Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 1 ……………………………………………………………………….. Final report Prepared by Chloé Maillard and Marie Boulinaud (Key Aid Consulting) for the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) October 2021 www.keyaidconsulting.com Evaluation of CaLP’s work : a focus on the West and Central Africa experience (2018 - 2021) Photo: Abdoulaye Hamidou, 2021 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 2 Acknowledgement This report was written by Chloe Maillard and Marie Boulinaud under the guidance of CaLP’s team members including Julie Lawson McDowall, Abdoulaye Hamidou, Karen Peachey, and Ibrahima Kebe. The independent evaluation was funded by USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) as part of a programme grant. The authors would like to thank the CaLP team for their support as well as all key informants for their time and contribution to the evaluation. The report presents the views of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of BHA or CaLP. Table of content Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................................ 2 Table of content ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Table of Figures............................................................................................................................................. 3 I. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 5 II. Objective and scope of the evaluation ...........................................................................................12 III. Overview of the methodology..........................................................................................................13 IV. Evaluation findings..............................................................................................................................14 IV.1. Relevance .................................................................................................................................... 14 IV.1.1. Audience reached............................................................................................................. 14 IV.1.2. Alignment with the needs of the audience.................................................................. 16 IV.2. Coherence...................................................................................................................................20 IV.2.1. Alignment of CaLP’s work in WCAF align with regional CVA priorities..................20 IV.2.2. Alignment of CaLP’s work in WCAF align with global CVA priorities.....................22 IV.3. Effectiveness................................................................................................................................26 IV.3.1. Ability to reach intended outputs and outcomes.......................................................26 IV.3.2. Broader effects of CaLP’s work in the region and unintended effects...................32 IV.3.3. Drivers and constraints of effectiveness .......................................................................33 IV.4. Sustainability and connectedness to longer-term programming ....................................35 IV.4.1. New strategy: progressive shift from a hands-on strategy to more remote and partner-based initiatives....................................................................................................................35 IV.4.2. Inclusion of longer-term considerations in CaLP’s regional agenda ......................37 V. Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................................39 VI. Annexes.................................................................................................................................................. 0 VI.1. Project timeline.............................................................................................................................0 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 3 VI.2. Evaluation matrix..........................................................................................................................2 VI.3. Detailed methodology................................................................................................................5 VI.3.1. Inception phase...................................................................................................................5 VI.3.2. Primary Data Collection.....................................................................................................6 VI.3.3. Data analysis and drafting................................................................................................. 7 VI.4. Data protection ............................................................................................................................8 VI.5. Data collection tools....................................................................................................................9 VI.5.1. Key informant interviews with CaLP current/former members of staff ....................9 VI.5.2. Key informant interviews with regional and national stakeholders......................... 12 VI.6. Bibliography................................................................................................................................ 14 Table of Figures Figure 1 CaLP’s BHA funded activities......................................................................................................11 Figure 2: Main changes from CaLP Strategy 2017-2020 to CaLP Strategy 2020-2025.................35 Figure 3: Evaluation stakeholders...............................................................................................................6 Graph 1: CaLP perception survey respondents by type of organisation they work for in WCAF (n=56)............................................................................................................................................................ 15 Graph 2: CaLP perception survey respondents by gender and region (n=245)............................ 16 Graph 3: ‘To what extent do you agree that CaLP is effective in identifying emerging CVA trends?’ (n=242).................................................................................................................................22 Graph 4: ‘To what extent do you agree that CaLP performs well in terms of shaping agendas that are led by evidence?’ (n=242)..................................................................................................................24 Graph 5: Barrier to access online and face-to-face trainings for survey respondents in WCAF (n=56)............................................................................................................................................................34 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 4 Abbreviations and acronyms Acronym Definition BHA USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance BIEP Building Individual Expertise Programme CaLP Cash Learning Partnership CoP Community of Practice CVA Cash and Voucher Assistance CWG Cash Working Group ECHO Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, formerly known as the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office FSP Financial Service Provider HEA Household Economy Analysis (I)NGO (International) Non-Governmental Organisation MEB Minimum Expenditure Basket MPG Multi-Purpose Grants OFDA Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance ToR Terms of Reference TPO Training Partner Organisations UN United Nations UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund WCAF West and Central Africa Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 5 Executive summary This report provides the results of an evaluation carried out by Key Aid Consulting between September and October 2021, assessing CaLP’s work in the West and Central Africa (WCAF) region between August 2018 and September 2021. This evaluation assessed how CaLP contributed to building an enabling environment for CVA in the region during this timeframe. The evaluation used a qualitative approach with a mix of desk review, key informant interviews and an analysis of the results of the perception survey, to draw conclusions regarding the relevance, coherence, effectiveness and sustainability of CaLP’s work in WCAF. As CaLP’s work in the region cannot be formally separated from CaLP’s global work, the evaluation looked at the connectedness between CaLP’s work in the region and globally. A summary of the main findings is presented below. Relevance In this section, we looked at the extent to which the intervention objectives and design respond to beneficiaries’, global, country, and partner/institution needs, policies, and priorities, and continue to do so if circumstances change. 1 The evaluation confirmed that CaLP reaches a vast and diverse audience, and the work done in WCAF has addressed this audience’s needs and priorities. • Audiences reached CaLP’s primary audience is the humanitarian community, including sectors that are not ‘traditionally’ using CVA, as well as social protection actors, in countries where humanitarian response and social protection are being linked. To reach this target group, CaLP has been working with all kinds of actors in WCAF and providing support to members of the national Cash Working Groups, to MEB task teams, clusters and inter-cluster coordination groups all across the region. However, CaLP has also made a particular effort to include other actors in CVA forums, such as government bodies, local organisations, and private sector actors2 in all activities. The inclusive discussion fora that CaLP instigated at national, regional, and global levels were highly appreciated. However, due to the variety of actors, participants in discussion workshops or trainings facilitated by CaLP often have different priorities, capacities and do not always speak a common language as regards to CVA. This was highlighted as a challenge by some practitioners. • Alignment with the needs of the audience -------------------------------------------------- 1 OECD/DAC Network on Development Evaluation, “Better Criteria for Better Evaluation Revised Evaluation Criteria Definitions and Principles for Use”, December 2019. 2 CaLP counts a few private sector actors as part of its network. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 6 Overall, CaLP’s activities have been relevant to the needs and priorities of the audience. The quantity of requests for trainings and information resources, as well as technical and coordination support is strong evidence to support this statement. Most key informants highlighted adaptability and reactivity to feedback and changes as a key strength of CaLP. The way CaLP addressed the changes linked to the COVID-19 pandemic is a good example of this. In response to the pandemic and the need for immediate support among the humanitarian community to adjust programming, CaLP very quickly published live guidance, including in French. 3 Key informants also shared other needs that CaLP could further explore, for example regarding the awareness-raising needed to convince the CVA-reluctant sectors or donors. Coherence Under coherence, we particularly looked at the external aspects, focusing on the consistency of the intervention with other actors’ interventions in the same context. 4 Overall, the evaluation team found that CaLP managed to find a good balance between responding to regional needs and priorities and addressing global trends. • Alignment of CaLP’s work in WCAF with regional CVA priorities Overall, most key informants believed that CaLP’s work has been in line with regional CVA priorities thanks to a regional team with a strong understanding and knowledge of the context and connections with CVA actors in the region. The flexibility given by the donor to adjust the work to evolving priorities has also been a strong asset. The following regional priorities have been followed and were assessed as highly coherent: Coordination around CVA and definition of MEBs Linking CVA with social protection Link between CVA and security and access • Alignment of CaLP’s work in WCAF with global CVA priorities Overall, CaLP’s regional team made an effort to constantly connect with global CVA priorities and hot topics by staying in contact with the rest of CaLP’s members of staff, from other regions, and by attending global events when possible. While trying to align its work as much as possible to the global CVA priorities of the moment, the CaLP team had a strong footprint and leadership in the region that allowed it to define its own priorities fitting with the needs of the community and the context. Consequently, the CaLP regional team always tried to develop what was relevant for the region. Global topics that would not fit to the regional context were not pursued. On the other hand, the grounded work pursued by CaLP in WCAF informed and influenced global priorities. -------------------------------------------------- 3 Source: key informant interviews and CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report 3: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa,” May 2020. 