Cash and Voucher Assistance

In the DRC, Concern uses CVA via direct cash transfers to deliver monthly social transfers to households enrolled in the graduation programme. Alongside these transfers, which help stabilise household income, participants also receive grants to purchase productive assets — such as machinery, seeds, and livestock— to launch income-generating activities and support their pathway out of extreme poverty.

Concern supports school management committees in Chad via cash grants to set up income generating activities that can sustainably contribute to the improvement and maintenance of schools, as well as the retention of teachers. This allows boys and girls living in conditions of extreme poverty to have continued access to quality education. In addition, Concern supports via CVA the access to urgent healthcare services for malnourished children, covering transportation and daily expenses during hospitalisation.

In Haiti, the use of electronic food vouchers, combined with targeted counselling and cooking demonstrations, supports vulnerable pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under two to improve their diets. This is done by increasing both knowledge of nutrition and secure access to nutritious foods, including staple items such as rice, maize, and beans, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, in a safe and secure way via prequalified vendors.

CVA is used in Somalia to improve communities’ access to water during the dry season, whilst providing value for money compared to the traditional water trucking approach. The community water voucher approach has proved successful in areas where there is a functional market of private water vendors already serving communities without permanent water sources. It empowers the community themselves to take the lead in negotiating prices with private sector vendors, resulting in savings of up to 30%, as well as improved water quality and quantity.