Stories From the Field: Cash and Markets Working Group series

The Cash and Markets Working Group collected a series of partners’ case-studies from the field. The stories explain how a joint marketing initiative by REACH in South Sudan, AAF’s fresh food voucher programme for displaced Syrians in Lebanon, a livelihoods initiative by PUI in Nigeria, and a digital cash revolution by Oxfam in Vanuatu have  helped families increase their food intake, improved diets and nutrition, boosted resilience and encouraged beneficiaries’ ownership over their food choices.

Read how they did it despite COVID-19 restrictions, highly unstable economic environments and lack of humanitarian access.

The South Sudan Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI)

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Hunger and malnutrition are at historic highs in South Sudan: as of October 2020, 6.3 million people – more than 50 percent of the population – were in Crisis food insecurity or worse (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification [IPC] 3 or higher). Food security response is essential to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in the country. As part of this response, cash and voucher assistance (CVA) has increased rapidly, with a call for consistent and standardized market monitoring to match. 

Led by gFSC partner REACH, the Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI) was launched in South Sudan in August 2019 to provide frequent, localized data to inform cash programmes, released as a monthly factsheet and dataset on prices, stock levels, road and river conditions, and supply routes. Some 32 CWG partner organizations collaborate to collect information across roughly 40 locations in South Sudan.

 

Food security programme in Lebanon helps Syrian families to improve nutrition during COVID-19

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FSC partner Action Against Hunger implemented a fresh food voucher programme for displaced Syrians in Lebanon, despite COVID-19 restrictions, a highly unstable economic environment and lack of humanitarian access. The vouchers helped families boost their food intake as well as improve their diets and nutrition, leading to greater resilience potential and boosting beneficiaries’ ownership over their food choices.

 

A blockchain revolution in digital cash for Vanuatu the world’s most disaster-prone country

PDF icon read_the_case_study-cmwg-vanuatu-2021.pdf FSC Cash and Markets Working Group partner Oxfam supported more than 35,000 people to recover from triple crises of Cyclone Harold, Volcano Yasur’s eruption and COVID-19 that left 160,000 people –nearly half the country’s population –in need of humanitarian assistance. 

 

Cash-based transfers in Nigeria help displaced  women to start earning an income again

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Northeast Nigeria has been beset by insurgency for the past ten years, displacing millions of people within the country and to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, leading to soaring levels of acute food insecurity. Thousands have been killed, insecurity is rife and the region is experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the history of the country. Premiere Urgence Internationale (PUI) is an FSC partner assisting millions of displaced people and the vulnerable communities hosting them through a cash-based food assistance and livelihoods programme.