Asia Regional Cash Working Group

Meeting Minutes

28January 2015, 3:00 – 5:00 pm

Oxfam Asia Regional Centre, 38 Convent Road, Silom, Bangkok, Thailand, 10500

Participants

Bangladesh Cash Working Group, Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department of the European Commission (ECHO) Regional, Habitat for Humanity International, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), Oxfam, Oxfam Bangladesh, Save the Children, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF),theUnited NationsOffice for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), the UNWorld Food Programme (WFP)

Agenda

Welcome & Introductions

Panel discussion: CaLP Asia’s regional strategy for 2015-2019

Overview of CaLP Global activities and Asia Regional Strategy
Presentation on regional Capacity Building activities and upcoming Training plans
Presentation on Global tools and Digital Communications platforms
Q&A

Any Other Business

Date for next RCWG meeting (March 2015)
Updates from Community of Practice
Announcements, upcoming events and trainings

Panel discussion: CaLP Asia’s regional strategy for 2015

Presentations, along with the meeting minutes,are posted on the CaLP Asia webpage under Coordination and the Regional Cash Working Group.

Overview of CaLP Global activities and Asia Regional Strategy

CaLP Asia’s regional strategy for 2015-2019 is based on 4 main pillars:
Advocacy and Communications –CaLP continues to work with the wider community of practice to develop key messages, increase representation in multi-sectoral fora and promoteinformation sharing through the CaLP Asia Regional webpage and regional updates, CaLP Quarterly Newsletter, CaLP Discussion Groups (D-Groups), CaLP Resources & Tools libraryand the Cash Atlas.

On thematic issues in the region, CaLP Asia will convene a workshop on Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) in refugee contexts to develop advocacy points and discuss opportunities and challenges for the use of CTP in camps and non-camp settings.

Coordination and Partnerships – CaLP continues to support and strengthen its partnerships with agencies and networks, including country-level Cash Working Groups in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan and the Philippines; UN OCHA; IFRC and WFP to integrate cash transfer programming into humanitarian practice and to engage with governments, donors and non-traditional humanitarian actors, namely private sector, including Financial Service Providers such as Visa.

CaLP Asia is working with the UN OCHA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific to develop Minimum Requirements for Coordination on Cash & Vouchers.

Capacity Building and Training – CaLP is currentlyreviewing its training structure to adapt its curriculum to be more modular to better tailor trainings to specific needs as well as todevelop more expert modules and respond to the needs from the wider community of practice.

CaLP is recruiting a global Senior Capacity Building Officer that will lead on a strategy to build CTP capacity of institutions, as many agencies strive to mainstream cash in their policies, standard operating procedures and in human resources for emergency, surge personnel.

Research and Learning – CaLP continues to take on research pieces in specific areas, capturing lessons-learnt from the fieldand disseminating findingsto ensure they are translated into practice through capacity building, coordination, communication and advocacy activities.

Currently, in partnership with UN OCHA and UNHRC, CaLP Asia is leading on a Case Study of Haiyan Cash Coordination, to document lessons learnt and provide strategic recommendations to improve cash coordination mechanisms and the potential for uptake of multipurpose cash grants in future humanitarian operations.

Presentation on regional Capacity Building activities and upcoming Training Plans

Recently, Wadel S. Cabrera III joined the CaLP Asia team as the regional Capacity Building Officer, based in Manila, Philippines. Wadel previously served as the National Deputy Program Manager for the Philippines Department of Social Welfare and Development 4Ps, the government’s largest condition cash transfer program, and has worked as a Capacity Development Specialist for Social Protection for the Asian Development Bank.

For training inquiries, please email Wadel at .

CaLP is developing a Capacity Building strategy to equip organizations with the necessary knowledge and skillsto implement quality cash transfer programming in humanitarian interventions. In 2015, CaLP Asia will offer more trainings to share regional experiences and strengthen the local community of practice.
CaLP provides 5 learning tools with support and feedback namely: 1) On-line/E-Learning (Guided and self-driven); 2) CTP Institutional Capacity Assessment and Competency Framework; 3) Face-to-face Training; 4)Discussion Groups; and 5) Resources available online (case studies, research, tools).

Presentation on Global tools and Digital Communications platforms

CaLP Asia also has a new Administrator and Communications Officer, Kanvara “Sai” Suchitta.With her background as a management consultant at Deloitte Thailand, Sai will provide instrumental support to the regional team.

For Communications queries, please email Sai at .

CaLP has 5 free digital platforms to share information and support coordination as following:
1.) CaLP Website–serves as CaLP’s hub of information and primary platform for sharing the latest updates and resources – and connects to all other CaLP digital platforms as described below.

CaLP Asia is undertaking developments to the regional site, including hosting Cash Working Group webpages for Bangladesh and the Philippines, so please visit to stay appraised of news and resources.