4 OECD/DAC Network on Development Evaluation, “Better Criteria for Better Evaluation Revised Evaluation Criteria Definitions and Principles for Use”, December 2019. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 7 Effectiveness This criterion looks at the extent to which the intervention achieved, or is expected to achieve, its objectives, and its results, including any differential results across groups.5 We also briefly look into the extent to which the intervention has generated or is expected to generate significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, higher-level effects (impact). While evaluating the contribution of CaLP’s work to increase the scale and timeliness of CVA has proved challenging, as multiple factors are at stake, the evaluation findings establish a clear link between the work done by CaLP and an increase in quality of CVA in the region. • Ability to reach intended outputs and outcomes One of the successes of CaLP’s work lies within its approach to influencing, capacity-building and knowledge management. The CaLP team found its strength in the way it fostered discussions among different stakeholders, on topics like the MEB, or on the links between humanitarian cash and social protection. All participants to capacity building initiatives showed an increase in their knowledge and skills to design and implement good quality CVA. The demand for CaLP trainings, and especially the Training of Trainers, is still very high and another recognition of their quality. The Building Individual Expertise Programme (BIEP) is an example of a successful capacity￾building activity conducted by CaLP in WCAF over the last three years. While most organisations now have their own training materials and tools for the design and implementation of CVA, CaLP’s materials are still seen as a reference and a go-to place for capacity-building and awareness-raising on CVA. The translation of CaLP’s publications and training materials in French clearly shows a will to reach the WCAF francophone community of practice and this has worked well. However, CaLP is still seen as an “Anglophone” organisation and some practitioners would like to see more resources, blogs and online training material in French and published at the same time as the English language ones. CaLP’s work on CVA coordination revolved mainly around the support provided to CWGs and the definition of national or regional MEBs, which have been very effective in bringing people together and improving CVA coordination. The work done by CaLP, through remote support but, most importantly, in-country visits, has been instrumental for this revitalization of CWGs and for the clarification of their role in coordination with CVA through the development of ToRs. • Broader and unintended effects Although the scale and, to a certain extent, the timeliness of responses using CVA has increased over the last three years in the WCAF region, it is difficult to establish a direct relationship with CaLP’s activities in the region. While key informants have almost unanimously agreed that CaLP has played a big role in the acceptance of CVA in the region, most of them felt that the push for “more cash” has mainly come from donors and commitments made by UN agencies and INGOs as part of the Grand Bargain. However, a link can be established between CVA actors’ increased capacities, better quality of CVA programmes and the timeliness and scale of CVA. -------------------------------------------------- 5 OECD/DAC Network on Development Evaluation, “Better Criteria for Better Evaluation Revised Evaluation Criteria Definitions and Principles for Use”, December 2019. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 8 • Drivers and constraints of effectiveness In terms of drivers, the strong leadership and excellent knowledge of the context of the then￾CaLP WCAF Regional Representative has proved to be a key factor facilitating success between 2018 and her departure at the beginning of 2021. As for constraints, the fact that bigger actors, most notably UN agencies, take the lead in CVA implementation and coordination in the region, is seen as a barrier for effectiveness for some informants. As such, CaLP’s influence is potentially reduced, as its space is rendered narrower. This barrier to effectiveness can be overcome by strong leadership of a CaLP team in the region, which has been missing since the departure of its regional representative in February 2021 (the evalution team understand a new Representative will join the team in December 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic also represented a constraint on the implementation of some planned activities during the evaluated period, as highlighted in the report. Nonetheless, CaLP was able to adapt to overcome the challenge and adjust ways of working and themes according to need. Inclusion of sustainability considerations Lastly, this section looks at the extent to which the benefits of the intervention are likely to continue and the connectedness to longer-term programming and considerations. Since 2020 CaLP has adopted a new strategy for 2020-2025 which sets out new priorities and network-focused ways of working. The CaLP team will progressively act more as a facilitator of the network and rely more intensively on its members to co-create evidence-based tools, guidance, good practice, and training materials. While some concerns were expressed regarding this shift, the change works towards a more sustainable approach to CaLP’s actions in the region and beyond. It should nonetheless inherently lead partners to take a more active role, as well as more ownership over activities, which is a step towards independent implementation of activities and sustainability. Some elements were already pointing towards this shift at country level. Lastly, over the last three years, the evaluators noted an effort to connect CaLP’s work to longer￾term considerations and programming such as the emphasis on linking CVA to social safety nets, fora held on disasters and development. While a lot of effort has been dedicated to connecting CVA to longer-term programming, key informants were not able to say whether this emphasis had an impact in practice, and several felt the messages were not always clear and practical enough on the topic. CaLP also embedded some of these considerations in its new strategy for 2020-2025 at the global level including localisation of aid and environmental considerations. Those topics were only just beginning to emerge in CaLP’s work at the time of the evaluation. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 9 I. Introduction The West and Central Africa (WCAF) region is prone to recurring food security crises, epidemic outbreaks and increasingly frequent episodes of violence which cause massive population displacement as well as political instability. Those shocks are worsened by chronic food insecurity and malnutrition. The region is experiencing one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world. The region remains largely under-funded and Cameroon for instance often has among the least funded Humanitarian Response Plans in the world.6 Food security and nutrition are the two main funded sectors. Other sectors and coordination efforts struggle to get funding.7 In the region, the use of CVA has traditionally focused on responding to recurrent food shocks in the Sahel but has recently expanded across sectors. 8 The interactions between hunger, extreme poverty, displacement, and conflict also make engagement on issues related to nexus programming, particularly the connection between humanitarian CVA and social protection systems, highly relevant. The region is a laboratory for shock responsive social protection approaches promoted by the World Bank and humanitarian donors. Almost all countries now have some degree of social protection programming in place, but administrative systems are very nascent, which results in gaps in terms of operationalisation, scale up, governance, accountability, coverage, adequacy and targeting. 9 Cash Working Groups (CWG) are under￾funded. As per September 2021, only Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had managed to get resources for a technical co-lead. Connection with national clusters and sectoral working groups remains a challenge. 10 The COVID-19 pandemic also forced humanitarian actors to deliver aid differently, in a highly constrained access settings. This proved a catalyst for the further use of CVA. CaLP is a global network of more than 90 organisations engaged in the areas of policy, practice and research into humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and financial assistance more broadly. CaLP has had a regional office in WCAF since 2012. This office applies CaLP’s global strategies at the regional level while being able to push for priorities specific to the region, which can in turn influence the global level (as further described in section IV.2). CaLP has made continuous efforts since then, to build capacities, generate evidence, set up cash coordination and disseminate knowledge on CVA across the whole region. 11 In August 2018, CaLP secured 24-month funding from the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA – previously OFDA/USAID) to support humanitarian actors to increase scale and quality of -------------------------------------------------- 6 Nathalie Cissokho, “Handover – Nathalie Klein, CaLP WCAF Regional Representative”, February 2021. 7 Nathalie Cissokho.Ibid 8 Nathalie Cissokho, “Definition of Minimum Expenditure Baskets (MEB) in West Africa - Experiences from Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Chad and Nigeria. What Lessons Can Be Drawn for Other Countries?”, 2018. 9 Nathalie Cissokho, “Handover – Nathalie Klein, CaLP WCAF Regional Representative”, (2021) 10 Nathalie Cissokho.Ibid 11 Action Against Hunger (AAH) on behalf of The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Proposal Narrative to USAID/OFDA”, July 17, 2018. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 10 CVA in the WCAF region. A cost extension was then obtained to continue the project for another 13.5 months (until September 30th, 2021) and address the increased needs induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.12 This BHA project forms the bulk of the financial support for CaLP activities in the WCAF region but also supported CaLP’s work more broadly. With this funding, CaLP’s objective was is to support humanitarian actors to increase the scale, timeliness, and quality of CVA in emergencies in the WCAF region through an increase in coordination, knowledge and capacity13. As per the June 2021 proposal submitted to BHA, the intended supported activities were as below.14 -------------------------------------------------- 12 Action Against Hunger (AAH) on behalf of The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP). 13 Ibid 14 The activities highlighted in blue are the ones added as a result of the 13,5 months cost extension for the period August 2020 – September 2021 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 11 Figure 1 CaLP’s BHA funded activities As the BHA project came to an end, CaLP commissioned a final external evaluation of its work in WCAF. This report provides the outcomes of that evaluation. Capacity Building •Delivery of CaLP’s standard and specialized courses to build CVA skills •Delivery of two Training of trainer on the recently developed core program module in French and certify 3 new trainers from the region •Promotion of CaLP's e-learning modules to the Francophone community of practice and translation of the practical scenario in French •Building of an Individual Expertise Program (BIEP) and enrol three cohorts •Technical support missions, including Capacity Building Support to national/local governments and inductions on CVA for sectors/clusters •Work with members to plan and co-facilitate a regional open learning event on important operational topics related to CVA •Co-organise at least two webinars with members focused on an emerging issue likely to affect humanitarian CVA in the region •Develop CaLP team’s skills in network facilitation and communication •Conversion of face-to-face trainings into e-learning modules and online delivery of one module Knowledge Management •Development of context-specific case studies, linked to CaLP’s global themes •Organisation of learning events to promote learning around these themes (Cash Coffees for instance) •Dissemination and uptake of resources, through translation and expansion of CaLP’s communications reach •Review of CaLP's francophone website to further improve its functionality •Translation of the Program Quality Toolbox (PQTB) in French, including supporting the translation of key resource documents •Publication of two blogs with a regional lens (at least one written by a member sharing regional experience) and three podcasts •Organise four informal meetings with members (Cash Coffees) to share knowledge and build alignment on “hot topics” of CVA •Collect CaLP network’s members’ experience to feed humanitarian strategic debates and share key messages related to CVA at national, regional