1. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 Cash Assistance

2. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 Actual Situation (May 2014)  Many agencies are providing cash assistance  ACTED, Action Aid, Caritas, DRC, IOCC, IOM, Islamic Relief, JRS, Makhsoumi Foundation, NRC, Oxfam, PCMP, PU-AMI, SCI, SDC, THD-L, UNRWA, WFP, WVI, and others  Governance (coordination, harmonization)  Cash Working Group (reports to the Inter-Agency Coordination)  Informs and guides the overall objectives of cash assistance in Lebanon  Members: MoSA, Donors, NGOs and UN Agencies active in CTP  Operational Team (reports to the CWG)  Ensures cash assistance is implemented according to CWG recommendations  Members: 5 to 10 persons appointed by the CWG (endorsed by I-A Coord.)

3. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 Actual Situation cont’d  Unconditional cash assistance  86’000 HH received USD 100 - 200 (winterization, hygiene and baby kits)  300 HH/month receive USD 200 (one-off emergency protection assistance)  Conditional cash assistance  Food: 30 USD/month for 630’000 persons (140’000 HH)  Education: 630 USD/year for 30’000 pupils (+ transportation)  Health:580 USD/month for 5’000 persons (only UNHCR caseload)  Rent :150 USD/month for 1’700 HH  Cards in use for cash assistance  170’000 ATM cards distributed (CSC - White card for use with any ATM)  230’000 POS cards distributed (BLF - Blue card for use only in contracted POS)  and various different cards (LibanPost, …)

4. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 Why scale up cash assistance?  It’s Possible => markets and banks function effectively  It’s Beneficial to the operation => efficiency gains compared to sector-specific in-kind distribution  Effectiveness is proven (lessons learned) => food (e-voucher), winterization and emergency protection  Better cost-benefit ratio and efficiency => cash assistance has shown to be more cost-efficient than in-kind

5. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 What are the objectives?  Free choice for beneficiaries (dignity, priorities)  Provide time-bound emergency assistance to most in need  Mitigate negative coping mechanisms affecting communities  Support local economy (host communities)

6. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 Work to date and challenges 1.Means to identify the most economically vulnerable  Pre-identification of families based on demographic variables recorded in registration database  Home visits => living conditions, capacity to generate income, etc.  Regular revision of vulnerabilities and emergency referral 2. How many can we assist through cash and for how much  Number of beneficiaries and level of assistance will depend on resources  Narrow and deep vs. broad and shallow, or else? Impact?  Increasing vulnerabilities and protection concerns  Inclusion safeguards

7. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 Work to date and challenges 3.Determining what is the minimum needed to survive  Average expenditures assessed (food*, rent, communication, transport, health, education, water and clothing)  What is the “minimum”? MEB ($607), Survival ($435), minimum wage ($450) and NPTP threshold ($560) 4.Coordinated delivery  Unified mechanism to identify vulnerable  Guichet unique  Harmonization of cash programmes  One partner per location

8. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 Planned UNHCR cash assistance  Targeting (recommendation of the Task Force Targeting)  Identify the most economically vulnerable families where cash can have the greatest impact in meeting basic survival needs.  Inclusion/exclusion errors shall be mitigated through a gradual roll out:  First month: limited number of families (est. 10’000 to 15’000)  Selected according to a pre-identification formula showing the lowest inclusion error (combination of family size and dependency ratio – less than 5% error).  Further months: gradual inclusion of families (est. 3’000/month)  Selected upon prioritized households visits identifying economic vulnerability through precise indexes (per capita expenditure, living conditions, asset holdings, coping mechanisms and employment).  HH eligible through the pre-id formula will be prioritized for HH visits.  Assistance is time-bound (3 to 6 months)

9. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 UCT Operational Set-up  Simplified delivery tool  One service provider (ATM Card) for efficient disbursement / tracking  Option to use same card for food (POS) and cash (ATM) being discussed  Centralized data management  Lists of eligible families are produced by UNHCR though ProGres  UNHCR as depositary of registered refugee data ensures secured and protected data sharing and use.  Harmonized amount and timeframe  Survival MEB is USD 435/month/HH of 5  Contribution to ensure sufficient impact is USD 250/HH/month (recommended by CWG MEB task force)

10. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 UCT Operational Set-up cont’d  Follow-up and verification  Appeals, referrals, incl./excl. through HH visits (regional coverage by NGOs).  Centralized verification through RAIS (duplications, complementary assistance).  Joint monitoring system  Joint data collection and analysis (NGOs, UN, GOV), markets assessments and prices monitoring as key indicators for adapting the programme  M&E framework is being worked out by a dedicated Task Team.  Impact of cash assistance on local economy is being evaluated (result end May)  Common communication strategy  Coherent mass communication can mitigate most of the risks.  Mass Communication strategy is being tested in the field by Task Team

11. Cash Assistance / SC & LH WG Meeting – May 19 th, 2014 Questions? Concerns? Comments? Recommendations? 11