USAID and CALP (2022) Cash & Voucher Assistance Within Social Protection Preparedness in Central America, Mexico, and The Dominican Republic
The Report can be downloaded at https://www.calpnetwork.org/publication/cash-voucher-assistance-within-social-protection-preparedness-in-central-america-mexico-and-the-dominican-republic/
Excerpt of the Summary, p. 05
There are a range of options for integrating social protection programming linked to humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA). This continuum moves from governments taking the lead in developing social protection systems that can respond to largescale shocks (shock responsive social protection systems) to humanitarians driving the process (described as linking humanitarian CVA with social protection). Consequently, preparedness should include the reinforcement of shock responsiveness in social protection systems and of how humanitarian and social protection systems may be linked for a more effective, efficient, and equitable response.
The inclusion of CVA – whether via social protection, humanitarian response, or a blend of the two - in preparedness work in LAC is only beginning to gain traction. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) governments have long used CVA successfully in various social protection programs. However, CVA for humanitarian response at scale is much more recent in the region.
The region is highly vulnerable to multiple and cyclic hazards such as droughts and hurricanes, which are increasingly causing displacement and poverty. One factor that inhibits using CVA in disaster response is that traditionally disaster management response in LAC favored in-kind assistance by default; this limited further investment in preparedness to use CVA in emergency situations.
The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has proved a driver of change through a greater focus on CVA as a main tool to address increasing poverty and vulnerability. Governments in the region have begun to strengthen emergency preparedness using humanitarian CVA and through links to existing social protection programs. These new practices and learning can offer a sort of a road map in preparing to respond to other complex crises with humanitarian CVA connected to existing national social protection systems.
This study maps and analyzes programs starting from 2016 in which humanitarian CVA was linked to, or built on, national social protection programs, primarily for preparedness in a disaster but also for direct response to disasters, throughout Central America, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.
The study draws on an analytical framework of five key “building blocks” of social protection systems to help unpack the main parameters for work on preparedness:
i) Stakeholders and Institutions;
ii) Data, and Information Systems;
iii) CVA Design;
iv) Delivery Systems; and
v) Coordinating and Financing.
Companion in depth case studies from the Dominican Republic and Honduras complement the study. Climate change is looming ever-larger as the major humanitarian issue for the years ahead.
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