Themes /
Cash Barometer
The benefits of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) programming has been demonstrated many times over. But we believe user feedback can help inform a more effective roll-out of cash-based assistance.
A man repairs the roof of his home in an IDP Camp in Borno, Nigeria. Photo: KC Nwakalor/GTS
How does the humanitarian “cash revolution” present itself to the intended beneficiaries? What concerns do affected people have? And how can their perspectives help inform a more effective roll-out of cash-based assistance? These are just some of the questions we asked ourselves at Ground Truth Solutions.
“We need humanitarian to provide ways to learn how to start businesses or to go give us capital so we can take care of our needs ourselves.” - 51-year-old man in Borno, Nigeria.
A market place in an IDP camp in Borno, Nigeria where Ground Truth Solutions is tracking attitudes, perceptions, and preferences of communities in relation to the cash and voucher assistance (CVA). Photo: KC Nwakalor/GTS
What we are doing
The Cash Barometer is an independent accountability mechanism that combines standardised face-to-face surveys with user-centred approaches to allow cash recipients to provide feedback on cash and voucher assistance and participate in decision making.
We have collected the perspectives of thousands of CVA recipients through face-to-face surveys across Nigeria, Somalia, and the Central African Republic over several years. By facilitating discussions with smaller focus groups and through in-depth interviews, we have uncovered more details about the barriers and challenges people face. Finally, we close the loop by feeding back the recommendations and views we collect to humanitarian organisations, challenge and support them to adapt programming based on recipients’ perceptions, and empower communities by speaking to them about their data.
Ground Truth Solutions also offers training for humanitarian staff working on cash and voucher programmes, which we call “Accountability in Action”. In a series of workshops in 2022, we worked with agencies on how to use feedback from aid recipients to inform project design, implementation, and monitoring.
We launched the Cash Barometer with support from the German Federal Foreign Office and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since then, we have added further projects on cash and voucher assistance in Ukraine, funded by the Disasters Emergency Committee through the Collaborative Cash Delivery Network.
Contact
Hannah Miles
Research Manager
Our Cash Barometer projects
Latest Cash Barometer publications
