Alertnet: Kenyans insured for herd losses in drought via satellite images

Pastoralists would get automatic payments for losses if satellite images of the region show vegetation fades from green -- shades of brown will gauge the severity of drought.

The use of satellites bypasses the traditional, more costly system under which insurers check reported livestock deaths before making payouts. That is almost impossible to judge in herds that wander over huge areas.

Still, risks include that some herders suffer bigger than predicted losses during droughts. In other cases, some herders might get payments when their animals have all survived.

Read more on Alertnet.

GHA Report 2009: money - what do we do with it?

The new Global Humanitarian Assistance Report is out. It provides an overview of how much is spent on humanitarian assistance, where it goes and how this meets/does not meet the needs of the beneficiaries.

The four main chapters focus on

• official (DAC) humanitarian assistance
• humanitarian assistance from non-DAC donors
• humanitarian assistance through NGOs
• financial mechanisms

Financing decisions affect behaviour and humanitarian architecture. They help determine the power of different groups and they influence policy priorities and capacity development. The financial choices made within and between humanitarian crises will often have consequences that are felt well beyond the scope of the original time-bound intervention. In short, humanitarian assistance is not just about the scale of contributions.

HPN: The Role of the Affected State in humanitarian action

Humanitarian Exchange Magazine 43 features articles on the role of the affected state in humanitarian action. Case studies explore the extent to which economic growth, political stability and experience impact on the willingness and capacity of states to manage disaster response. The surprisingly positive role the military has played in supporting effective state-led disaster response is also highlighted and perceptions – often promoted by the media – that only international relief agencies can save lives and alleviate suffering are challenged. The role of the state in humanitarian action is, however, not always positive, as illustrated in articles focused on Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

Feature stories:
Aid and access in Sri Lanka
The silver lining of the tsunami?: disaster management in Indonesia
When the affected state causes the crisis: the case of Zimbabwe
Humanitarian governance in Ethiopia
Land and displacement in Timor-Leste
Lessons from the Sichuan earthquake

Practice and policy notes
Britain and Afghanistan: policy and expectations
Are humanitarians fuelling conflicts? Evidence from eastern Chad and Darfur
Lessons from campaigning on Darfur
Supporting the capacity of beneficiaries, local staff and partners to face violence alone
Stuck in the ‘recovery gap’: the role of humanitarian aid in the Central African Republic
Out of site, out of mind? Reflections on responding to displacement in DRC
Making cash work: a case study from Kenya

Save The Children: Cash transfers crucial in tackling child mortality

A new report by Save the Children, UK, (Lasting Benefits: The role of cash transfers in tackling child mortality), released in June, highlights the benefits that cash transfers may have in reducing child mortality and lifting poor families out of poverty.

As the report indicates,

While more emphasis and resources for the development and strengthening of good-quality health systems are vital, a policy approach that concerns itself only with ‘supply-side issues’ will not succeed in dramatically reducing child mortality. A range of economic barriers prevent families from being able to protect their children from early deaths. [...]
The evidence presented here suggests that well-designed cash transfer programmes can help tackle many of the determinants of child mortality, most immediately by increasing access to healthcare and reducing malnutrition. Across a number of countries, particularly in Latin America and Africa, cash transfers have helped poor people to access food and healthcare, and to enhance the status of women (itself one of the most significant determinants of child survival). Contrary to common assumptions, cash transfers also have important positive economic benefits, helping to create livelihood opportunities, increase labour productivity and earnings, stimulate local markets, and cushion families from the worst effects of crises.

These regular cash transfers, the Lancet editorial writes, may prove crucial in realising the 4th MDG (reducing under five child mortality by two thirds).

This report touches upon an area of BRC activities supporting the SARCS to improve access to social welfare grants in South Africa.

AidWatch note that cash transfers work

How to help the poor have more money? Well, you could give it to them.

In 2007, people in the Western Province of Zambia lost their homes, their livestock and their crops when heavier-than-normal flash floods swept through their area. USAID’s office of disaster assistance stepped in with $280,000 worth of with seeds and fertilizer, training for farmers, and emergency relief supplies.

Two NGOs working in Zambia, Oxfam GB and Concern Worldwide, tried a different approach: they handed out envelopes stuffed with cash—from $25 to $50 per month per affected family, with no strings attached. An evaluation found that common fears about cash transfers—that the cash infusion will cause inflation in the market, that the money will be squandered, or that men will take control of the money—were unrealized.

What did people buy with the money? The list includes maize, beans, salt, cooking oil, meat, vegetables, clothes and blankets, paraffin, transport, soap and body lotion, and lots of other mundane household items. They also loaned it to friends, used it to pay back debts, purchased health care, education and transport, and rebuilt their homes. Only a very small fraction of the money (less than .5%) was spent on “unproductive” items, like liquor for the men.

Read more on AidWatch.

Disasters virtual edition: The Indian Ocean Tsunami

This virtual issue brings together articles on the impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, preparedness for it and efforts of the affected people, civil society, governments and international agencies to provide immediate relief and gradually rebuild.

