1. Background
Over the past decade, governments,
donors and humanitarian actors have showed a lot of interest in Cash Based
Transfers (CBT). Several researches conducted in different countries had shown
positive evidence, of using Cash Based Transfers as a humanitarian response
option. This is related mainly to the fact that CBT enables the affected people
to make their own choices on what to buy, which is empowering in some ways. In
addition to this, CBT has also been hailed for strengthening the local markets
and hence re-instilling a sense of normalcy in areas that would have suffered a
shock – helping in early recovery and resilience building efforts for the
affected population. The World Food
Programme (WFP) is conducting the study in partnership with FAO and Oxfam to
gather information on Food Security and more inclusive and efficient food and
agricultural systems at local, national and international levels.
Research has shown
that CBT is not necessarily feasible in all situations or contexts – as it is
dependent on the livelihood and resilience of the concerned communities, the impact
of natural disasters on communities’ food security and nutrition, capacity of
markets, supply chain and financial service provision. It is therefore vital to gather adequate
information to guide the selection of the most appropriate response option in
any situation.
The organizations
continues to explore the feasibility of CBT to ensure that the most appropriate
modalities are used in the future emergency responses. The process includes
putting in place all the necessary sectoral capacity assessments to confirm the
most appropriate response modality.
The Pacific region is
highly vulnerable to multiple shocks that cause life threats and loss of
assets. The region ranks among the world`s most vulnerable to natural
disasters. This exposure to natural shocks is also increasing over time as
climate change impacts in remote islands have manifested itself in sea levels rise
and more frequent weather extremes including, severe cyclones and drought. This
is evident from the recent natural disasters that have hit Vanuatu, Tonga,
Marshal Islands, Micronesia and Fiji in 2015 and 2016. These risks are further
compounded by a particular vulnerability of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs)
to external economic shocks due to the small size, remoteness and fragile
economies as a result of high reliance on imported goods and services.
As part of the emergency preparedness
efforts by WFP in the Pacific region, cash based feasibility assessments will
be conducted in the five priority countries (Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands,
Samoa and Tonga) to gauge the potential of using this response modality as an
option in case of emergencies. To date, assessments have been conducted jointly
with the Cash learning Partnership (CALP) in two countries namely Fiji and
Tonga, and the assessments have shown that cash based transfer is feasible
mainly in the urban areas and main Islands; while some challenges are noted with
the remote Islands due to inaccessibility of markets and financial service
providers. The study has however also shown that there is a need for more
information gathering as the countries have different contexts that cannot be
generalized. This is due to the different efforts that are being put by the
private sector such as banks and mobile companies to reach out to the remote islands-
that have also at times improved the use of cash in some of these remote
Islands.
3. Objective
This CBT feasibility
assessment mission for Vanuatu will be led by the WFP team supported by Oxfam.
The specific
objective is to collect data for the purpose of cash feasibility assessment on
the use of Cash Based Transfers (CBT) as distribution for assistance,
especially during emergencies. This
would be done by assessing different sectors, namely: food security, nutrition
and livelihoods, agriculture, markets and supply chain, social and emergency
assistance and the use of financial services, in urban, rural and remote areas.
The assessment will
seek to achieve the following:
- Gauge
the level of acceptance and preference of use of CBT in the country taking into
consideration traditional beliefs and gender & protection issues
- Understand
livelihoods, nutrition, agricultural and food security characteristics of the
different areas
- Understand
current social and emergency assistance
- Analyze
the accessibility to markets and the local market dynamics
- Analyze
the accessibility and use of financial services
- Assess
the commercial supply chain capacity to absorb increased demand.
4. Methodology and study location
The
assessment will consist of two major components Tools for field assessments (key
stakeholders interview, Household questionnaire and Market /
local trader questionnaire) which will provide both qualitative and
quantitative information to supplement each other as an integrated analysis on
the whole.
The first component is key stakeholder
interview at the capital level (Port Vila), which aims to understand the key
issues in livelihood, finance, gender and protection, logistics, policy and social assistance that
define the country and its feasibility of implementing cash-based modality. WFP
will conduct the interviews and Oxfam will support to identify and confirm main
stakeholders and coordinate meetings. In addition, Oxfam will support the
organization of a validation workshop to validate the information collected in the field.
The second component is the community and
household level assessments in the field to collect first-hand data and
information on the areas mentioned above. The local partner will be primarily
responsible for conducting the field assessment via (1) household surveys, (2) key
informants for community profiles, and (3) market/local trader key informants.
Sampling of the community should consider both
statistical significance and logistics feasibility given the community/village dispersion
of the country. The selection of the communities will aim to capture as diverse
characteristics as possible in terms of peri-urban/rural/remote status, type of
livelihood and economic status. The
sample will include three strata: 4 peri-urban locations, 8 rural communities,
and 2 rural communities in remote island locations. Within each community site,
a sample of 5 households will be selected on the basis of criteria that avert
systematic biases in opinion, taking
into consideration economic status and livelihood. The local firm will be in
charge of producing community profiles with basic information (including GPS
coordinates – if possible).
As a
result, questionnaires will be applied to 70 household across the 14
communities (4 peri-urban (2 each Port Vila and Luganville) 8 rural (2 each
Efate, Espiritu Santo, Malekula, Tanna) and 2 remote (Aneityum) preliminarily identified
in the sample selection design and at least 1 market trader in each of the 14
communities.
The
questionnaires will be applied using the kobo box tool to simplify data entry
and analysis.
The choice of
households will come from either the Census or from household listing with the
aid of village chiefs.
5. Specific
task to be delivered by field coordinator:
- Take
orientation on basic concept of cash based transfer and survey tools and
methodology
- Prepare
draft field plan in consultation with WFP and Oxfam
- Travel
to field as part of the mission and administer stakeholder interview
- Supervise
and coordinate enumerators to ensure they done field work as per work plan and
record and quality of the data collected from field
- Produce
a field research report summarizing sites visited, number of HH, Community
profiles, major findings, issues of concern and strategies for addressing
these, and other information relevant to the project
- With
support from enumerators ensure proper coding of the questionnaires, analyze
patterns and distill findings
- With
the support from WFP/FAO conduct preliminary data analysis and produce a
finding summary to be submitted to FAO/WFP for review
- Produce
a findings report, with FAO/WFP/Oxfam feedback and supervision, based on the
areas outlined above
- Acquit
field related expenses after coming back from field.