and global levels CVA Coordination •Chairing of the Regional Cash Working Group in Dakar and continuation of regular meetings •Close collaboration with OCHA’s regional office so to link up national CWGs to the wider humanitarian structure and enhance experience sharing among the different groups •Participation in two missions planned by the regional Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) group to support national contingency planning development •In-country deployments and remote support at national level to support relevant clusters & ICCGs (CVA presentations to Inter-cluster groups, sharing developments of global policies on cash and relevant aspects of cash coordination, and working with OCHA, CWGs and sectors to increase embedding of CWG in the overall humanitarian architecture) •Deployment of members of the regional team to countries to work with MEB task teams, to provide guidance on processes, to help identify the relevant expertise to compose the group, clarifying concepts and sharing experience from other countries •Remote support to CWG on technical and coordination issues •Two annual meeting of CWG leads to strengthen peer-to-peer collaboration and enhance alignment of ways of working across the region - encouraging online participation •Represent the CaLP network at regional strategic fora and coordination bodies (IASC, ISG, RDs, WGs) COVID-19 response •Support provided to members and partners to prepare for and respond to the impacts of the pandemic •Evidence generation on CVA and COVID-19 •Development of members' communication, IT and online facilitation skills •Awareness-raising at regional and country levels around the necessity to speed-up the strengthening and scale-up of social protection systems and social safety nets Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 12 II. Objective and scope of the evaluation The evaluation aimed at assessing CaLP’s work in the WCAF region between August 2018 and September 2021. The evaluation sheds light on CaLP’s contribution to building an enabling environment for CVA in the region – and its influences on global CVA priorities. As such, it also included some global work which had an impact on the region. The specific objectives of the evaluation, as specified in the ToR, were to: Learn from challenges and successes of the CaLP’s work in WCAF during the period; Assess the effectiveness of the BHA funded project. The evaluation will serve the dual purpose of learning to feed into future CaLP work in the region and accountability vis a vis BHA. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 13 III. Overview of the methodology The figure below presents an overview of the evaluation methodology. A detailed methodology is available is section VI.3. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 14 IV. Evaluation findings The evaluation first assesses the relevance CaLP’s work in the region (section IV.1) and its coherence with regional and global CVA priorities (section IV.2). Then, it looks at the ability to reach intended outcomes, main effects of the work and influencing factors in section IV.3 focusing on effectiveness. Lastly, section IV.4 discusses the sustainability of the work with a focus on connectedness to longer-term programming. IV.1. Relevance The following sections describes the relevance of CaLP’s work in the region over the last three years by looking first at the audience reached and by addressing how CaLP was able to meet this audience’s needs and priorities. IV.1.1. Audiences reached First, and as mentioned in the proposal to BHA, the primary target group for CaLP’s regional work has been and remains humanitarian practitioners across West and Central Africa. More specifically, the primary target were actors involved in the transition to greater multisector inclusion in cash programming.15 In order to reach this target group, CaLP has been providing support to members of the national Cash Working Groups, MEB task teams, clusters and inter￾cluster coordination groups all across the region. Within this primary focus of humanitarian practitioners, CaLP has made a particular effort to involve local actors, governments, NGOs, and private sector actors in its activities.16 Through this, CaLP recognises the important role that those actors play in humanitarian policies and practices and promotes localisation and the humanitarian / development nexus. 17 The graph below shows the split of respondents to CaLP’s most recent perception survey. It represents fairly the audience reached in CaLP’s activities, except for government representatives who are absent from the survey. This target group has nonetheless been engaged in various activities including capacity building, technical support, and coordination activities. The turning point for CaLP’s engagement with governments in the region, and also with the World Bank, was its participation in the Community of Practice on CVA, which is a forum set up by the World Bank and UNICEF and which brought together African governments involved in setting up social safety nets. Over the evaluated period, CaLP participated and presented tools to the forum held in Dakar in 2018 and to the remote 2020 one for instance. 18 The low participation of government representatives in the survey could then be linked to the channels through which the survey was -------------------------------------------------- 15 Action Against Hunger (AAH) on behalf of The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Proposal Narrative to USAID/OFDA”. 2018 16 According to multiple key informants and secondary data sources. 17 Action Against Hunger (AAH) on behalf of The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Proposal Narrative to USAID/OFDA”. 2018 18 Source: key informant interviews., 2021 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 15 disseminated as the total global survey sample includes only five government representatives from East Africa (3), Asia (1) and Latin America and Caribbean (1) out of 245 individuals. Graph 1: CaLP perception survey respondents by type of organisation they work for in WCAF (n=56) At regional level, CaLP also engaged donors, NGOs and coordination units’ regional offices to discuss needs in the region and relevance of activities. As an example, the regular regional CWG meetings facilitated by CaLP convened a large and diverse number of organisations including 31 single agencies: six United Nations (UN) agencies, ten Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), four from the Red Cross Movement, two State actors, two donors, two private sector actors, one research institute, three networks / consortiums and the World Bank.19 Consulted key informants from those various categories were all very aware of CaLP’s work in the region and confirmed that they had been appropriately involved in the activities when relevant. They all showed appreciation of the inclusive discussion fora that CaLP instigated at national, regional, and global levels. However, some key informants also discussed the challenges linked to the participation of such a varied audience in the activities. Due to this variety, participants in discussion workshops or trainings facilitated by CaLP often have different priorities, capacities and do not always speak a common language related to CVA programming. While gaining in inclusiveness, those activities were sometimes reportedly lacking in effectiveness for some stakeholders due to differences in priorities and also differences in understanding of some CVA concepts by certain actors20 . On the other hand, some key informants mentioned that while communication among all those stakeholders was a challenge at the beginning, it improved over time and regular meetings facilitated by CaLP allowed for the fostering of exchanges and a better understanding between different categories of stakeholders. -------------------------------------------------- 19 CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report 1: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, April 2019. 20 For instance, some key informants reported that during fora mixing humaniarian actors and government representatives, a lot of time was sometimes spent on explaining basic CVA concepts which were not fully undertood by government actors. For humanitarian actors already familiar with those concepts, it was perceived as slowing down the discussions and spending less time on critical issues. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 16 One weakness in the inclusiveness of the activities that was highlighted by the CaLP team at inception stage and during the midterm review21 is the unbalanced audience in terms of gender as presented in the graph below. In WCAF, 87,5% of survey respondents were male. Similar results were found in previous surveys. 22 However, it does not seem that this trend only applies to WCAF. Graph 2: CaLP perception survey respondents by gender and region (n=245) Based on key informants’ testimony, the imbalance is representative of the gender divide of humanitarian workers in the region. Some female key informants also mentioned that women working at field level do not always have a good awareness of the career opportunities that becoming a CVA specialist can offer in the region. Another explanation could be that women in the region struggle more than men to reach technical positions, due to biases in education and training. According to the project team, a particular effort is made to ensure gender diversity in all activities and particularly in trainings and this issue is being raised into regional level discussions. Lastly, several key informants highlighted that they were not always clear on how participants of capacity building activities were selected. While there was no perception that the selection was unfair, some would have liked to have more details about the selection criteria and process. Overall, while the demand for learning, capacity building and technical support is significant, it seems that CaLP reached a sufficient number and diversity of strategic stakeholders with relevant inputs at appropriate times. IV.1.2. Alignment with the needs of the audience Overall, all consulted key informants strongly believed that CaLP’s activities have been relevant to the needs and priorities of the audience. The quantity of requests for trainings, resources as well as technical and coordination support is good evidence to support this statement. This was confirmed by many key informants who highlighted that CaLP was highly relevant to the point of not being able to meet all needs, particularly in capacity building. To be part of the last BIEP programme for instance, CaLP received more than 80 applications for only 10 spots. The last online training in French received more than 500 applications for only 25 seats available. The fact -------------------------------------------------- 21 CaLP, “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Mid-Term Assessment”, August 2019. 22 CaLP. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 17 that CaLP cannot cope with the high demand means that the offer is aligned with the needs and interests. To respond to this demand, the team has been offering opportunities for certification to more CaLP trainers and to Training Partner Organisations (TPO) such as Bioforce, to multiply training delivery capacity and draw on complementarity.23 This was considered highly relevant. However, divergent voices were heard regarding the decision to put an end to the BIEP programme which was seen as highly in line with the needs in the region to create a real a network and connection of cash practitioners. It was nonetheless a rational decision to redirect resources towards activity reaching a higher number of individuals. Other than the training, key informants also particularly appreciated the technical support provided by CaLP over the last three years to CWGs and coordination around CVA, even though needs remain important in that regard. Particularly, key informants noted support to Minimum Expenditure Baskets (MEB) in the respective countries as critical. The MEB was described as a particularly useful tool in the region to coordinate transfer values. This emphasis on the MEB calculation is also a good example of how CaLP adapted its work based on feedback from its audience. The MEB was identified as a topic of interest during the first BIEP cohort and led to technical support activities in interested countries and to the development of a guidance document based on the WCAF experience. Most key informants highlighted adaptability and reactivity to feedback and changes as a key strength of CaLP. The team was able to collect feedback from its audience on the ground thanks to the regular contacts of the regional team with cash practitioners in various countries, through the annual perception survey, or through requests for feedback sent to communities of practice to generate new evidence such as gathering inputs for the State of the World’s Cash Report. The way CaLP addressed the changes linked to the COVID-19 pandemic is a good example of this. In response to the pandemic and need for immediate technical support and tools among the humanitarian community to adjust programming, CaLP very quickly published live guidance, including in French. 