The Social Protection Interagency Cooperation Board (SPIAC-B) Working Group on Linking Humanitarian (Cash) Assistance and Social Protection is co-led by the IFRC, UNICEF and FCDO. It was formerly known as the Grand Bargain Cash Workstream Subgroup on Linking Humanitarian Cash with Social Protection. In November 2021 through a consultative process the group became a SPIAC-B working group in order to enhance strategic alignments between humanitarian and development goals.
The working group’s overall aim is to contribute to strengthening the links between humanitarian assistance and social protection, with cash transfers as the entry point. The working group will be guided by the following specific objectives:
Fostering knowledge generation and sharing
- To be a collective between development and humanitarian actors for the joint development of lessons learned, evidence and knowledge products leading to the formulation of joint policies and operational strategies for linking humanitarian aid (especially cash) and social protection, including contributions to the strengthening and extension of social protection systems in countries
- To act as a neutral reference hub for humanitarian (cash) assistance and social protection actors to facilitate knowledge sharing across different contexts and to enhance coherence across humanitarian and social protection efforts
Influencing
- To act as a forum to foster dialogue on social protection across the humanitarian, development and peace nexus, based on the momentum created by cash programming as one of the entry points
- To advocate for the inclusion of routine considerations of the specific needs of populations impacted by humanitarian crises in of decisions related to strengthening the coverage and comprehensiveness of social protection
- To advocate for increased and flexible financing to support efforts that span the nexus, including support to strengthen the capacity of social protection systems, where possible
- To influence humanitarian assistance policy and programming to routinely consider social protection measures in analysis, design and implementation of humanitarian assistance, especially cash transfers
Coordination
- To develop greater collaboration between different stakeholders on humanitarian (cash) transfers and social protection system, e.g. the new global Cash Advisory Group and country Cash Working Group-building with a focus on operational solutions
- To engage and coordinate with other platforms/ working groups of SPIAC-B and other agencies
Building Capacity
- To support initiatives and efforts to increase capacities in both humanitarian and social protection sectors, encompassing multi-lateral and bilateral agencies, United Nations, I/NGOs, and national as well as local governments, around the approaches to link humanitarian cash and humanitarian assistance with social protection
The working group has been producing regular updates on resources and events focused on Social Protection and Humanitarian Cash Transfers:
- Update #01 (April 2020) to Update #60 (December 2021)
- Update #61 (March 2022)
- Update #62 (April 2022)
- Update #63 (May 2022)
- Update #64 (June 2022)
- Update #65 (July 2022)
- Update #66 (August 2022)
- Update #67 (February 2023)
- Update #68 (April 2023)
The working group has been organising webinars on the linkages between humanitarian (cash) assistance and social protection:
- Initial webinar series organised by the Grand Bargain Cash Workstream Subgroup on Linking Humanitarian Cash with Social Protection (December 2019-October 2021)
- Challenges and Opportunities to link Humanitarian Cash and Social Protection in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel (26 May 2022)
- The role of National Response Plans in improving the coherence and coordination of humanitarian assistance and social protection (22 September 2022)
Please reach out with any ideas and questions relating to the SPIAC-B working group: Charlotte Bilo ([email protected])
