Assessment of Private Sector Partnerships and the Role of Cash Grants in Emergency Responses

In July 2010, Pakistan was hit by one of the most devastating flood disasters in the country's history. The disaster affected 20 million people and inundated nearly 20 percent of the country. The sheer scale and scope of the disaster severely challenged the capacity of the entire humanitarian community (Government, UN and NGOs), including CARE.

In response to the vast and diverse destruction caused by the floods, both government and humanitarian actors responded by increasingly utilising cash-based transfers to substitute or complement various types of in-kind assistance such as food provision and shelter, and to support livelihood activities of affected populations.

This experience and the expertise applied in the design, implementation and evaluation of cash-based programs in Pakistan has generated valuable knowledge for that can lead to improvements of humanitarian response not only in Pakistan but in other countries affected by disaster.

Priority Recommendations of this case study include:

1. Define CARE’s strategy, including a clear outline of objectives and plans for private sector engagement in humanitarian programming, formalize the relationship with TMFB and establish a structured process, continuous dialogue, and sharing of ground knowledge.
2. Expand and test the business relationship, using different delivery mechanisms as appropriate (e.g. mobile phone based transactions) in other parts of Pakistan (such as KPK) and build-in learning and review elements into future programming.
3. Engage in advocacy for promoting PPPs at various levels, including at donor level as well as with relevant stakeholders involved in dialogue with the Pakistan government.
4. Ensure better awareness of the target population regarding the scope and objectives of the project and take more advanced steps to avoid indirect influence of local power structures on the beneficiary selection process.
5. Improve assessment methods for the identification of most vulnerable households and ensure that CARE has the means to monitor the intended use of cash when conditionality for the use of grants is applied.
6. Maintain full flexibility in choosing the most appropriate delivery mechanism, taking factors of efficiency and effectiveness into careful account, and assess the costs and benefits of different delivery methods, both to the agency and the recipient.
7. Maintain dialogue with other agencies involved in cash programming and share best practice on cash delivery mechanisms.
8. As part of contingency planning and disaster preparedness, identify potential service providers from the private sector at national, regional and global levels, and explore with them the potential for partnerships in the event of a disaster and subsequent emergency response.
9. Closely coordinate with other partners under the CaLP initiative and advocate jointly with the financial sector to lower the costs for mobile banking services.
10. Ensure transfer of knowledge and best practice to inform other mobile cash programming in countries outside Pakistan (for instance in the drought response in Kenya).