Cash Working Group Meeting, Skype – , , , Sievierodonetsk, 29 May 2020

Discussion Action points/Decisions

ACTED provided the briefing/refresher on the tasks and modality of the Cash Working Group (CWG). Since 2018, ACTED voluntarily co-facilitates the CWG and presents the findings of Joint Market Monitoring. Also, the relevance of the Multi-Purpose Cash (MPC) transfer amount is regularly discussed and reviewed at the CWG meetings.

1. Results on MPC in 2020 Q1 (by UNOCHA) ACTED to send the link to the • 7 partners were operational in terms of MPC in Q1 2020 – ACTED, Caritas , German Red Cross, IOM, People in Need, CWG Web-page on Polish Humanitarian Action and Save the Children. humanitarianresponse.info and • Based on information provided by partners, the total amount of MPC provided in 2020 Q1 was 55’641’510 UAH. presentation with Q1 2020 achievements to the partners • In terms of beneficiary numbers, as reported 2’175 were assisted under the projects included into HRP and 4’886 outside of HRP,

UAH 12’027’630 and UAH 43’613’880 were provided, respectively. The request to participants was shared for the cross-checking of

the figures. • All information will be available in the form of interactive dashboards on HR.info web platform with detailed information as per Cluster, partner, delivery mechanism and modality after receiving confirmations from partners.

2. Presentation of online CVA dashboard with 2018-2019 data and CVA snapshot (by UNOCHA) ACTED to share the link to the • OCHA presented new online dashboard with 2018-2019 data for all sectors of cash and vouchers assistance (CVA). It is available dashboard and snapshot with the online on the HR.info. partners. • OCHA presented brand new product - CVA snapshot which reflects all CVA trends and analysis in 2018-2019. It’s also available in HR.info.

3. Partner updates on the MPC and other sectoral cash assistance programs DRC to share information about • ACTED: since the beginning of 2020 appr. 300 beneficiaries were provided with three months MPC assistance (970 UAH/person/month). cash project and referrals with In Q2 ACTED plans to cover more then 200 beneficiaries, in Q3 – appr. 1000 beneficiaries. Food security cash assistance was distributed ACTED. ACTED to disseminate in March-April with 2500 beneficiaries provided with 3 months assistance, 825 UAH/person/month. Both activities are conducted in this information further with Donetska and Luhanska oblasts GCA. partners. • German Red Cross implements MPC project since January till December 2020. No interruptions in providing of MPC during the pandemic, but due to the COVID-19 situation Privatbank or Ukrposhta were included to the transfer mechanism in addition to Oshadbank. Total number of beneficiaries is 2110, transfer value (32,6 EUR) – 1714 UAH for Jan-Feb, 1929.92 UAH in March-April. In future delivery is going to be made through Oschadbank and Ukrposhta. Address delivery to beneficiaries via Ukrposhta will be in place till May-June 2020. Area of intervention: Yasynuvatskyi, Marinskyi, Bakhmutskyi and Kostiantynivskyi of oblast. German RC Expressed the appreciation to PIN for the cross-checking of data. MPC assistance will be distributed till the end of the year. Amount of assistance depends on the exchange rate.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) | Ukraine Coordination Saves Lives | www.unocha.org

• Caritas has MPC project in 0-5km zone along the Contact Line for 4 months, 970 UAH/beneficiary, due to decrease of the currency rate, the number of beneficiaries decreased to 100 new beneficiaries per month (previously was 200 beneficiaries). PDM after 4 months showed that 4-month assistance is enough to cover gaps in meeting the basic needs. Caritas changed the office responsible for Luhanska oblast from Caritas Sieverodonetsk to Caritas Donetsk (physically present in Dnipro). For Q2 100 new beneficiaries are planned for every month. Geographical coverage: 0-5km along the contact line, 4 centers: Caritas Mariupol ( ), Caritas Zaporizhzhia (Marinka and raion), Caritas Kramatorsk ( raion and ), Caritas Donetsk (Luhansk Oblast).