24 The guidance is built upon resources compiled by CaLP and members, including CWGs from West and Central Africa, particularly Niger and DRC that put together collective guidance for CVA adjustments in the COVID crisis.25 -------------------------------------------------- 23 CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report 2: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, October 2019. 24 Source: key informant interviews and CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report 3: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, May 2020. 25 CaLP. A key informant, at regional level, shared: “In terms of audiences, there is a strong will to ensure that workshops and training do not only bring together international NGOs, i.e. the “usual suspects” but also governments and the private sector. It is a little complicated sometimes because we do not have the same priorities, expertise and we do not always speak the same language.” Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 18 Text box 1: Example of CaLP’s adaptations to the COVID-19 pandemic1 According to the consulted key informants, CaLP’s support in putting together resources and fostering experience sharing during the first few months following the outbreak was highly valued. However, some felt that the push to shift to cash was sometimes a bit too strong during the COVID response and regretted that the message spread by CaLP was not focused on promoting robust feasibility and context analysis. Identified gaps While establishing that CaLP’s work in the region has been highly relevant to the needs in the region, some key informants highlighted the following areas as topics they would have liked to be further addressed: Evidence gathering regarding sectorial cash transfers and support in raising awareness of sectors who are usually not pro-CVA: even though some resources26 have been created -------------------------------------------------- 26, CaLP commissioned a case study on CVA’s impact on gender dynamics in Mali, in collaboration with the Malian Red Cross and the development of a decision-making tool on cash and nutrition, in collaboration with Save the CaLP adapted to constraints put on face-to-face events by providing remote technical support through online COVID-specific sessions which quickly exceeded the usual audience to directly benefit more than 3500 individuals. This included the development of materials such as two micro￾learning videos available in French, one focusing on remote market assessment and the second on adapting delivery mechanisms, which were identified as top two priorities in the COVID context. Specific support to practitioners through the COVID crisis also included coordination assistance, with around 70 practitioners actively contributing to sharing experience and learnings through regional and global CWG meetings organised by CaLP. The team also facilitated with the regional Platform on Social Protection the development of a regional paper on the scale-up of social safety nets and humanitarian CVA to address the economic impacts of COVID-19. The team also facilitated the Geneva based CWG meeting convening CWG leads from across the world, including Burkina Faso, DRC and Mali as representatives for the region. Attendees shared field perspectives from the COVID crisis and showcased good practice of adjusting programming. The regional team then supported the development of 4 short videos on key takeaways from the meeting: Coordination challenges related to COVID, market and supply chains, connection with Safety nets and remote delivery. CaLP also convened a regional meeting to collect learnings from the COVID crisis response in West and Central Africa. The aim was also to develop an advocacy paper jointly with the Regional Platform on Social Protection to push for the scale-up of safety nets and humanitarian CVA to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID crisis. The “Call for Action” (also translated in French) was published in July 2020 and was presented to the regional IASC and shared with all government members of the African Community of Practice on Cash Transfers. CaLP’s regional team also shared learnings from the regional Ebola outbreak in a webinar organised by the platform Social Protection at the early stage of the crisis on April 16. In parallel, CaLP continued to provide general technical support, addressing requests coming from new actors that were turning to CVA due to the COVID crisis. CaLP’s regional team facilitated a webinar in French on CVA for WASH on and another webinar on CVA in Health in 2020. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 19 on topics such as Cash for Nutrition or Cash for Health, there seems to be a strong appetite for those type of evidence-based reports. Some key informants explained that when COVID started in Cameroun, sectors traditionally not using CVA were struggling to supply and deliver in-kind assistance. The CWG decided to reach out to them to offer their support to those clusters to shift to CVA. However, those clusters turned the support down as they believed their donors were against CVA and pro in-kind assistance. Awareness raising efforts towards those donors was perceived as a need that CaLP could address. Further support in advocating to donors for multipurpose indicators when using CVA: several key informants raised the fact that while the MEB was a great tool, most interventions remain highly sectorial since donor reporting standards remain sectorial. Evidence gathering regarding the impact of CVA for recurring and seasonal crises: now that CVA has been used for several years to respond to chronic shocks in the Sahel, some stakeholders would be interested in seeing more evidence on the impact of those interventions and of different programmatic options (providing CVA just before or after the lean season for instance as during this period prices are higher than usual, etc.). Further experience sharing in dealing with Financial Service Providers (FSP): many organisations usually struggle with identifying, contracting, negotiating terms and rates, and collaborating with FSP. While a FSP mapping has already been done, some key informants expressed the need for more guidance and experience sharing on how to best deal with FSP. Relevance of the change in strategy since 2020 Lastly, the discussion discussed with key informants the relevance of the change in strategy and ways of working for 2020-2025. The new strategy is a result of a 7-month wide consultative process involving 450 individuals, however mixed opinions were expressed in that regard. For some, the new ways or working (as described in more details in section IV.4.1) are rather derived from internal reflections than from feedback from the humanitarian community on the ground who would like CaLP to continue its more active role in capacity building, evidence gathering and coordination. While most key informants agreed with the fact that ideally, partners should take a more active role in capacity building, evidence gathering and coordination of CVA, the main obstacle remains a lack of resources, both human and financial. -------------------------------------------------- Children, the French Red Cross and UNICEF. A regional webinar on CVA and nutrition was organised with the Regional Nutrition Working Group in November 2020. A key informant, at regional level, shared: “What might have been missing is a reflection on the impact. Cash has been delivered as a response to the lean season for years now, this is far from being new. It would have been interesting to see what effect these programmes have and what are the other solutions (social safety nets, delivering before the lean season or after because during the lean season prices are the highest). It is important to break the humanitarian routine which is strong in the region” Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 20 Regarding coordination efforts, some key informants also expressed concerns over imbalances of power among cash actors in the region, with bigger actors being more able to dedicate resources to coordination and imposing their visions in national CWGs if CaLP is not as involved and acting as a neutral gatekeeper. Lastly, regarding capacity building efforts, while most international NGO have now one or several cash technical advisors able to support in-country teams and local partners, some key informants highlighted that government actors are now the ones more in need of basic capacity strengthening around CVA. However, if trainings are left in the hands of CaLP partners, concerns were expressed regarding the risks of governments being excluded. CaLP has already addressed this issue by including training provision specifically for national actors in a new funding proposal. IV.2. Coherence This section explores the coherence of CaLP’s work with regional and global priorities around CVA. Overall, the evaluation team found that CaLP managed to find a good balance between responding to regional needs and priorities and addressing global trends. IV.2.1. Alignment of CaLP’s work with regional CVA priorities Overall, most key informants believed that CaLP’s work has been in line with regional priorities thanks to a regional team with a strong understanding and knowledge of the context and connections with CVA actors in the region as well as to the flexibility given by the donor to adjust the work to evolving priorities. The following regional priorities were identified and worked on: Coordination around CVA and definition of a MEB As discussed in the introduction of this report, coordination in the region remains very weak due to lack of funding and capacities across countries and at the regional level.27 This also applies to coordination around CVA. As a result, and in order to align with regional priorities, CaLP invested a lot of effort during the evaluated period in forming or revitalizing CWGs and supporting the development of national MEBs as discussed previously and in section IV.3.1.3. This effort was considered highly coherent with and driven by regional needs and priorities by most key informants. As part of these approaches, some stakeholders also noted the intent to use regional tools, like the Household Economy Analysis (HEA) which is a global approach promoted by Save the Children but widely used in the region due to Save the Children’s capacity building and advocacy efforts. The tool was adapted following the discussions facilitated by CaLP around the MEB to better calculate thresholds and gaps at sector level. CaLP, through the support provided to CWGs at the country level, also strengthened government leadership and coordination with humanitarian actors, encouraging active participation if not -------------------------------------------------- 27 Source: key informant interviews and Nathalie Cissokho, “Handover – Nathalie Klein, CaLP WCAF Regional Representative”. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 21 leadership of the government on MEB task teams and broader cash coordination. This is in line with the next priority related to social protection. Linking CVA with social protection Several governments in WCAF are currently developing social protection programming. There is need and interest in ensuring humanitarian cash responses are, at the very least, coherent with social protection programming, even more so since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.28 The interest was confirmed by CaLP being invited to represent humanitarian actors in government-exclusive fora (such as the African Community of Practice in Cash Transfer Programming) and receiving an increasing number of requests for training, including requests from the governments of Mali, Senegal and Liberia since 2018. 29 In Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania, the World Bank is also providing support to the governments to develop social protection programming which is already being implemented. 30 There is a collective push at the regional level from donors, humanitarian actors and development actors to link those social protection programmes to humanitarian CVA delivered during the lean season. 