Supporting the Linkages Between Humanitarian Cash and Voucher Assistance and National Social Protection Systems

This tipsheet aims to support country-level coordination efforts to strengthen the engagement between humanitarian coordination groups that implement cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and existing social protection or disaster risk reduction coordination actors and groups. In particular, it seeks to offers inter-cluster and cash working group coordinators simple practical tips for engaging with social protection coordination mechanisms, in an effort to increase information-sharing, identify potential opportunities for linking systems, and support operational decision-making. As context is critical but varies considerably, this tipsheet focuses on how and where coordination actors might engage and the type of information they may consider collecting and sharing in support of decision-making. It does not intend to provide operational guidance on how cash actors should align or link programmes, as such literature already exists, and, as such, does not seek to replicate or replace agency-specific guidance and policies on this subject. The larger objective is to improve outcomes for affected populations by ensuring that different humanitarian or development actors and coordination groups are better linked, where this is appropriate, feasible and desirable.

Engagement should allow humanitarian and development actors to work and operate together to maximize impact and efficiency, avoid duplication of effort, minimize the waste of resources and learn from each other. Please note that this tipsheet is a living and informal document and has benefited from inputs from a variety of actors who wished to contribute. Opportunities will remain open and continue to be sought to strengthen it further through increased consultations and learning from practical application in the future.