CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMMING BASIC (LEVEL ONE) TRAINING Report: CTP Basic Level 1 Training held in Jalalabad (27-29 August) and Herat (2-4 September), Afghanistan 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACRONYMS............................................................................................................. 1 About the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster .......................................... 2 About OCHA ............................................................................................................ 2 About NRC ............................................................................................................... 2 A. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 3 B. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS ...................................................................... 4 C. INTRODUCTIONS & EXPECTATIONS .......................................................... 4 D. GROUND RULES ............................................................................................... 5 E. THE TRAINING PROGRAMME AT A GLANCE ........................................... 5 GROUP WORK - REGIONAL CTP STORIES FROM PARTCIPANTS ......... 7 WHY CASH TRANFER PROGRAMMING IN AFGHANISTAN ...................... 8 IDENTIFYING POSSIBILITIES FOR CTP - PART 1 LILTON-BIGTON CASE STUDY GROUP WORK ........................................................................ 9 GROUP WORK ON ASSESSMENTS AND ANALYSIS ................................ 12 MARKET ANALYSIS ............................................................................................ 13 PART 2 LILTON-BIGTON CASE STUDY : GROUP WORKS POINTS ...... 14 MODULE 3: DESIGNING, RISK MANAGEMENT AND ADVOCACY ......... 16 A. ADVOCACY & DESIGNING CTPs LILTON-BIGTON CASE STUDY ... 16 2 B. ADVOCACT & DESIGNING CTPs IN THE EASTERN/WESTERN REGIONS ........................................................................................................... 17 Eastern Region - (Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Laghman) ............... 17 Western Region - (Herat, Ghor, Farah and Badghis) ................................. 18 RISKS IN CTP IN THE WESTERN AND EASTERN REGIONS ................... 19 RISK MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................... 19 THE WAY FORWARD .......................................................................................... 23 3 ACRONYMS ACF Action Contre la’ Faim ADA Afghan Development Association AFN Afghans (Afghanistan currency pegged at USD 1.00=AFN 50.00 on average) AOGs Armed Opposition Groups BRC British Red Cross CHA Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance CTs Cash Transfers CCTs Conditional Cash Transfers CFT Cash for Training CFW Cash for Work CTP Cash Transfer Programming DFID Department for International Development (now UKaid) ECHO European Commission and Civil Protection EMMA Emergency Market Mapping Analysis ERM Emergence Response Mechanisms FAO Food and Agriculture Organization FSAC Food Security and Agriculture Cluster GBP Great Britain Pound GoA Government of Afghanistan HEA Household Economy Analysis HH Household IGA Income Generating Activities IFRC International Federation of the Red Cross and Crescent Societies MIFIRA Market Information for Food Insecurity Response Analysis M & E Monitoring and Evaluation NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NGO Non Governmental Organisation NRC Norwegian Refugee Council OCHA Organization for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance OGB Oxfam Great Britain PRB Partners in Revitalization and Building ToT Training of Trainers UCTs Unconditional Cash Transfers USD United States Dollar WFP World Food Programme 1 About the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster The food security and agriculture cluster (FSAC) in Afghanistan was established in 2008, is co-led by FAO and WFP with Islamic Relief as co-chair. Apart from regular coordination meetings at National and regional levels, FSAC has developed Working Groups (WG) to handle specific deliverables according to cluster members’ needs. FSAC runs the Early Warning Information WG, the Afghanistan Food Security Technical Team (IPC), the Response Analysis Technical WG, and just engaged in the Disaster Risk Reduction WG and Cash and Voucher Interventions WG. FSAC has membership from the humanitarian community and also advocates for cash in the Inter Cluster. Its main aim is to provide an action-oriented forum for bringing together national and international humanitarian partners to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of humanitarian assistance on the lives of crisis-affected population in Afghanistan. About OCHA OCHA is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response effort. OCHA's mission is to: • Mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors in order to alleviate human suffering in disasters and emergencies. • Advocate the rights of people in need. • Promote preparedness and prevention. • Facilitate sustainable solutions. OCHA facilitates the coordination mechanisms including CTP trainings and activities in Afghanistan. About NRC The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent, humanitarian, non- profit, non-governmental organisation which provides assistance, protection and durable solutions to refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide. NRC provides the technical expertise on all Cash Transfer programmes in Afghanistan including facilitating CaLP Trainings. Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) through the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster in Afghanistan (FSAC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). 2 A. INTRODUCTION The Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC) working with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) continues to lead and foster the use of cash and vouchers to support communities and households to meet their basic needs in Afghanistan. The cluster has supported regional trainings across Afghanistan starting with the north early in the year (May, 2013) and recently the trainings have been done in the eastern and western regions. Training of frontline staff from agencies has been viewed by NRC and the Cash Transfer Programming (CTPs) Afghanistan community of practice as a capacity building strategy aimed at improving the interventions planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. NRC, UNOCHA, FSAC have forged a strategic partnership to coordinate, fund and carryout basic and advanced CTP trainings in the country. There is a general recognition and acceptance of cash transfers as an alternative response amongst Humanitarian actors in Afghanistan and most organizations are increasingly using cash and voucher transfers with the support from the ERF funding, ECHO and many other donors such as WFP, SIDA, DFID and OFDA. Afghanistan is a complex context with most of the areas having high levels of insecurity where access problems have led to a rethink of the traditional ways of delivering aid. As access remains one of the major challenges hindering increased coverage and the use of cash maybe used to widen the geographical spread into areas viewed as inaccessible. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world due to decades of conflict, natural disasters and lack of development. This sheer scale of the response and the number of agencies involved has brought capacity building to the forefront of the discussions around cash transfer programming in the region. Participants of the trainings also deliberated on the existing infrastructure which could be useful to improve the implementation of CTP in the different geographical locations. While other technical coordination groups and clusters such as Emergency Shelter and NFIs, Education, Protection, Food Security and Agriculture, WASH, Health, Nutrition etc in the region are functioning, there hasn’t been any intentional efforts to ensure agencies implementing CTP are working together as such and they are implementing ad hoc cash programmes which are not linked to the broader humanitarian coordination system. There is need to direct efforts towards preparedness and up scaling of CTP interventions and efforts to ensure that cash takes pole position in areas where markets are functional both pre- and post-disaster as the Afghanistan transition period gets underway and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) prepare withdrawal in most parts of the country in the near future. The Cash Learning Partnership has set objectives for up to 2014 as follows: • Development of institutional capacity • Development of leadership and coordination structures and operational partnerships • Evidence base on impact of CTP With funding from ECHO for NRC and USAID for the FSAC and active coordination with OCHA committed to improve CTPs in the country region through more regional trainings, lesson sharing, coordination, joint assessments and analysis, design, implementation and fundraising. The CTP Level 1 and 2 trainings are some of the initiatives these agencies are supporting reaching to strategic partners such as NGOs, GoA, UN agencies and at times the private sector. These trainings are part of activities feeding into objective 1 on development of institutional capacity