31 As a result, this emphasis in CaLP’s regional and global initiatives was considered coherent. However, some stakeholders felt that the messages spread by CaLP to link those two movements could have been further nuanced given the limited progress made by governments in establishing social protection programmes. They also highlighted that the recommendation to use as much as possible the government’s registries can present operational, administrative and policy issues as well as concerns of neutrality and ethics in countries where the government is one of the players in a conflict. In addition, studies32 have shown that the targeting methodology used to build those registries can vary greatly from other targeting methods used in the region by humanitarian actors. While contextual analyses have always been recommended by CaLP before considering linking CVA with social protection, these caveats seemed insufficient compared to the overall push to explore linkages. Link between CVA and security and access Key informants also identified security and access as a priority topic among humanitarian practitioners in the region with contexts deteriorating in several countries of the Sahel belt. This topic was also addressed by CaLP during the evaluated period. For instance, in March 2020, CaLP organised a discussion on access and humanitarian principles, drawing from learnings and challenges shared at the regional working group on access and humanitarian principles and from recommendations from the events instigated by CaLP in Douala and Dakar on CVA and risks in 2019. Inputs on this topic were considered coherent by consulted stakeholders. They also appreciated the nuance in the messages spread i.e. while CVA can lift some access issues and -------------------------------------------------- 28 See for instance : British Red Cross, “Key Guidance Notes - For National Societies Advocating to Governments on the Use of Cash and Social Protection during COVID19” (Cash Hub, n.d.). 29 Nathalie Cissokho, “Handover – Nathalie Klein, CaLP WCAF Regional Representative”. 30 Action Against Hunger (AAH) on behalf of The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Proposal Narrative to USAID/OFDA”. 31 Action Against Hunger (AAH) on behalf of The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP). 32 Pascale Schnitzer, “How to Target Households in Adaptive Social Protection Systems? Evidence from Humanitarian and Development Approaches in Niger”, The Journal of Development Studies 55, no. sup1 (December 13, 2019): 75– 90, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1687877. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 22 ensure aid continuity, thorough contextual analyses must be undertaken to ensure beneficiaries’ protection. 33 In conclusion, CaLP’s work in WCAF has been coherent with regional priorities and trends. This is highlighted in the graph below showing that the majority of survey respondents from WCAF agreed or strongly agreed with the fact that CaLP has been able to identify emerging trends in CVA. Graph 3: ‘To what extent do you agree that CaLP is effective in identifying emerging CVA trends?’ (n=242) However, it was sometimes hard for key informants to define whether CaLP was aligning to regional priorities or whether CaLP was actually shaping the agenda based on its own global strategy and thus influencing the regional priorities. Evidence points towards mixed and varied influences (as described in Graph 4 below and further developed in the following section). IV.2.2. Alignment of CaLP’s work with global CVA priorities The evaluation sought to determine whether the community of practice thought CaLP’s work aligned to global priorities around CVA. Overall, while focusing on topics that were relevant to WCAF contexts, the evaluators found that this was the case, as highlighted in the previous section. In 2020, CaLP adopted a new strategy, entitled “CaLP’s Strategy 2020-2025: Increasing Impact through Collective Action”, reflecting a will to shift towards a more collective approach to all components that make up CaLP: capacity building, knowledge management and influencing. Before this, from 2017 onwards, CaLP’s strategy was based on its Global Framework for Action, which was aligned on all global priorities and aggregated the core content of the Grand Bargain, ECHO’s 10 Principles, the High-Level Panel report, the Strategic Note on Cash Transfers and the Agenda for Cash34 . -------------------------------------------------- 33 CaLP, “Recommendations and Key Messages Learning Event on Risks Linked to CVA: Protection of Beneficiaries - 29 October 2019, Douala, Cameroon”, 2019. 34 Global Framework for Action, CaLP, 2017 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 23 Text box 2: Extract from CaLP’s proposal for BHA35 Alignment with the three planned priorities In the proposal, written in 201836, CaLP defined three global priorities for its work in the WCAF region to engage with: Multi-sector CVA / MPGs, Operational Delivery Models and Linking Humanitarian and Development CVA. CaLP had planned to develop these three themes along the lines in text box 2. In WCAF, CaLP has managed to develop these three themes effectively and has also connected its work with other global priorities. In the perception survey, 53 respondents from the WCAF region agreed or strongly agreed that CaLP was effective in identifying emerging CVA trends. -------------------------------------------------- 35 Ibid. 36 Action Against Hunger (AAH) on behalf of The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Proposal Narrative to USAID/OFDA”, 2018 “On multi-sector CVA / MPGs, the focus will be on embedding CVA into multi-sectoral response analysis processes and supporting actors to define quality Minimum Expenditure Baskets. This will be achieved through technical support, championing specific expertise and strengthening appropriate coordination mechanisms to host theose discussions. On operational delivery models, the focus will be on ensuring the region is contributing to global debates by identifying adapted and appropriate models within the specific operational constraints of the region. This will be supported through in- country technical support, enhancing skills available skills, building on the pool of individual experts built by CaLP, and supporting appropriate coordination mechanisms. CaLP will also document learning on operational models in West Africa, to contribute to CaLP’s broader evidence base on in regards to operational models. On linking humanitarian and development CVA, CaLP will focus on supporting governments’ uptake of CVA” Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 24 Graph 4: ‘To what extent do you agree that CaLP performs well in terms of shaping agendas that are led by evidence?’ (n=242) On multi-sector CVA / Multi-Purpose Grants (MPGs), which are linked to the global priority of better CVA coordination, CaLP has made considerable progress in the region, essentially through supporting the creation and development of national Cash Working Groups as well as the collaborative definition of a country-level Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) (see more details on support provided by CaLP for the definition of national MEBs in section IV.3.1.1). In January 2019, CaLP launched its first session of “cash coffee” in WCAF, where it presented documents on cash coordination developed by the Global Cluster Coordinator Group. These aimed to ensure that the region’s community of practice was updated in conjunction with the latest relevant cash coordination activity. These documents were also shared and discussed during the annual regional Cash Working Groups’ leads workshop.37 On operational delivery models, a meeting was organised in May 2019 that gathered representatives from 13 organisations to discuss the experience of different operational models following the announcement of the Cash Platform by four UN agencies. During this meeting, Save the Children presented the experience of the Collaborative Cash Delivery model in Latin America38 . CaLP delivered in its role as the key provider of CVA knowledge and training through face-to-face and online sessions as well as via the roll-out of second and third BIEP cohorts for the purposes of CVA specialists in the region. This enabled the building of a core group of trained CVA practitioners capable of training further collaborators. This contributed to improved quality and delivery of CVA in the region. While the Grand Bargain and other global forums pushed for a scale-up of cash use in the region, CaLP aligned with this trend. A number of informants regretted this push as the infrastructure, -------------------------------------------------- 37 CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report 1 Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, April 2019? 38 CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, April 2021 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 25 market situation and/or security context didn’t allow for relevant use of cash transfers in many countries in the region. Moreover, some informants would have appreciated further advocacy for a response analysis looking at infrastructure, the market and the security context. CaLP is seen as having a key role in encouraging better uptake of market assessments and analysis in the region. On linking humanitarian and development CVA, CaLP has invested considerable effort towards building key government bodies’ capacities (through training quotas, for example) and towards the integration of social protection actors (where humanitarian response and social protection are being linked) in CVA forums, such as CWGs. Linking humanitarian cash transfers and social protection was the topic of one of the Grand Bargain Cash Sub-Groups, at global level, CaLP has been actively involved in this sub-group and it has also been a priority for CaLP in WCAF over the last three years, with a particular focus for the COVID-19 response since mid-2020. In June 2020, CaLP shared a Call for Action with a globally targeted reach that had been collaboratively drafted by the WCAF CaLP’s office, Oxfam, ACF and the World Bank as well as members of the Regional CWG and the Regional Platform on Social Protection. The purpose of the paper was to call for further support for government responses based on existing social protection tools (safety nets, social registries, etc). A central role in drafting this collaborative paper was performed by the CaLP team in WCAF. This demonstrates that CaLP WCAF team has aligned with the global priorities of the moment in terms of action regarding the pandemic and showed the capacity of the CaLP team to adapt to global priorities. Alignment with other global priorities and influence of CaLP WCAF team on global priorities Overall, CaLP’s regional team made a consistent effort to connect with global CVA priorities and hot topics by ensuring it was in contact with CaLP’s wider staff body and by attending global events when possible. For example, CaLP’s WCAF regional representative attended the Cash Conference organised by the British Red Cross in London in September 2018. They also presented a session at the World Food Programme / ECHO roundtable on linking humanitarian CVA with social protection systems, in November 2018, in Rome. Global staff also attended key events in the region during the period to ensure that the connection was consistent and dynamic. CaLP has also actively contributed to the global discussions around the links between cash and nutrition in the region. Furthermore, CaLP was invited to act as a panellist for the IFPRI conference in Dakar that focused on “Integrated Cash Transfer Programs in West Africa: How to make cash transfer programs more nutrition sensitive?”39 . While striving, to the best possible extent, to align its global and regional CVA priorities, the CaLP had a strong footprint and a sense of leadership in the region that allowed it to define its own priorities that responded to the needs of the community and fitted to the specific context. Consequently, CaLP’s regional team were always conscious of working to develop what was relevant for the region. Therefore, global topics that would not normally fit to the regional context (for example a global and unique FSP framework agreement or a push for more digitalization) were not pursued. The flexibility and the trust of the donor, BHA, allowed the CaLP team to pursue a tailored direction, instead of simply aligning to global priorities. -------------------------------------------------- 39 CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, April 2021 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 26 The field work pursued by CaLP in the WCAF region also influenced CVA global priorities with the CaLP team able to bring up concrete examples in global meetings or forums, which was highly appreciated and valuable. For instance, several CWG leads from the region contributed to the Geneva based CWG meeting on CVA inclusion in Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) processes in 2019 with the CaLP regional representative sharing several CWGs’ experiences regarding the definition of MEBs. Therefore, while the regional priorities were not necessarily influenced by global ones, the regional activities did influence and feed into global CVA discussions. Alignment with BHA strategy BHA recognizes that cash has the potential to deliver cost-effective and cost-efficient responses. To that end, it funded CaLP in the region due to the key role it has in demonstrating how resources can best be used to deliver CVA effectively and how CVA can best address the diverse needs of beneficiaries. BHA also believes in the need to create resources that are accessible to every practitioner, which is a strength of CaLP’s own resources and the ones of its members, made available and known to all through the periodic newsletter and its website. In that regard, BHA supported the translation of tools and publications in French as it rightly believes this is key for the accessibility of resources in the region. Moreover, as shared by a BHA staff in the region, BHA’s support for CaLP rests on the technical knowledge provided, improved partners coordination and the encouragement of good response analysis and a harmonized approach between CVA actors. CaLP’s support for their partners engenders trust within BHA in the CVA modality40 . IV.3. Effectiveness This section explores the effectiveness of CaLP’s work in WCAF. It looks into whether intended outputs were achieved, and progress made towards the outcomes of supporting the coordination, knowledge and capacity41 of humanitarian actors in order to increase the scale, timeliness and quality of CVA in emergency situations in the WCAF region. The section assesses whether the approach contributed to the overall objective of building an enabling environment for CVA programming in the WCAF region and beyond. Whereas evaluating CaLP’s contribution to increased scale and timeliness of CVA has proved challenging, with multiple factors and influences at stake, key informants were able to establish a relationship between the work done by CaLP on coordination, knowledge management and capacity building, with an increase in quality of CVA in the region. IV.3.1. Ability to reach intended outputs and outcomes IV.3.1.1. Support and facilitation process One of CaLP’s key successes lies in its approach to influencing, capacity-building and knowledge management. CaLP accompanied CVA actors through training and supporting the CWGs in the region, via a participative and neutral approach. 