Articles include:

• Measuring revealed and emergent vulnerabilities of coastal communities to tsunami in Sri Lanka - Jorn Birkmann, Nishara Fernando
• Effects of the tsunami on fisheries and coastal livelihood: a case study of tsunami-ravaged southern Sri Lanka -D.A.M. De Silva, Masahiro Yamao
• Ethnicity, politics and inequality: post-tsunami humanitarian aid delivery in Ampara District, Sri Lanka -M.W. Amarasiri de Silva
• Tsunami mortality and displacement in Aceh province, Indonesia -Abdur Rofi, Shannon Doocy, Courtland Robinson
• The international humanitarian system and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis -John Telford, John Cosgrave
• Implementing cash for work programmes in post-tsunami Aceh: experiences and lessons learned - Shannon Doocy, Michael Gabriel, Sean Collins, Courtland Robinson, Peter Steve

Read the edition online.

An experience of cash transfer programming in Somalia

From Vasco Pyjama.

'...in theory, our method for selecting beneficiaries was picture perfect. Theoretically speaking, we should have got the poorest third of households in each village. ... The donor loved our beneficiary selection methodology. They even told other NGOS to use the same methodology.

In practice, I'm not sure what happened. Last October, during my final trip to Somalia, I went out to talk to beneficiaries the day before the cash payment was due. "What will you do with the money you earnt?", I asked. Invariably, they told me that they would share it with another three to five households. Typically, four others. Apparently, people said that the amount of money was so large (EUR50) and the need within the community was great. They did not feel that one family should be entitled to the grant. So they would share it five ways. Each family receiving a measley sum of EUR10. Just enough to buy a sack of sorghum, and that's all.

I was furious! Our careful targeting was a waste of time! Plus, I was convinced that the elders were placing pressure on the poor to share their money. But a colleague pointed out a few valuable points to me. Somali culture, she said, was sophisticated and nuanced in its coping mechanisms and sharing of resources. The fact that the poor families shared this precious cash probably meant that, later on, they could call on the other four households to support them in lean times. And perhaps, this way, even though they 'gave away' EUR40, they essentially leverage much more in future support. Or perhaps, they were just bullied and their money taken away.'

Wahenga: The Practitioners' Guide to the Household Economy Approach

The Household Economy Approach (HEA) is a livelihoods-based framework for analysing the way people obtain food, non-food goods and services, and how they might respond to changes in their external environment - a negative shock, such as a drought or crop failure, or a positive policy change, such as a cash transfer scheme.

Co-financed by the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), Save the Children and FEG Consulting, the Practitioners' Guide to the Household Economy Approach provides practical 'how to' tools for those involved in the fieldwork and analysis of HEA assessments. It will also be a useful refresher for experienced practitioners.

The Guide is presented as a series of seven chapters, each of which is a self-contained module specific to a particular aspect of HEA. These are supplemented by two sections; one focussing on how to use market assessment to help determine an appropriate response to acute food insecurity and another for advanced practitioners who are being trained to take on team leader roles.

Although this is not meant to be used as a 'do-it-yourself' guide for those with no exposure to HEA, each subject is presented in clear, logical steps that should - in conjunction with formal training - enable fairly quick uptake for relative newcomers to HEA.

You can read the guide online at the Wahenga website.

ODI: Malawi - Estimating the Impact of Cash Transfers on the Market

In the most recent edition of the Development Policy Review:

Although cash transfers should not be used under all circumstances, where the market is able to respond to increased demand cash transfers should be considered as an alternative to in-kind aid. Under the right market conditions, not only are the primary beneficiaries able to meet their needs, but the whole of the local community can become potential secondary beneficiaries.

(Simon Davies and James Davey)

This and other articles available in hard-copy from the BRC library, or online - contact the librarian for details.

Wahenga.net: Social transfers - briefs and case studies

The Regional Evidence Building Agenda, operated by the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (funded by DFID and AusAID) have just published a series of briefing papers describing case studies on various different types of cash programme in southern Africa.

The papers are available to download from the link above, and include case studies on Emergency Transfers in Malawi, Food Assistance in Mozambique, and Food Security in Zambia.

ODI: Is cash a feasible alternative to food aid for post-drought relief in Lesotho?

This report summarises the findings from a study undertaken to assess whether or not a cash based response by World Vision to the current drought in Lesotho would be appropriate and feasible, as part of the organisation's overall relief response. This was motivated both by a desire to respondwith the most appropriate and effective resources in Lesotho and to increase the capacity within World Vision more globally to use cash basedresponses as one of a range of options for response in humanitarian crises.

The report concludes that a cash programme would be preferable to an in-kind or voucher based response and would be unlikely to have negative side effects.

RC/RC Movement Cash Guidelines (produced by BRC with Federation support) now available for download from FedNet!

After a long gestational period, the Cash Guidelines are here, they're beautiful, and they are available online or in hardcopy from Charles-Antoine.

Please note that you'll need a FedNet access username and password to download the PDF - follow the links on the page to set one up, if you don't already have one.

UPDATE: The Guidelines are now also available from the ICRC website.