humanitarian settings.3 As part of comprehensive SRH and GBV programs in humanitarian settings, CVA can support access to services, help survivors to escape to safety following a GBV incident or when faced with imminent risk of GBV, and reduce risks of GBV such as the adoption of harmful coping strategies. CVA is a modality – or more simply put, a tool – that UNFPA can use to address economic barriers to accessing SRH or GBV services or purchasing necessary items. Evidence shows that CVA can be more flexible and less costly than in-kind assistance. Importantly, CVA should never replace but should rather complement UNFPA’s core humanitarian programming, including in-kind support for essential items through dignity kits. CVA, like any other modality of assistance or service delivery, should fit into UNFPA’s mandate, strategy, and specific humanitarian program objectives in a country or region.
According to growing global experience, the use of CVA as a modality maximizes the use of resources in a way that is most suited to GBV survivors’ preferences and requirements of their situation. It offers discretion and flexibility and can provide GBV survivors with emergency and life-saving assistance as well as medium to longer-term support for recovery and healing.
In particular, CVA:
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Gives women and girls the freedom to choose. The lives and well-being of women and girls are placed at risk in the absence of choice, particularly in humanitarian and crisis settings. This is particularly true in the case of women and girls who already face exacerbated risks of GBV, such as adolescent girls, pregnant women, and women and girls with disabilities, among others. The interventions give vulnerable women and girls the power to use the cash that they are given as part of an integrated, survivor-centered approach.
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Fosters inclusion. Recognizing that UNFPA’s target populations and their specific needs often fall through the cracks of large-scale CVA programming such as multi-purpose cash (MPC), cash assistance for GBV and SRH serves to help cover some of these gaps.
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Permits flexibility. Cash or vouchers can provide crucial support to key populations and specific vulnerable groups in a more flexible, tailored, and discreet way than other types of assistance.
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Is cost-efficient. CVA can be a useful tool to ensure more efficient use of limited resources, as it can be less costly than procuring and distributing in-kind goods during emergency responses in which a one-size-fits-all approach often does not meet the individual needs of recipients.
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Represents an essential bridge. CVA is a modality and an approach that can contribute to bridging humanitarian and development programming. It is naturally linked to more sustainable exit strategies such as national social protection cash transfer programs that are already established in some countries. To realize this, UNFPA will leverage its long-term presence and strong government partnerships.
Due to its greater flexibility and responsiveness, UNFPA recommends the use of unrestricted and unconditional cash assistance rather than vouchers whenever possible in order to ensure greater agency and empowerment of the GBV survivors. For this reason, we will refer to this modality as cash assistance or cash rather than CVA in the following chapters.