Taking Stock of Cash and Voucher Assistance to Achieve Protection Outcomes in the Protection Sector in Humanitarian Settings

The Global Protection Cluster (GPC) Task Team on Cash for Protection (TT C4P) was established in 2017 with the aim of increasing knowledge about the use of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) in the protection sector and increasing the effectiveness and quality of programmes using CVA to achieve protection outcomes. The Task Team hosts open membership, currently bringing together over 40 participants across 30 organizations1 representing a diversity of organizations, countries and experiences on both protection and CVA. Among its objectives for 2019-20, the Task Team identified as a priority the development of a taking stock paper on the use of CVA to achieve protection outcomes in humanitarian settings. This paper is the result of that collaborative effort and will be updated periodically to capture available evidence.

This paper aims to contribute to a common understanding of the use of CVA for protection outcomes within the protection sector amongst humanitarian stakeholders — including implementing agencies (UN, INGO, NGO and CBO), donors and host governments — sharing up-to-date evidence and practice. Another purpose of this paper is to highlight opportunities for the effective use of CVA within the protection sector to achieve protection outcomes, whilst also identifying gaps in knowledge, evidence and practice that require critical attention and resources. While CVA for sectoral or multisectoral outcomes may also contribute to protection outcomes, the scope of this paper is limited to the protection sector’s experience with CVA in stand-alone protection programming.