50 out of 54 perception survey respondents from -------------------------------------------------- 40 Key informant interview with BHA staff, 2021 41 Action Against Hunger (AAH) on behalf of The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Proposal Narrative to USAID/OFDA”. 2018 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 27 the WCAF region believed that CaLP is effective in facilitating critical discussions. One of the strengths of the CaLP team is in how it fostered discussions between different stakeholders where a consensus was hard to reach. This related to topics like the MEB, and links between humanitarian cash and social protection, whereby members of government were invited to CWGs and other humanitarian forums and close collaboration took place with social protection actors such as the World Bank. The CaLP team made inclusivity a principle in its work, and this allowed it to break down barriers42. This approach was appreciated by CVA actors, as detailed by key informants below. Text box 3 and 4: Quotes from key informants Two examples of effective working methods can be found in the support given to national MEB definitions, and in the BIEP programme. As part of its planned priority (see in section IV.2.2), CaLP intended to support CVA practitioners for the definition of quality Minimum Expenditure Baskets. The process chosen by CaLP for this support was a continuous one, starting - when possible - by an in-country visit after an official request was made by a CWG, then continuing via remote support until an agreed MEB definition was forthcoming. In 2017, a member of the CaLP team went to Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Mali, and to Burkina Faso in 2018 and again in 2019. The approach of providing in person support was chosen purposefully to ensure good results. It normally commenced with a session designed to raise awareness during CaLP staff in-country visits and with technical brainstorming to ensure everyone was on the same page regarding the meaning of MEB. Then, CaLP supported the creation of MEB task teams as CWG’s sub-technical working groups which were accompanied by CaLP throughout the process, mostly remotely but also through follow-up visits. This support was accompanied by the development of case studies, guidance, and tools (as well as their translation into French) focusing on ensuring that the MEB approach was accessible to the WCAF audience. A series of webinars was also held in collaboration with WFP at the global level. As such, CaLP provided technical support through different means to offer all the necessary knowledge and momentum so that practitioners could define their national MEB. The impact of the support brought by CaLP for defining national MEBs is detailed in section IV.3.1.3 related to the effect of CaLP’s work on CVA coordination. -------------------------------------------------- 42 Source: Key informant interviews (2021) A key informant, UN staff, from the 1st BIEP cohort, shared: “On coordination, what I like about CaLP is its ability to gather people around a table, talk about different topics, move forward the discussions while never standing for a particular actor. They always stay in their supporting role without taking a role in decision-making. It is a big advantage, a good approach “ A key informant, INGO staff, CWG co-lead, shared: “When trying to launch a new harmonization tool, CaLP is always here to kick-start the conversation on this kind of initiative and creates a link between the different actors, also sharing similar resources from other countries” Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 28 IV.3.1.2. Effect of capacity-building and knowledge management activities on improving CVA quality Successes Building Individual Expertise Programme (BIEP) Another strong component of CaLP’s work over the last 3 years in WCAF has been the Building Individual Expertise Programme (BIEP). The BIEP is a one-year programme implemented by CaLP that gives CVA experts the opportunity to benefit from a range of capacity building activities, including training, job placement and mentoring. It was first launched in 2017 in the WCAF region, followed by a second cohort in 2019 and a third, virtual cohort that was launched in 2020. The coaching programme lasts one year and is composed of different face￾to-face training sessions in different countries in the region, allowing for the majority to participate and to be exposed to different contexts and humanitarian issues. Continued remote coaching was also provided by CaLP’s capacity-building team in the region. Participants felt that the face-to￾face training sessions were a key moment for them in terms of meeting other practitioners from the region and networking, allowing them to seek advice and support from one another. The BIEP program has encountered considerable success among CVA practitioners in WCAF. Each cohort has a limited number of participants, and some informants were disappointed at not being selected. Out of 80 applications for the second cohort and 51 for the third cohort, CaLP selected only 10 participants. These cohorts were represented by a wide cross-section of different actors in an effort to disseminate knowledge and capacities across the CVA community in WCAF. For example, the second cohort included 5 participants from international NGOs, 3 from the UN, one from a local NGO and one from a national Red Cross delegation. As mentioned in the capitalisation report43 for the first phase (2017/2018): “in terms of organisational priority, the BIEP program has helped to build internal capacity (to have more qualified people) in the design and implementation of cash and MPGs. The BIEP program strengthened the leadership of the participating organisations with regards to the definition of the MEB and the cash working group”. The cohort chose to conduct a special focus on MEB and Multipurpose Cash Grants, explaining the impact it had on this subject. There are at least four examples of BIEP participants taking the lead in defining national MEBs in their CWGs and this was mostly due to their participation in the programme and the credibility that brought. BIEP participants have also revitalized coordination (for example through the review of the CWG’s ToRs led by a BIEP participant, co-lead of the group in Ouagadougou), and provided technical support to CVA responses (for example through a BIEP participant from Mali being deployed to Burkina Faso for 2 months to support UNHCR’s CVA response there). The participants of this 2017/2018 cohort added that, the program has, technically: 44 built their capacity for cash transfers (through training and coaching); ensured better understanding of the feasibility of MPG (especially MEB); provided a better understanding of the challenges in implementing CVA, especially the role of coordination and market analysis. -------------------------------------------------- 43 Capitalization report of the BEP pilot phase in West Africa, CaLP 2018 44 Ibid Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 29 Overall, there are many “success stories” for participants in the BIEP, allowing them to pass to more senior CVA roles within their organisation, some having been sent to other countries to support CVA responses within their organisations, others having left their organisation to obtain more senior jobs in other organisations. Throughout its two first rounds, and with the third one on-going, the BIEP created and will continue to create a cohort of francophone CVA experts with the potential to dynamize national Cash Working Groups and contribute to further expanding the CVA knowledge and capacities in the region through training their peers. A key informant working in a UN agency mentioned that he recruited some cash experts after they had completed their BIEP training. One of the key added values of the BIEP mentioned by former participants is the possibility of meeting peer practitioners with whom exchange ideas, knowledge and advice, during training sessions but also afterwards. Albeit not the first objective of the BIEP, this has proved to be a key take-away from participants interviewed. Overall, all informants believe that the BIEP is very effective at enhancing CVA capacities in the region and that it should continue as the demand is still high. Face-to-face and online technical training In 2019, 69,7% of responders to the mid-term survey agreed that CaLP’s work on capacity building increased their skills with regards to CVA. In 2021, all (36) respondents from the WCAF region who had undertaken CaLP’s training in the past year agreed (19) or strongly agreed (17) that it had increased their knowledge and skills for designing and implementing good quality CVA. While some informants now believe that enough CVA experts have been trained in the region and that CaLP should focus on other priorities, abundant online and face-to-face training requests and applications received by the CaLP team (more than 500 applications for the online core CVA skills for programme staff45) is a proof that the demand for CaLP’s training is still very high. This demand also serves as a testament to the quality of training. Practitioners in WCAF still consider CaLP’s CVA training very highly and being able to show CaLP’s training on their CV is seen as an asset. There is also a lot of demand for the CaLP’s Training of Trainers, aimed at generating new certified CaLP trainers. This is due to the quality of the training as well as the impact training has had on organisations that were equipped with certified trainers and able to train other members of their organisation. These certified trainers (which include certified BIEP participants) have played a key role in disseminating knowledge and increasing the capacity of humanitarian practitioners in the region. Key informants, however, believed that future capacity building efforts should prioritise local NGO staff and government representatives as capacities already seem strong enough among international organisations. As mentioned previously, this has already been addressed as part of the next grant cycle. Use of CaLP’s publications Overall, CaLP’s publications (guidance, tools, case studies) have contributed to improving the quality of CVA programmes in the region. 