CVA and Protection

Cash for Protection (C4P): Targeted Intervention

In humanitarian crises, individuals often face significant threats to their lives, health, safety, and dignity. Protection initiatives aim to address these risks, ensuring the well-being of vulnerable individuals, groups, and communities. Within this context, Cash and Voucher Assistance emerges as a promising modality for addressing protection concerns. 

Cash for Protection is an intervention strategy that uses CVA to directly target individual or household-level protection needs. It is applicable in situations where individuals or households face risks or ongoing protection concerns that affect well-being over time. C4P serves as both a responsive measure to imminent threats and a remedial action to prevent, reduce, or alleviate exposure to protection risks, thus minimizing their impact on affected people.

It is crucial to distinguish Cash for Protection from other types of sectoral CVA, such as cash for shelter or those aimed at addressing general socio-economic vulnerabilities, which are more effectively addressed through multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA). While research indicates that meeting basic needs through MPCA generally reduces the probability of resorting to negative coping strategies, it is crucial to understand that MPCA alone does not qualify as Cash for Protection. Furthermore, the specific items purchased or services acessed through CVA cannot serve as a criterion for determining whether an intervention qualifies as Cash for Protection. 

To qualify as Cash for Protection, CVA must be designed with a clear protection objective. Usually, Cash for Protection is a component within a broader protection programme, which may entail activities such as case management, psychosocial support sessions, or legal advice. Another critical aspect of Cash for Protection initiatives is the involvement of specialized protection staff or partners, which is not always the case in other CVA projects. 

Safe, Accountable, and Inclusive Programming: Integrating Protection Principles

Humanitarian CVA has experienced significant growth in recent years, now comprising a fifth of gloabl humanitarian programming. While CVA implementation does not inherently pose higher risks than other aid modalities, it is crucial for stakeholders to ensure that its use does not exacerbate vulnerabilities for those in need. Instead, the focus should be on leveraging CVA to empower individuals and contribute to their resilience.

In recent years, SDC has advocated for safe, accountable and inclusive programming in all humanitarian interventions. This refers to the systematic integration of key protection principles – such as meaningful access and non-discrimination, safety, dignity, and do no harm, accountability, and participation and empowerment – across all stages of the program cycle in humanitarian programs. By incorporating these principles, protection considerations are systematically integrated into interventions aimed at meeting various basic needs objectives or sector-specific outcomes, such as food security, livelihoods, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, shelter, and health. 

Mitigating gener-based violence (GBV) risks within CVA is crucial within broader efforts to mainstream protection. This is especially significant because the design and implementation of CVA can inadvertently exacerbate GBV if not attuned to household and community gender dynamics preceding a crisis. Ensuring accessibility of the modality and delivery mechanisms is pivotal to effectively address these risks. Moreover, it is imperative to proactively address poential abuses of power, instances of fraud, and the pervasive risk of sexual exploitation and abuse, thereby safeguarding the well-being and dignity of beneficiaries. 

Another area of increasing concern in the context of CVA revolves around the protection of personal data. The expanding use of digital tools and emerging technologies in delivering cash and vouchers, coupled with collaboration with financial service providers, has led to the collection of significant amounts of peronal data from individuals and communities. In response, SDC is actively involved in raising awareness and fostering comprehension of data protection issues, while advocating for the responsible handling of data to avoid exacerbating protection risks.  

Despite these risks, there is growing evidence that CVA can effectively mitigate protection risks. For instance, research has shown that it can reduce instances of intimate partner violence, empower women by enhancing their decision-making power and choice on issues such as marriage and fertility, reduce child labour among both girls and boys, boost girls' school attendance and academic performance, and positively contribute to girls' sexual health knowledge, among numerous other advantages. 

Swiss Secondment Missions: CVA and Protection

To advance these issues, SDC deploys CVA & Protection experts to multilateral humanitarian organisations. Their role includes ensuring the implementation of safe, accountable, and inclusive CVA by building capacity and facilitating knowledge sharing within these organizations, and providing operational support to mitigate protection risks, particularily those related to GBV.

Members of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit's Expert Group Cash have increasingly been involved in integrating CVA and Protection in humanitarian activities. Deployments encompass a variety of key positions, for example:

• CVA and Protection Expert with WFP in Rome
• GBV and CVA Programme Officer with UNFPA in Geneva
• CVA Expert for Protection Programmes with UNFPA in Asia