The influence of cash and voucher assistance for disaster response on the humanitarian sector

This project will contribute with new knowledge on how cash and voucher assistance is transforming the humanitarian sector and the humanitarian organizations and contribute to the definition of future disaster response.

During more than a decade, Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) has gained popularity in disaster response. There are many proven benefits of CVA for the people in need as dignity, flexibility and efficiency. However, what influence the use of CVA has had on humanitarian organizations implementing it and on the humanitarian sector, have not been studied and fully understood.

The objective of this project is twofold. First, the aim is to analyse the transformative effect of the implementation of CVA within humanitarian organisations and the sector. Second, to investigate what innovation related challenges the future of CVA will have on humanitarian organizations.

For the humanitarian sector, the project will research what challenges or contradictions there may be between CVA implementation and a humanitarian sector based on the cluster system. The influence of this modality of aid will be analysed in relation to other aspects of disaster risk management as the Grand Bargain or the relation to donors. Further, to zoom into a case, the mutual influence between CVA implementation and the localization agenda will be studied in the context of Kenya.