71% (39 out of 55) of perception survey respondents from the WCAF region shared having used a CaLP-produced guidance or tools in the past year. This information was triangulated by the key -------------------------------------------------- 45 Number given by a CaLP member of staff Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 30 informants who stated they had read most of CaLP’s publications, mostly when they had been written or translated in French. Some informants from Arabic-speaking countries in the region (e.g. Mauritania) also stated they had read publications in Arabic. A key informant said that he used the toolkit on Cash Transfer Programming on Urban Emergencies46 , even though it was written a few years back, as it was still relevant for urban intervention in response to the impact of COVID-19 measures in major cities. Some informants also believe that the cross-cutting guidance produced by CaLP (on gender or market analysis, for example) has contributed to better monitoring of CVA and improved overall programming quality. Others have found the case studies particularly useful as they allowed for learning via reflections on similar contexts or challenges. Those who responded to the perception survey have mostly used the guidance and tools related to cash and coordination, COVID-19, digital payments, and service providers as well as links to social protection, risk and operational models. Most perception survey respondents from WCAF stated they had used CALP-produced research or evidence to inform programme design and, to a lesser extent, internal advocacy and/or policy development. The translation of CaLP’s publications and training materials in French clearly shows a will to reach the WCAF francophone community of practice and this has worked well. A number of key informants confirmed reading publications and tools available in French due to their lack of English. However, CaLP is still seen as an “anglophone” organisation and some practitioners would like to see more resources, blogs and online training materials published in French alongside English. The delay between the publication of a resource in English and its availability in French has been noted. While most organisations now have their own training materials and tools for the design and implementation of CVA, key informants stated that they still see CaLP’s materials as a reference and a go-to place for capacity building and awareness-raising on CVA. Materials internal to each organisation are not seen as replacements for what CaLP has produced as they are more specific and don’t necessarily cover all the basic principles in the same way CaLP’s do. It is also worth mentioning that some practitioners and international organisations have used CaLP’s materials as a basis in developing their own materials. Knowledge management and networking CaLP is playing an important role in the region, not only in sharing their own resources but also those of its members as well as creating networks of practitioners. All key informants have acknowledged the benefits of joining other CVA actors in meetings or training sessions as they could assist each other on any CVA questions. CaLP has also fostered the exchange of good practices and lets all CVA actors benefit from its “address book” across the region. For example, a member of the Mauritanian governmental institution on social protection had meetings booked with different CVA and social protection actors during a trip to Mali thanks to CaLP’s contacts. Stakeholders appreciated webinars held during the evaluated period, especially the MEB webinar series. These sessions, as with other resources, reach out to more practitioners in the region when they are facilitated or translated in French. CVA actors also read and use resources from its members that CaLP shares in its newsletter or on its website and see CaLP as a repository for all -------------------------------------------------- 46 Cross T, Johnston A, “Cash transfer Programming on Urban Emergencies”, CaLP, 2012. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 31 key CVA resources. This is believed to have also contributed to enhancing the skills of the CVA community in WCAF and consequently improved the quality of CVA. IV.3.1.3. Effect of CaLP’s coordination work on improving CVA quality The perception survey asked whether respondents thought that cash coordination had become more effective over the past year in terms of its impact on improved programme quality. To this, 49 out of 55 respondents from the WCAF region agreed or strongly agreed. Key informants interviewed confirmed this opinion. CaLP’s work on CVA coordination revolved mainly around the support provided to CWGs and the definition of national or regional MEBs, which are believed to have been very effective at bringing people together and improving CVA coordination. In that regard, CaLP helped to remove coordination barriers and these actions have contributed to improving the quality of CVA. Nonetheless, some practitioners would like to see CaLP take an important role in pushing for a better response analysis before recommending the use of cash and for the calculation of transfer amounts (especially for Multipurpose Cash Grants). This is something CaLP is already engaged in. Support of establishment and effectiveness of regional, national and sub-national CWGs National and sub-national Cash Working Groups (CWGs) Between 2017 and 2019 specifically, the CaLP’s WCAF team has undertaken considerable effort in the reactivation or revitalization of the region’s national CWGs and this support was recognized and valued. In 2019, out of 14 CWGs supported by CaLP in the region, 9 had updated their ToRs: Dakar (Regional CWG), Ouagadougou, Yaounde, Maiduguri, Bangui, Kinshasa as well as 3 sub￾national CWGs in DRC. Niamey had also updated their ToRs with validation pending at the humanitarian country team (HCT) level. Mali and Chad were transitioning47. The work done by CaLP, through remote support but, most importantly, in-country visits, has been instrumental for this revitalization of CWGs and for the clarification of their role in coordination with CVA through ToRs. At the regional level, the CWG (RCWG) in Dakar (co-chaired by CaLP) has been very reactive to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been characterized by the organisation of webinars, the sharing of tools and guidance to support practitioners in adjusting their CVA to COVID and by making mapping of FSPs available in order to put digital payment systems in place. The RCWG worked with other coordination bodies to advocate for expanded humanitarian CVA, including during the -------------------------------------------------- 47 Supporting humanitarian actors to increase scale and quality of cash transfer programming in West Africa - Mid￾term assessment, CaLP (2019) A key informant, co-lead of a CWG in West Africa, shared: “CaLP is the bandmaster of national CWGs. CaLP coaches, revitalizes and follows national CWGs to make sure these discussions forums keep their dynamism. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 32 pandemic. Even if the RCWG was active immediately after the pandemic was declared, key informants have shared concerns about the decrease in its activity since the end of 2020. CWG leads meeting In 2019, the Regional CWG adopted a new ToR, and this included the organisation of a two-day annual or bi-annual workshop convening all national and sub-national active CWG leads and co￾leads. The first one took place in Dakar in 2019. It couldn’t take place in 2020 due to COVID-19 and it was held virtually in 2021. This has been described as an enriching experience for participants, who were able to learn from other contexts and meet peers with whom they could later exchange with bilaterally on technical questions and concerns. However, the fact that CaLP has progressively been stepping back from a hands-on approach in the CWGs has been noticed by informants48 (the causes for this might be varied and were not identified by informants). For these informants, this is a concern for the dynamism and neutrality of CWGs. Support in defining national MEBs CaLP has provided instrumental support in the definition and calculation of national MEBs since 2017 and this support was also recognized and valued. Through in-country visits (Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Mali, and Burkina Faso), some jointly with OCHA, the CaLP’s team initiated the establishment of MEB task teams which helped to trigger collaborative discussions among CWG members and created a dedicated space for definition. Continuous CaLP’s support throughout the process has played a very important role in the completion of the process. The neutrality of CaLP has been a strong asset in convening all kinds of actors around the same table to start discussions about a common MEB and bring a neutral voice to those discussions. From April 2021, Burkina Faso CWG produced a cash dashboard and continued working on the MEB. In Nigeria, the CWG reviewed the MEB and in Niger the CWG finalized its MEB. CaLP visited Chad in 2019 and the MEB definition process was finalized in 202049. The way CWGs have worked on the definition of MEBs in the WCAF region has demonstrated good practice in a case study. 50 However, the fact that a UN agency is increasingly taking the lead of many CWGs, thus finalizing the definition of an MEB is raising concerns around the neutrality of the process and the collective buy-in and validation of an MEB at national level. IV.3.2. Broader effects of CaLP’s work in the region and unintended effects Overall, the evaluators were able to draw conclusions on the following broader effects of CaLP’s work in the region: CaLP’s contribution to improved quality of CVA in the region -------------------------------------------------- 48 Source: Key informant interviews, 2021 49 CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, April 2021 50 Nathalie Cissokho, “Definition of Minimum Expenditure Baskets in West Africa, Experiences from Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Tchad and Nigeria. What lessons can be drawn for other countries?”. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 33 As discussed in the sections above, most key informants and survey respondents believed that CaLP contributed greatly to improving the quality of CVA programming in the region through capacity-building initiatives, research and knowledge management and coordination support. CaLP’s contribution to improved timeliness and to the scale-up of CVA CVA remains a new modality of assistance in the region, except from in a few countries, like Niger, where it was used since 2004/2005 for the food crisis response, especially as a multisectoral modality of assistance. CVA has, for a long time, remained a modality of food security responses in the region, and other sectors such as water, sanitation and hygiene or shelter have only recently used it in their response. Although the scale and, to a certain extent, the timeliness of responses using CVA has increased over the last three years in the WCAF region, it is difficult to establish a direct relationship with CaLP’s activities in the region. While key informants have almost unanimously agreed that CaLP has played a big role in the acceptance of CVA in the region, most of them felt that the push for “more cash” has mainly come from donors and commitments made by UN agencies and INGOs as part of the Grand Bargain. However, a link can be established between CVA actors’ increased capacities, better quality of CVA programmes and the timeliness and scale of CVA. Therefore, CaLP’s work on capacity-building and coordination has indirectly contributed to timely CVA responses and scale ups. For instance, some participants in training sessions, especially the BIEP cohorts, were able to convince their senior management of the relevance and effectiveness of CVA as a multisector modality of assistance and those participants, together with CaLP’s various resources, have reduced the fears and false myths surrounding the use of CVA. This was also confirmed by a number of donors who stated that CaLP’s work has contributed to create trust around the modality. Unintended effects of CaLP’s work in the region Very limited unintended effects have been identified as part of this evaluation. The only potentially negative consequence of CaLP’s work on linking social protection with humanitarian CVA, as highlighted by one key informant, was the creation of confusion between social protection and cash transfer projects. This could undermine the entire system behind any governmental social protection programme as it makes social protection seems like a project approach?. 