• DRC has a cash project focused on the COVID-19 response for population who had been economically active before quarantine and lost

main source of income because of COVID-19 restrictions. DRC supported its beneficiaries from previous projects and now ask partners for referrals who meet the main criteria. DRC has several donors funding this project, number of beneficiaries to be covered – 165 grants and 100 more, with amount appr. 6000UAH/HH, for those who lost main income source because of the lockdown. DRC receives requests for assistance from vulnerable population who doesn’t meet the criteria for this project, and will provide referrals to humanitarian partners. • IOM has MPC project since the beginning of 2020 till September 2020, in 0-20km area along the Contact Line in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts for 2300 beneficiaries. Vulnerable categories to be supported: families with many children, elderly people 70+, single parents, persons with disabilities. There will be three installments, each one covering 3 months. Two payments were already been done, with 1000 UAH/person/month. 41 locations in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast are covered. • PIN has ongoing MPC project in Bakhmutskyi raion. In Pesky, Luhanske and , total 429 beneficiaries received assistance,

970 UAH/person/month, covering 3 months. In 500 beneficiaries are planned to be supported in June. Totally project will

cover 1200 beneficiaries till September 2020. Toretsk Municipality (Toretsk and Yasynuvata Raion) was covered in March 2020 with 1150

beneficiaries. • Save the Children has finished their 4-month MPC program for the female headed HHs, single mothers, families with many children: 355 HHs were supported with 970 UAH/person/month. Payments were made in 2 installments. There are no current MPC projects, however, these are some plans for Q3-Q4 2020. • Caritas stated that on 23 April the Law #1210 was issued according to which there are no taxes to the humanitarian aid regardless its amount, to conflict affected people in the JFO area – Article 165, Tax Code, Law 1210. • PAH has multi-sectoral project for the elderly (60+) people in 6 rayons (Novoaidarskyi, Stanycho-Luhanskyi, Popasnyanskyi, Bakhmutskyi, Yasynuvatskyi rayons and Toretsk municipality) with PSS assistance. Besides, there is ongoing MPC project for 500 beneficiaries with 2910 UAH/person, in May 2020. Overall, during the project were covered 33 locations along the contact line, with 1500 beneficiaries. • UNHCR has IPA program in 0-20km zone. COVID-related response was included into cash program. Assistance was provided to persons

from NGCA who is staying in GCA and can’t return back because of EECP closure, to people who lost their income due to COVID-19, and

who has house-related issues. Protection Assistance – one-off payment 6000UAH. UNHCR identified highly vulnerable cases in 20+ km area

and could provide referrals to cash partners operating there. • ASB informed they have sectoral cash assistance for hygiene and food. In January - February 2020, 3000 beneficiaries were supported with 2 month of assistance in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, 5km zone. In March, 2550 beneficiaries received cash grant for three months, next installments will be in June for 3 months. ASB thanks to all partners for the data cross-checking. • NRC has no MPC project in Q2 2020, but plans some activities in Q3-Q4 2020.

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4. Rapid Market Assessment findings ACTED to share the presentation • Data collection conducted in April 2020 to assess the economic impact of the COVID-19 restrictions. with key findings of Rapid • Geographic coverage – 56 locations in Donetska and Luhanska oblast GCA (29 locations with traders and 49 with costumers). Market Assessment conducted in • This round of monitoring was done with some traders surveyed in person (only food and hygiene sectors were included), most traders April 2020 and customers surveyed by phone. • 94% customers interviewed (across all locations) indicated there have been changes in availability and affordability of food items, hygiene items and medication in their locations since the deterioration of the epidemiological situation. • Price increase was the most reported change, with 86% respondents mentioning this problem.

• Food items were generally reported by 85% customers as fully available.

• The exception was 4 small remote locations where part of the respondents reported food to be unavailable – this concerns 33% customers

interviewed in 3 locations and 67% in 1 location.

• In none location, 100% respondents reported food to be unavailable. • Retailers in 26 (93%) locations surveyed reported increase in food price. • Compared to February 2020, food prices increased by 11.6% on average. • Analysis of average price levels per market category showed that peripheral markets demonstrated 4.5% above-average food prices, semi-peripheral markets had food prices that are 1.4% lower than average, and food prices in the market sub-centers were 14.5% below average level. • Retailers reported changes in demand for food with approximately half of them reporting decrease and half of them reporting increase in demand either in general, or for certain food items. Main reasons reported for the decrease in demand: -decrease in population's purchasing power; -people follow quarantine protection measures and visit shops less frequently; -no customers coming from NGCA or nearby villages. Main reasons reported for the increase in demand: -transportation issues, i.e. people who used to travel to the bigger locations before now buy everything locally; -closure of street markets so people now come to the shops; -increased demand for certain goods, particularly for grits. • 17% customers overall (57% of those who were aware of the situation with basic goods home delivery) in 21 (43%) locations reported it is possible to deliver food to their homes. • The providers for home food delivery mentioned by customers included volunteers, social workers, NGOs, retailers and church. • Customers in 16 locations reported it is possible to deliver food to their locations from other locations. • 79% respondents (customers in 45 locations) reported people don’t travel to other markets, in the current epidemiological situation. • Average transportation costs for the round trip to another market before the quarantine was reported at UAH55 for public transport and UAH285 for private car -UAH49 / UAH297 from periphery -UAH60 / UAH252 from semi-periphery