2.) SamepageCollaborative Platform– provides an internal platform for CaLP partners and Cash Working Groups to share documents and aid coordination.In addition to making CWG documentation publically available as mentioned above, CaLP Asia has offered support to the Bangladesh and Philippines CWG to provide Samepage collaborative platform pages for their groups to have a dashboard for their operations.
3.) CaLP Discussion Groups(D-Groups)– for members of the community of practice (CoP) to discuss, ask questions and share resources on cash transfer programming.
4.) CaLP Newsletter – published on a quarterly basis, provides updates about CaLP activities as well as cash transfer programming news from the CoP.CaLP welcomes RCWG members to propose submissions for inclusion in the newsletter.
5.) Cash Atlas – interactiveglobal mapping tool visually represents cash transfer programmes by agency, project, location, and implementation period. The Cash Atlas is envisioned to be an advocacy and learning tool for agencies/organizations.

In January, the CaLP Communications team virtually joined the Bangladesh Cash Working Group to give a presentation on the mapping tool, and continues to provide technical support to agencies to upload project data. Similarly, other partners may request information and support from CaLP’s Communications Officer, Vincent Trousseau, at .

OCHA: How far has the Cash Atlas come about in terms of development and usage?
With support from ECHO, USAID OFDA and the American Red Cross, the Cash Atlas was created in mid-2013.
Currently there areapproximately 1,000 registered users.
To ease the process for project entry, CaLP recently reduced the mandatory requirements. Additionally, CaLP has a matrix for bulk data uploads, which can be provided upon request to , or .
WFP: What is the objective of theCoordination Trainings with governments and humanitarian agencies?
The Coordination Training is a one-day overview of the international humanitarian architecture, including functions of host governments; the role of UNOCHA and the Cluster Systemand the NGO community.

CaLP Asia will train the Government of the Philippines Department of Social Welfare and Development, which has received financial and technical support from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to establish social protection programmes and social safety nets, such as the 4Ps for conditional cash transfers.From its recent Haiyan experience in partnering with WFP and UNICEF, the 4Ps requested for CaLP to support on capacity building to explore how DSWD/4Ps can examine their internal policies and processes for taking up emergency cash transfers.

UNICEF: Calls for inter-agency coordination as various institutions are developing different capacity building pieces and the CoP is trying to mainstream CTP, knowledge and technical skills. It is important that we do not start working against or overlapping with each other but rather working on the same page under the same criteria.

ECHO:What are training gaps that have been identified so far? Are training needs set or led by the CWG within the country? For example, is it possible to conduct CaLP Training level 2 in other countries such as Pakistan?

CaLP has identified a need to develop advanced CTP Level 3 modules and to provide more a la carte training in order to address the varied needs from the wider community of practice.
Currently, CaLP convenes trainings based on project funding from donors. Therefore, the training plan is limited to sessions that are being partially financed by grants. CaLP Asia has received many training inquiries and may consider setting up more trainings if there is enough interest and capacity.

Country CWGs may set a training agenda and schedule in-country, depending on local needs and resources. Many country CWGs utilise CaLP’s publically available CTP training materials, and country CWG Coordinators have requested inputs from the CaLP Asia Regional Focal Point and in the future can leverage the CaLP Asia Capacity Building Officer.

WFP: How is Samepage’s Collaborative Platform used?
CaLP is making its Samepage account available forcountry CWGs to utilise at no cost in order to share documentation, particularly for joint humanitarian response. Only invited members can access the information. The Collaborative Platform would be setup by CaLP’s Communications Team to send invitations to users; however, the country CWG would be independently responsible for its content, maintenance and appropriate use, i.e. for beneficiary privacy and security, detailed project information that includes beneficiary lists or distribution plans should not be stored on Samepage.

Example: UNHCR Enhanced Response Capacity project

Any Other Business

Date for next RCWG meeting (2nd week of March 2015)
Updates from Community of Practice

WFP –working with Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) to conductresearch study on capacity topartner with social safety netsin the Philippines and Indonesiato utilise their payment delivery mechanisms. The report will be available in the 2nd quarter of 2015.

Announcements, upcoming events and trainings

WFP is recruiting for Talent Pool: Cash & Voucher Programme Officers (P2-P3-P4) – deadline for applications 8 February 2015. For more information, please see the attachment or visit
The IFRC Livelihood Resource Centre (LRC) will hold a 7-week onlinecourse (Moodle) on Cash Transfer Programming, which is based on CaLP’s Level 2 curriculum. IFRC has 24 spots for Asia Pacific and is keen to hear if others outside of the Red Cross/Red Crescent want to participate. For more information, please see the attachment or email IFRC Asia Pacific Zone Cash Delegate, Jonathan Brass, at .
ECHO Regional will host the 3rd Regional Food Security Working Group meeting focusing on Marketson Friday 6 February 2015.

Asia Regional Cash Working Group