Training
Market Based Programming (MBP) for WASH training – Austria - March 2024
Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and Market Based Programming (MBP) are becoming the new paradigm for humanitarian aid. While other sectors are already further advanced in this respect, the WASH sector is only now increasingly embracing this trend.
MBP in humanitarian settings, such as cash distributions, can provide support that is more tailored to individual needs. It shifts the focus from in-kind assistance to technical support, community engagement and the support of local economies to recover, rather than disrupting local markets with imports. This training was targeting (emergency) WASH staff from 7 national RC societies.
A detailed report can be accessed from the section below, where you also find a graphic summary of the training. Should you have further questions, welcome to reach out to alexander.oeze@roteskreuz.at
Market Based Programming (MBP) for WASH training – Ethiopia - February 2024
Market and cash-based interventions are becoming a central aspect of the humanitarian response, including for the WASH sector. To accompany WASH partners in this transition, the Global WASH Cluster has released a positioning paper on Cash and Market, and set up a CASH and WASH technical working group (TWiG) at global level to provide expertise and guidelines on Market and Cash for WASH. The Global WASH Committee has also identified weaknesses among WASH practitioners in terms of both knowledge and practices of market and cash modalities. Consequently, the Global WASH Cluster has included Market and Cash as one of the priority topics for capacity building.
Based on a 5 days face-to-face training developed by the WASH cluster, Ethiopian Red Cross with support from German Red Cross and partners implemented their own market based programming for WASH training in Ethiopia.
The aim of the training was to build the capacity of Ethiopia Red Cross Society (ERCS) staff with WASH, CVA, Procurement/Logistics and Finance backgrounds to evaluate the relevancy and increase the use of market-based approaches (including cash transfer) in-country to achieve WASH outcomes.
Should you have further questions, welcome to reach out to f.orimba@drk.de
Agenda
Market Based Programming (MBP) for WASH training – Austria - March 2024
Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and Market Based Programming (MBP) are becoming the new paradigm for humanitarian aid. While other sectors are already further advanced in this respect, the WASH sector is only now increasingly embracing this trend.
MBP in humanitarian settings, such as cash distributions, can provide support that is more tailored to individual needs. It shifts the focus from in-kind assistance to technical support, community engagement and the support of local economies to recover, rather than disrupting local markets with imports. This training was targeting (emergency) WASH staff from 7 national RC societies.
A detailed report can be accessed from the section below, where you also find a sgraphic summary of the training. Should you have further questions, welcome to reach out to alexander.oeze@roteskreuz.at
Market Based Programming (MBP) for WASH training – Uganda 2023
Market based programming for WASH focuses on strengthening WASH markets in a sustainable way. This is done through providing WASH market actors -such as vendors and regional traders- with support in their ability to supply the needed WASH items before-, during-, and after a distaster, in a sustainable way (supply-side intervention). And, at times of crisis, when households are not able to procure those WASH items, through provision of CVA assistance (demand-side intervention), which will keep the supply chain intact during shocks. This training was targeted towards the WASH and CVA staff of URCS.
Details: 23 participants from URCS took part. Training was provided by Annika Smits (NLRC) and Alexander Oeze (AutRC). The training was 5 days, and took place in Entebbe, Uganda.
Key learnings from the training:
Future trainings would benefit from earlier advance preparations, which would increase the lead times of participants and also reduce the need for last-minute time-table shifts, eg. avoiding scheduling weekends for trainings.
Future trainings should include field visit to real markets to have the opportunity to test some of the tools (eg market actor interview forms) in a real life setting, which would greatly facilitate the transfer of skills from a controlled and safe training environment to the messy reality. Alternatively, future trainings could be followed up by an actual (pre-crisis) market assessment, which would give even more opportunity to practically apply the skills learned in the training
The technicalities of CVA programming were only briefly touched in this training. Consequently, additional follow up in-depth CVA trainings are recommended.
The scenario appeared to be overloaded with lots of material that had little relevance to the topic of market based WASH programming, which proved to be a barrier to study the material in-depth. Simultaneously, the information that directly related to specific markets had limited depth. Especially it provided few aspects that could trigger discussions about supply side interventions. It is recommended to adapt the scenario accordingly.
A detailed report can be accessed from the section below, where you also find a short video and a graphic summary of the training. Should you have further questions, welcome to reach out to annikasmits@redcross.nl or alexander.oeze@roteskreuz.at
Market Based Programming (MBP) for WASH training – South Sudan 2023
Context of this F2F training in South Sudan was the start of year 2 of the ECHO PPP Programme, which has a component of market assessment and CVA/WASH interventions. This training was targeted towards the WASH, Health and CVA staff and directly related to preparing the Market assessment that will inform implementation.
Details: Around 25 participants took part. Training was provided by Peter Nyamoko (IFRC) and Annika Smits (NLRC). The training was initially meant to be 5 days, but had to be cut down to 4 days due to RCRC day activities.