• During quarantine, public transport was reported not functional and the transportation costs with private transport were reported unchanged. • Hygiene items were reported to be fully available in their location by 75% customers.

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Coordination Saves Lives | www.unocha.org

• Consumer-reported availability of hygiene items decreased from the February 2020 MM round to the April 2020 MM round in all of the market categories. • Retailers in 12 (44%) locations surveyed reported increase in price for hygiene items. • Compared to February 2020, prices for hygiene items increased by 6.8% on average. • Hand sanitizer was reported available by retailers in 21 (75%) locations surveyed and not available in 7 (37%) peripheral locations. • 14% customers overall (76% of those who were aware of the situation with basic goods delivery to their locations) in 17 locations reported it is possible to deliver hygiene items to their locations from the other locations. • 45% respondents (customers in 35 (71%) locations) reported that people usually travel to purchase hygiene items to other locations (but not exclusively).

• The main reason for traveling for hygiene items were lower prices, reportedly.

• Personal protection items were reported to be fully available by 33% customers interviewed.

• Consumer-reported availability of medicines decreased from February 2020 to April 2020 in peripheral locations (full availability

reported by 31% and 19% customers, respectively) and semi-peripheral locations (87% and 70%, respectively).

• 47% customers reported feeling safe (in terms of epidemiological situation) when they visit shops or supermarkets (49% of those customers who reported visiting shops and supermarkets). • 42% customers reported there is sufficient number of bank branches functioning in their location. • 76% customers reported Ukrposhta’s office is functioning in their location. • 41% customers interviewed, in 35 locations, reported there are food items which local population purchase rarely because of self- production. • 38% customers interviewed, in 32 locations, reported there have been changes in provision of humanitarian assistance in their locations since the beginning of deterioration of epidemiological situation. 75% of them specified that humanitarian actors suspended their operation in the area, while some others mentioned that humanitarian focus was switched to the population over the age of 60 or 80. • 91% customers interviewed reported cash as one of the most appropriate modalities of humanitarian assistance in their locations in the current epidemiological situation. • Food parcels were reported as the second most appropriate modality of humanitarian assistance by 47% customers.

5. Revision of MPC transfer value for the 2020 ACTED to share the new o Actual MPC Transfer Value: recommendations for MPC transfer • 970 UAH per person per month. value • Endorsed by the CWG in October 2018. • 30% of October 2018 actual subsistence level. • 60% of income gap for vulnerable population (as of October 2018) • 54% of income gap for vulnerable population (as of April 2020) According to the income gap study conducted in May 2020: • There is no major grow in the beneficiary’s income since August 2018 in 0-5 km along the CL. • The biggest income is reported mostly by the elderly people among other vulnerability groups. • Among all vulnerability groups, none have sufficient monthly income to cover minimum needs (MEB). • According to the official data published regularly by the Ministry of Social Policy the actual subsistence level has slightly increased since the beginning of 2020 (3846 UAH in April 2020). • In April 2020 income gap for vulnerable population was 1788 UAH.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Coordination Saves Lives | www.unocha.org

• Subsistence level in April 2020 slightly increased comparing to February 2020 (food costs increased by 3.2%, Sanitation items and medication by 3.3%, hygiene items by 1.1%) • However, according to the Rapid Market Assessment conducted in critical markets in Donetsk and Luhansk, GCA average food price increased by 11.6% on average since February 2020, average increase in prices for hygiene items were at 6.8%. • Price increase since February 2020 (11.6% for food and 6.8% for hygiene items) in the critical markets in Donetsk and Luhansk, GCA integrated into the calculation of MEB: • Actual subsi