Coordination of International SUPPORT to Somalis
food security and economic development sectoral committee
Cash Based Response Working Group
Minutes
Cash Based Response Working Group
Wednesday 6th June 2012 10:00 am
Acacia Conference Room, Ngecha Road
Participants:
Name / Organization / Name / OrganizationCatherine Marangu / COOPI / Poppy Hardee / ACTED
Ekeno Amana / FAO / Kulmiye Hussein / OXFAM
Joyce Murerwa - Kibe / CARE / Ahmed Adow / BWDN
Mercy Chahilu / Adeso / Abdirahman Aden / IRC
Winnie Mapenzi / AFREC / Abdikadir Abdi Issack / BWDN
Eng. Warfa A Barow / SWRDA / Jean Pieré-Souman / ICRC
Festus Muindi / FAW / Ernesto Gonzalez / Cash Consortium
Nichola Peach / WFP / Manenji Mangundu / SC (Cash Consortium)
Simon Hills / ILO / Holly Welcome Randice / SC
Henry Macharia / ASAL / Abdulahi Omar / CED
Julie Lawson-Mcdowall / FAO / Pablo Arnal / Solidarités
Agnes Shihemi / Adeso / Leticia Amuduki / HARDO
Abdi Hussein Roble / FAO/FSNAU / David Mugo / FAO
Agenda:
1. Review of May 2012 Meeting Minutes, and follow up of Action Points
2. Update: Inter-Cluster Coordination – David Mugo
3. Presentation: Social Safety Nets in North Somalia – SCUK & Adeso – Holly Radice
4. Agency Updates
5. AOB
Documents distributed:
1. May 2012 draft meeting minutes
2. Proposed Agenda
3. Inter cluster data update
1. Review of May 2012 Meeting Minutes, and follow up of Action Points
The chair opened the floor for comments or corrections to the May 2012 minutes; the minutes were then seconded by Catherine following which the minutes were endorsed.
Review of Previous Action Points
· David to liaise with Glenn of CaLp to help approach the remaining NGOs in order to get the data on their interventions. Not yet
2. Update: Inter-cluster coordination
The Intercluster database for May was updated and circulated to members during the meeting. The data update here included the information that David of Intercluster had managed to collect from various Local based NGOs while on his official assignment to Somalia. A member raised a question on whether Somalia based organizations data is included in the database since they do a lot of cash for work that is funded by the Diaspora and Turkish government. In response to this David explained his visit to Somalia was mainly to capture this information from the Somalia based organizations, which he managed to collect data but that was not exhaustive as he didn’t finish the assignment. This exercise will be revisited as soon as possible. Also the issue of insecurity was sighted as a challenge in terms of reaching the regions in South and central Somalia where most of Muslim based organizations are implementing.
As part of follow up on the action point of various organizations not submitting their data, David reported that Glenn of CaLP is yet to communicate on his follow up with the Organizations that have not yet submitted their data. The focus now is on updating the database for the next release of June, of which we are consolidating the data. He also requested the NGOs that have new activities to implement to share their information for the next release.
3. Presentation : Social Safety Nets (SSN) – Holly Randice
Holly Radice of SC initiated the presentation by giving an overview of the Social Safety Net project that is being implemented by SC in Karkaar region and Adeso in Sanaag for a period of 30months (June 2010 to Nov 2012). She mentioned that the project is co funded by EC and SIDA under the four main target objectives which has experienced positive impacts in improving the Livelihoods of the household beneficiaries. Being a pilot project, she reiterated that, there were some challenges experienced as well as lessons learned that could help in future activities of the same nature. In reaction to the presentation, a member raised a question as to what plans do they have in their exit strategy; in response to this there strategy was to look into working with the Ministry of Environment and looking towards the 2nd phase and how they can engage the government. Being a pilot project, the issue of graduation/expanding the project to accommodate some of the challenges mentioned before will depend on the outcome of the evaluation that will be carried out to see what will be the impact on that. Also in response to this, she also made it clear that normally part of the pilot project is to do a feasibility study that will show a clear picture on the current impacts of the pilot project to the beneficiaries and where a recommendation is to be given on whether to continue with it.
A member also needed some clarification on what income generating activities as well as external support means; whether the external support received was from the Diaspora or within the country. The response was to look into that as there M&E system didn’t factor a wider part of that. Some trainings were done by Adeso. She also stated that the baseline information on HHs was chosen by the community and that the percentage of women headed House Holds was high. A member also raised a question that ‘’ Being a pilot Social Safety Net project, the baseline was used as the reference, what about in the events of emergencies like droughts? There was no clear answer on this but members suggested that it is something that needs to be factored in as well as the use of the control checks as reference rather than the baseline because the seasonalities are different. A member also wanted a clarification on how the beneficiaries access the payments and she mentioned that payments are done through the traders.
There was a suggestion for the need to have a standalone intervention to raise funds to continue the project. Members were invited to give suggestions on what technical skills they think could be useful for this Social Safety Nets project.
4. Agency Updates
WFP: Is developing a 3year country strategy for Somalia. It is as well preparing scale up in Bosaso.
COOPI: Still planning and setting up on the cash & voucher interventions in South & Central Somalia.
Cash Consortium: (ADESO, SC, DRC & ACF) getting ready to start Phase II targeting 60,000HHs. The first distribution scheduled to start in May will target 40,000HHs. DRC & ADESO had concluded their first implementation successfully.
FAO: Proposing to have a one day workshop in June on Cash Interventions and as to where we are standing at the moment and also looking into the M&E tools. Amana to give an update to members on the dates and agenda of the meeting
5. AOB
There being no other business the meeting was adjourned.
Agencies were also requested to volunteer to present at the July meeting. The next meeting will be on 13th July 2012.
Action Points arising from this meeting
David to liaise with Glenn of CaLp to help approach the remaining NGOs in order to get the data on their interventions.
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Coordination of International Support to Somalis –Cash Based Response Working Group Minutes