Main outtakes:
CVA ‘crash course’ was necessary in day 1, as the WASH/Health staff was relatively new to the topic. Ideally a CVA level 2 training is completed
Several simulation exercises were done, which were most appreciated as leading up to the theory. The training is theoretically quite dense, and in practice we learned that stimulating experiences and critical thinking through simulations worked best to pick up the theoretical topics. We then took (attached) materials from the GWC training and took out those points that we felt were most important to adress, based on the practical exercises. Main practical exercises were:
a) price monitoring exercise in which the senior participants played vendors, and teams had to visit them to monitor prices (incl learning objectives on how to describe the reason for monitoring, etc)
b) design phase simulation (see attached word doc called Practical exercises) and subsequent discussionParticipants valued that the training was the kickoff activity to the actual market assessment and intervention design
Should you have further questions, welcome to reach out to annikasmits@redcross.nl
Market Based Programming (MBP) for WASH online training – Foundation (level 1)by RCM Cash&WASH TWG
This is a foundation course for WASH Market Assessment and using Cash and Vouchers for WASH objectives. It is intended that this course will be useful for all RCRC Movement including National Societies, ICRC and IFRC staff and volunteers. It will specifically satisfy the IFRC WASH competencies related to Tier A (demonstrate technical knowledge) for WASH and Cash and WASH Market Assessment.
By the end of the course the participants are expected:
To be able to demonstrate technical knowledge and to communicate what the main modalities to deliver CASH to support WASH outcomes are.
To be able to demonstrate knowledge of key concepts of market assessment and mapping for WASH activities, this will include engagement with the private sector.
To have basic familiarisation with the key concepts in the 2021 Global Wash Cluster Market Based Programming in WASH: Technical Guidance for Practitioner. These concepts will be applied to a RCRC scenario.
Who is it for?
This course will be for WASH practitioners of the RCRC Movement (National Societies, IFRC, ICRC staff, Register (ERU), register members and volunteers) that have not had any sectorial formal cash and markets training or very little. There are 20 places for those who work within WASH programming that have an interest and commitment to include MBP in their future WASH programmes. This course will be for WASH practitioners that have not had any formal cash training or very little. Female participants are strongly encouraged to apply.
When and where is it?
The training was offerd 3 times so far, in 2021, 2022 and 2023. At the moment there is no additional training in the pipeline, but in case your national society is interested in organizing one, we are available for support.
More Information about past trainings could be found in this leaflet.
Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) – The Fundamentals by CaLP
This course is designed for anyone who wants to learn more about cash and voucher assistance in humanitarian contexts, and will introduce you to the fundamentals of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA). No knowledge of CVA is required to do this course, so if you a complete beginner don't worry, you are in the right place!
By the end of the course you’ll be able to:
define cash and voucher assistance, including key terminology and definitions, and state principles for good practice in CVA,
describe modalities, delivery mechanisms and different tools for cash and voucher assistance,
define preconditions for implementation of cash and voucher assistance,
explain the relevance of cash and voucher assistance in different humanitarian contexts and advocate for CVA to a variety of stakeholders,
list the key steps and associated tasks for and voucher assistance in the humanitarian project cycle,
identify the roles and responsibilities of different staff functions in the CVA project cycle.
The course will take around 3-4 hours to complete and is available in English, French and Arabic.
IFRC learning platform
Cash in Emergencies - 20 minutes
Introduction to Cash Transfer Programming - 2 hours
Cash Assistance through Financial Service Providers - 1h30
Market Assessments: Introduction - 30 min
Market Assessments: Rapid Assessment for Markets (RAM) - 1hour
Market-based programming for WASH in Emergencies by the Global WASH Cluster
Market and cash based interventions are becoming a central aspect of the humanitarian response, including for the WASH sector. To accompany WASH partners in this transition, the GWC has released a positioning paper on cash and market, and set up a technical working group (TWIG) at global level provide expertise and guidelines on Market and Cash for WASH. The GWC has also identified weaknesses among WASH practitioners in terms of both knowledge and practices of the market and cash modalities. Consequently, the GWC has included Market and Cash as one of the priority topics for capacity building. The Cash learning project (CaLP) has developed solid training packages on cash and market key topics. These trainings remain largely multi-sectorial, and do not target specific sectors practitioners. There is the need to develop a SPECIFIC Market and cash training pathway for WASH practitioners, including a solid Market and Cash core skills training designed for WASH practitioners.
By the end of this course, participants are expected to:
Be able to evaluate the relevancy of using of market approaches and cash modalities in a WASH Humanitarian Response.
When relevant and depending on the results of a market assessment, be able to maintain or improve WASH market systems to reach WASH outcomes in emergency
When relevant and depending on the results of a market assessment, be able to use basic Cash Transfer programing modalities to reach WASH outcomes, in collaboration with logistic and finance departments and other sectors*
Have improved their skills for the use of online collaborative tools
The course is a 8 weeks distant learning course and is available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.