While overall CBI can cover assistance to any type of sector activities and needs, certain sector-specific considerations should be included. These sector-specific considerations should be accounted for early on in the project design to ensure that relevant information is collected and analysed. As part of a sector-specific intervention, such as helping people pay for rent or rebuild their livelihoods, CBI may be provided as part of a package; each sector requires different skills and considerations to ensure CBI is used and monitored effectively. IOM has developed sector-specific guidance for using CBI and the CALP Network website houses a wealth of sector-specific information.
CBI sector-specific literature review
3.1.1 Cash for shelter and rent
CBI presents opportunities for meeting shelter needs, assuming local markets are able to respond appropriately to changes in demand and supply. Rental assistance programmes aim to support displaced families and returnees with temporary accommodation over a defined period of time, in order to address humanitarian shelter needs, protection and security concerns by providing access to adequate and dignified shelter in non-camp settings.
Cash-for-rent is an increasingly common temporary shelter option in contexts of urban displacement. Whilst money is paid for rent, not all approaches are considered as a CBI. There are various approaches to providing rental assistance which vary in purpose. The cash assistance is most often linked to conditionalities and paid to the beneficiary (tenant).
CBI can also help people to purchase tools and materials to construct rudimentary shelters for basic protection from the elements (precipitation, wind, extreme temperatures, etc.) and privacy or rehabilitate existing shelters. During rehabilitation, CBI can facilitate access to materials and labour or contribute to rental and utilities payments in urban settings. Cash for shelter construction or rehabilitation is often conditional on the beneficiaries reaching set milestones.
Additional support, such as advocacy and technical guidance, should also be provided by the IOM implementation team to reduce the risks of forced evictions and ensure that people are effectively assisted.
Shelter actors have used a range of conditions and/or restrictions alongside staged payments to help meet sector-specific technical and social protection objectives and outcomes. Considerations for CBI with shelter and rent include specific objectives to ensure physical safety, preventing the use of hazardous materials, and mitigating and responding to gender-based violence (GBV) and other protection concerns such as privacy in shelters or addressing Housing, Land and Property issues.
When is it appropriate to consider implementing a rental assistance programme?
- The housing market can provide enough affordable properties.
- The housing market can provide accommodation which meets minimum standards.
- The available properties are within accessible distance from basic services and potential livelihoods.
- Secure tenure arrangements can be reached for the tenants.
- The rental of properties is an accepted practice by the target population, host community and local authorities.
- Population movements are predicted to remain relatively stable.
3.1.2 Cash for protection
CBI is used in protection programmes to address a range of household and individual protection needs and is designed to achieve specific protection outcomes. These will vary per context and are subject to context-specific protection and risk analysis. Types of programmes can include unconditional cash assistance for basic needs for persons with special requirements and acute vulnerabilities, single parents with multiple dependents, unaccompanied minors, persons with disabilities, survivors of violence and other categories of people deemed at heightened protection risk. In some contexts, cash assistance and grants are used to enable access to legal assistance and remedies; CBI can be used to cover cost of legal representation, civil documentation, transport to attend court hearings or visits to government offices.
Some of the potential protection benefits of CBI include:
- Dignity of choice and flexibility / preference.
- Low visibility delivery mechanisms e.g. mobile phones.
- Remote delivery options (addressing humanitarian access limitations).
- Portability and beneficiary access in multiple locations.
- Supporting local markets.
- Contribute to normalization/integration for refugees, and to support repatriation or resettlement.
- Direct transfer to beneficiaries can avoid potential corruption at multiple levels.
3.1.3 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
CBI has been increasingly used to achieve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) outcomes, such as providing access to drinking water through water vendors or small shops, or through the use of kits for treating and storing waste. CBI is not able (or designed) to substitute certain WASH programming activities, such as community mobilization, training in the use of WASH hardware, behaviour change communication and hygiene promotion. CBI cannot replace all traditional WASH activities, but it can be used to complement in-kind activities, and it can be complemented with sensitization and hygiene promotion.
WASH
3.1.4 Camp Management and Camp Coordination (CCCM)
There are two aspects of CBI that are relevant to the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) sector.
First, is the direct use of CBI in camp management activities, most commonly to carry out improvements to site facilities. While CBI is a particularly strong tool in urban settings, it can be equally useful in rural areas and in camps, where markets grow increasingly dynamic as more people settle in these areas. The use of CBI can help to promote peaceful coexistence with the surrounding host population as it injects funds into the local economy. Nevertheless, market opportunities in camp settings might be limited (in particular if located far from commercial routes or market hubs), and a combination of in-kind and CBI is usually the most viable option.
Second, is as CCCM relates to the impact of CBI implemented by other actors in a communal setting on the camp management agency and its activities. CBI can represent opportunities but can also create challenges that camp managers must be aware of and mitigate for, such as the potential increase of protection risks linked with targeted CBI, or increased movements if, for example, the cash distribution point is outside the camp. Additionally, ensuring accountability of service providers using cash in communal settings can be more challenging for camp managers, in particular for sectorial interventions that have a direct impact on the overall well-being of persons of concern.
While camp management and coordination are not sector-specific outcomes sought in a CBI, they are critical sectors to keep in mind during design and implementation. Key considerations for CBI in camp settings include ensuring you know the beneficiaries. People may be in and out of the camps due to livelihood activities, education, training or other events. During the assessment phase, you might need to include additional considerations, such as seasonal (summer/winter) or other additional shocks (additional displacement / natural disaster / conflict). Another consideration is the location of the camp in relation to local markets. If space is available, it might be advantageous to liaise with market traders (or service providers who liaise with market traders) and consider establishing a market inside the camp, bringing traders inside, supporting displaced people to become traders or conduct/facilitate trade fairs.
You will need to consider setting up a method to track duplications, as populations are mobile and move between camps. You can also consider whether cash or voucher assistance will be provided to host populations as well (by either humanitarian cash actors or governments). Finally, consider camp community dynamics, in terms of nationality or ethnicity, are there any signals of ethnic tension?