5. Programme Implementation

Following are the minimum requirements for this contract:

• Duration of the agreement;
• Cost and type/quality of the financial services;
• Clear division of role and responsibilities between CARE/the implementing partner and the provider;
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting system;
• Reconciliation process;
• Provisional calendar for critical dates (distribution, reconciliation);
• Payment terms.

When it comes to payment, CARE favors pre‐financing by the payment agent (i.e. both the service charges and the money transferred to beneficiaries are reimbursed by CARE once the payments have been received by beneficiaries). The contract should specify the timeframe within which CARE will conduct reimbursement.

Following considerations should be taken into account when targeting for CBI:

• Targeting methods and protocols depend on the programme’s objective and not the modality of delivery.
• Fears and perceptions that CBI would be more difficult to target than in‐kind resources because it is more attractive to non‐recipients have not been borne out of practice.
• CARE often relies on community‐based targeting, which use local criteria of wealth ranking and village committees to select the most vulnerable households within a community. This allows for a greater buy-in from local communities.
• To mitigate inclusion and exclusion errors, it is key to set up an accessible and reliable complaint and feedback mechanism through which beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries will be able to report such exclusion and inclusion.

Cash for Work is often deemed self‐targeting however this may not always be the case in area with little employment opportunities. Special attention should be paid to including women (culturally appropriate work) and the most vulnerable, who are often unable to perform labor themselves.

Additional considerations should be taken into account when deciding on cash for work projects:

• Relevance to address community needs;
• Long‐term benefit for the community;
• Non‐duplication with other initiatives;
• Labour intensiveness and number of participants that can be enrolled;
• Technical viability and capacity of the community and executing agency;
• Safety and security;
• Landownership and permit considerations;
• Do‐no‐harm considerations, especially in relation to social cohesion/tension, gender, child labour.

This process is the same as with an in-kind distribution and includes the following key steps:

• Create a database which congregates information needed to implement the distribution, reconcile information and identify the targeted beneficiaries. This will vary based on the modality and payment mechanism chosen.
• Agree on identification methods, which could include national ID card, biometric details, identity confirmation by a community leader or a combination of different methods. The legal system in country will be favored, but with the limitation that in many places women or marginalized group may not have formal identification or ID could have been lost in the crisis. In such cases, the Project Manager is responsible to develop identification mechanism (e.g. CARE Beneficiary Card) so that all the targeted groups can access the CBI. Identification method should also be on line with the payment agent requirements.
• Select method of authentication, i.e. the method by which the CARE and the payment agent will ensure the beneficiary identity (such as visual verification of the identification document, signature, biometrics, PIN number, password and/or visual authentication).

NOTE on data protection: All programmes present risks in terms of data protection that are associated with the collection, storage, use and disclosure of the data of beneficiaries. This personal data is however often more extensive than that gathered in in‐kind aid distributions and is usually shared with payment agents, sometimes with governments and may be subject to request from donor agencies. It is the responsibility of Project Manager and the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning officer to assess the risk of misuse of information by the payment agents in cases where sensitive personal information on beneficiaries is shared with them.

 

General distribution principles41 should be applied when it comes to the distribution of cash and vouchers. The key for the success of a distribution beyond transparent and effective targeting is a clear sharing of roles and responsibilities. The below table outlines key principles of role sharing, taking into account that distributions could be conducted either by CARE or an implementing partner.

Direct cash/voucher distribution by CARE	Cash/Voucher distribution by a third party
Roles and responsibilities Cash or voucher handling aspect should be extremely clear within CARE teams and roles shared to minimise fraud. e.g. The technical team who registered the beneficiaries do not handle cash or vouchers. The team makes sure the beneficiaries are aware of the distribution processes, know their entitlements and recount the cash/check the voucher they receive. The team also ensures beneficiaries authentication and signature following the distribution. The Finance team handles the cash or voucher, makes the reconciliation. The logistic team sets up the distribution site (including water and shade) and manages the crowd.	Roles and responsibilities Only the third party is handling the cash/voucher. The CARE team is involved in all of the other steps. e.g. The technical team makes sure the beneficiaries are aware of the distribution process, know their entitlements and recount the cash they receive. The team also ensures beneficiary’ authentication and signature following the distribution. The finance team is involved following the distribution to sign off on the third party reconciliation. The logistic team sets up the distribution site (including water and shade) and manages the crowd.
Loss CARE is responsible for any loss that is incurred up until the beneficiary has signed the distribution list and recounted the money received. The beneficiary is responsible for any loss following his/her exit of the distribution site.	Loss The third party is responsible of any loss that incurred up till the beneficiary has signed the distribution list and re counted the money received. The beneficiary is responsible for any loss following his/her exit of the distribution site. At redemption stage, the shop is responsible for any loss that may incurred if a false voucher is being used.
Sign off and agreement The Project Manager and Team Leader are responsible for sign off on the cash disbursement.	Sign off and agreement The Project Manager and Team Leader are responsible for sign off on the cash disbursement.
Security The distribution supervisor is in charge of the overall security and is the only one who can decide to evacuate  the site. For each distribution site there should be an evacuation plan, with identified evacuation routes. All team members should know about the plan and the evacuation routes.	Security CARE’s distribution supervisor is in charge of the security of its team and of the beneficiary. He/she, only, can decide of the site evacuation and inform the third party agent of his/her decision. For each distribution site there should be an evacuation plan, with identified evacuation routes. All CARE team members should know about the plan and the evacuation routes.
Use of armed guards CARE has a no arms policy, the Country Director should be referred to this policy if use of armed guards is being considered and CARE protocol for due diligence should be applied.	Use of armed guards CARE has a no arms policy, the Country Director should be referred to this policy if use of armed guards is being considered and CARE protocol for due diligence should be applied.

In a vast majority of cases, either in a humanitarian or refugee context, the coordination model is sector led. In those set-ups there is no definitive space where the CBI coordination should sit. This results in ad hoc set up of cash coordination architecture that varies from one crisis to another.

Coordination of CBI is especially relevant for the following reasons:

• Avoiding duplication of assistance, especially when cash interventions are conducted within different sectors;
• Streamlining value of transfers to avoid creating a pull factor towards certain locations and community tensions;
• Creating crisis-wide SOPs for cash programming and other tools;
• Conducting joint market assessments and price monitoring.