Cash and Voucher Assistance for Nutrition in Emergencies. A summary of programmatic challenges and promising practices

This brief was developed by the Cash and Voucher Assistance for Nutrition Working Group under the GNC to summarise some of the challenges that practitioners are facing when using CVA to improve nutrition and some of the promising practices that are emerging. Specifically, the review set out to see how easily the recommendations in the Evidence and Guidance Note on the Use of Cash and Voucher Assistance for Nutrition Outcomes in Emergencies (2019) can be implemented, where additional guidance is needed, and how this this dynamic area of humanitarian response is rapidly evolving. The brief is based largely on a review conducted by Key Aid Consultants, which included interviews with key informants and a review of more than 80 CVA for nutrition project documents. The review covered 15 countries, focusing on nine ‘deep dive’ countries (Afghanistan, DRC, Ethiopia, Haiti, Lebanon, Mali, Myanmar, South Sudan and Yemen) where the CVA for nutrition experience was most advanced and/or previously undocumented. The report is organised around the stages of the project cycle, presenting 18 key challenges and 22 related promising practices that people have tried or could try to address them.  The brief is relevant for both nutrition and CVA practitioners and aims to highlight the challenges common to both in language that can be understood by both.