Shelters, Settlements and Cash. A Manual on Cash and Voucher Assistance

Shelter and settlement programs have a long tradition of dealing with both cash and voucher assistance as part of the wider financial assistance through which disaster or conflict response programs are implemented. This manual is intended to explore how and when financial support, in the form of CVA, can support people to cover their immediate shelter needs, be it finding short-term rented accommodation or purchasing Household (HH) items or tools and materials that can help facilitate the construction of shelters that, however rudimentary, still meet basic requirements of protection from the elements while providing some degree of privacy. Once humanitarian responses move beyond the emergency phase, as the situation allows for more permanent solutions, CVA can additionally allow access to construction materials and labor or pay for rent and utility bills. Whilst CVA can provide a route towards meeting programmatic outcomes, it is often the technical assistance component part of project design that adds the real value and allows for the targeting of specific objectives to ensure physical safety, prevent the use of hazardous materials, mitigate and respond to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and other sectoral protection concerns, such as privacy in shelters, or address issues related to Housing Land and Property (HLP). This manual intends to respond to the need for guidance by generalists making decisions on the set-up of CVA shelter and settlement programs and who will be turning to the advice of technical specialists both in shelter and cash to identify and define those activities which will be supported and how. It is part of a wider ongoing sectoral engagement to adapt existing tools, knowledge, and experiences towards good programming.

To read the manual, please click on the following link: Cash for shelter publication