51 However, the evaluators were not able to further test this assumption. IV.3.3. Drivers and constraints of effectiveness Facilitating factors Strong leadership and excellent knowledge of the context of the then-CaLP WCAF regional representative has proved to be a key factor facilitating success between 2018 and her departure -------------------------------------------------- 51 Key informant interview with former CaLP staff (2021) A key informant, UN staff, co-lead of a CWG and BIEP participant, shared: “If today, all sectors are interested by cash it is thanks to the information and sensitization work of CaLP “ Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 34 at the beginning of 2021. Most key informants, including members of governmental institutions, described having close relations with the representative as well as mutual trust that encouraged them to reach out to her anytime, to follow-up on discussions held during meetings or webinars, as well as to ask technical questions. Her excellent knowledge and understanding of the context allowed her to define relevant priorities for the region and to navigate across all types of institutions, including governmental, with ease and credibility. She also played a significant role in representing the neutrality of CaLP and showing openness to work with all kinds of actors, for example through the work pursued alongside OCHA around cash coordination. The negative consequence of this strength is the gap created by her absence and the lack of replacement since her departure in February 2021. This has been noted by all informants. Another driver of success was the responsiveness and availability of the team, which adapted to specialised training or field mission requests and was always available for remote support. The flexibility and trust of the donor, BHA, has also proved a driver for effectiveness, as it allowed CaLP to adjust their work to the varied and evolving needs of the audience and to changes in context. Constraints on effectiveness Among the barriers to effectiveness for CaLP were the challenges practitioners faced in accessing training and online resources. In the perception survey, and during key informant interviews, respondents from the WCAF region stated that the main barriers to access trainings are the lack of time dedicated to training, followed by the lack of good connectivity in the field, being unaware of training opportunities or resources available and the cost of a face-to-face training. For a few perception survey respondents, the trainings not being available in their language and having an unsupportive manager were also barriers to accessing CaLP’s trainings. See below findings of the survey for WCAF respondents. Graph 5: Barrier to access online and face-to-face trainings for survey respondents in WCAF (n=56) Access to Kaya, the training platform used by CaLP, was described as problematic by a key informant who took two months to obtain her credentials to be able to have an account and log into the system. While CaLP is undertaking great effort advertising resources and training available, practitioners in the region often register to groups and newsletters only after their participation to initial CaLP training. Therefore, CaLP should pursue additional efforts to reach out Lack of internet access 19% The training is not available in my language 14% Unsupportive manager 5% Cost 17% Time 26% Unaware when training opportunities are happening 19% Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 35 to those practitioners not yet “in the loop”. Access to internet or lack of good connectivity is also a concern in the region and CaLP should be attentive to this barrier to ensure that field workers also have access all resources and online training. The fact that bigger actors, most notably UN agencies, take the lead in CVA implementation and coordination in the region, is seen as a barrier of effectiveness for some informants. As such, CaLP’s influence is potentially reduced, as its space is rendered narrower. This barrier to effectiveness can be overcome by the strong leadership of a CaLP’s team in the region, which has been missing since the departure of its regional representative in February 2021. Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic also represented a constraint on the implementation of all planned activities during the evaluated period, as highlighted throughout the report. Nonetheless, CaLP was able to adapt to overcome the challenge. IV.4. Sustainability and connectedness to longer-term programming This section addresses the extent to which CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa has integrated sustainability considerations. As CaLP is a network, focused on policy, evidence and learning, its work and existence are not designed to be inherently finite. As such, the evaluators are less focused on whether a future exit is possible at this stage, but rather on whether CaLP has taken longer-term programming issues into consideration. IV.4.1. New strategy: progressive shift from a hands-on strategy to more remote and partner-based initiatives As discussed in section IV.1.2, since 2020 CaLP has adopted a new strategy for 2020-2025 which sets out new priorities and network-focused ways of working. Figure 2 below, shows how the CaLP team will progressively act more as a facilitator of the network and rely more intensively on its members to co-create evidence-based tools, guidance, good practice, and training materials. These will be for the use of all those involved in humanitarian CVA at the local, national, regional, and global levels. 52 This global strategic shift is having a direct impact on WCAF, starting with a change in the way the regional office is structured (there will not be a position focusing on capacity building, for instance). While some concerns were expressed regarding this shift, as highlighted in section IV.1.2, the change works towards a more sustainable approach to CaLP’s actions in the region and beyond. It should nonetheless inherently lead partners to take a more active role, as well as more ownership over activities, which is a step towards independent implementation of activities and sustainability. Figure 2: Main changes from CaLP Strategy 2017-2020 to CaLP Strategy 2020-20255354 -------------------------------------------------- 52 CaLP, “CaLP Strategy 2020-2025 :Increasing Impact through Collective Action”, 2020. 53 CaLP. 54 In the figure, CoP stands for Community of Practice Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 36 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 37 Some elements are already pointing towards this shift. For instance, while, over the evaluated period, CWG leads were still relying on CaLP for technical and coordination support, some were looking for support internally and relying on country-based or partner-based technical experts and certified trainers. This was the case in Mali, for instance, where a training request was sent to CaLP only when no partners or trainers were able to provide support.55 Moreover, CaLP has been working towards this aim over the last three years while making sure that training opportunities are still available for countries and organisations lacking capacities and resources. This was done, for instance, by making more tools and training modules available online and open to all in different languages, including French. However, this was judged less by some as effective than in￾person training, as previously mentioned. IV.4.2. Inclusion of longer-term considerations in CaLP’s regional agenda Lastly, over the last three years, the evaluators noted an effort to connect CaLP’s work to longer￾term considerations and programming. The emphasis put on linking CVA to social safety nets in the region was discussed in section IV.2.1. For example, CaLP’s regional team led the development of an operational tool for governments and CWG on behalf of the Regional Platform for Social Protection, to help them link humanitarian CVA with social protection programming. 56 The tool was reviewed and validated by the members of the platform and disseminated by the World Bank to governments in the region. It was also shared with the CWGs and disseminated in French and English. 57 The objective of this initiative was to identify entry points for connecting emergency responses to longer-term safety nets to help mitigate the immediate impact of crises on economic recovery in the region. During the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the regional CaLP team also developed an advocacy paper jointly with the Regional Platform on Social Protection to push for the scale-up of safety nets and humanitarian CVA to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID crisis. This “Call for Action to Increase the Uptake of Cash Transfers to Ensure Rapid Response in Case of Shocks” 58 also led to discussions with the regional Early Preparedness and Response working group to develop an action plan that could implement the recommendations. Specific recommendations on strengthening social protection systems, scaling-up safety nets and ensuring shock responsive and conflict sensitive dimensions were further highlighted in diverse political discussions, such as the Senior Official Meeting for Central Sahel.59 In 2020, CaLP also participated in a panel discussion on “Disasters & Development - Market Systems Analysis” at the Health and Humanitarian Logistic annual conference. The session focused on the engagement of -------------------------------------------------- 55 Source: key informant interviews. 56 CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report 3: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, 57 CaLP. 58 Regional Platform on Social Protection and Regional Cash Working Group for West and Central Africa, “A Call for Action Increase the Uptake of Cash Transfers to Ensure Rapid Response in Case of Shocks”, June 30, 2020. 59 CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report 4: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, October 2020. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 38 the health sector, social protection measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and market assessments, with issues linked to the health market specifically in West and Central Africa.60 While a lot of efforts have been dedicated to connecting CVA to longer-term programming, key informants were not able to say whether this emphasis had an impact in practice, and several felt the messages were not always clear and practical enough on the topic. A few also mentioned their desire to see more resources linking CVA and nexus programming on topics such as financial inclusion. CaLP also embedded some of these considerations in its new strategy for 2020-2025 at the global level. It suggests, for instance, that “CaLP members and the CaLP team form strategic alliances with other stakeholders working in complementary areas, such as social protection, localisation and markets”. 61 While social protection and markets have been addressed to some extent, key informants felt that localisation was a topic which was only just beginning to emerge in CaLP’s work at the time of the evaluation. As discussed in section IV.1.1, the team made a particular effort to include local actors, such as government bodies and local NGOs, in all activities. In addition, the shift to more online events, as opposed to in-person, also underlines environmental considerations in minimising carbon footprint. 62 A few individuals recalled seeing publications from CaLP on the topic or attending webinars63 in 2021. However, it seems that they were mostly actors in strategic and more global positions as the resources were only available in English at the time of the evaluation. Consulted key informants encouraged CaLP to further research and address these topics, which will only become more and more relevant in the future. -------------------------------------------------- 60 CaLP, “Semi-Annual Report 5: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, April 2021. 61 CaLP, “CaLP Strategy 2020-2025 :Increasing Impact through Collective Action”. 62 CaLP, “CaLP Ways of Working - Old vs New Strategy (Draft)”, January 12, 2021. 63 CaLP, “Webinar Recording - CVA, the Environment, and Climate Change in Humanitarian Response”, June 2021, https://www.calpnetwork.org/publication/cva-the-environment-and-climate-change-in-humanitarian-response/. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 39 V. Conclusion In summary, CaLP played a key role in creating and reinforcing capacities and knowledge around CVA within the humanitarian community in the West and Central Africa (WCAF) region over the course of the grant (2018-2021). Thanks to the array of activities conducted and resources produced, the close support (in-country or remotely) provided and the translation of those resources into French, CaLP’s WCAF work has reinforced and improved the quality of CVA in the region. CaLP is playing an important role in the region, not only in sharing their own resources but also those of its members as well as creating networks of practitioners. All key informants have acknowledged the benefits of joining other CVA actors in meetings or training sessions as they could assist each other on any CVA questions. CaLP has also fostered the exchange of good practices through the different forums where it gathers CVA actors from the whole region. However, most informants believe that this is not sufficient, and that work should be continued, especially to train members of governmental institutions and to increase the acceptance of the modality, which is still low in the region. Consequently, future capacity building efforts should prioritise local NGO staff and government representatives as capacities already seem strong enough among international organisations. This will be further addressed in the next grant cycle. Regarding coordination, several national MEBs are still not validated at the time of the writing of this report, and informants believe that CaLP should continue its supportive work until final validation. Some practitioners would like to see CaLP take an important role in pushing for a better response analysis and more systematic market monitoring and analysis before embarking with CVA. This is something that CaLP is already engaged with but could be further reinforced. The fact that CaLP has progressively been stepping back from a hands-on approach in the CWGs, for several reasons raised concerns regarding the vitality and neutrality of these CWGs, as well as potential imbalances of power, especially if bigger actors take the lead in CVA coordination. Several key informants see CaLP in WCAF as having a key role to play in further reinforcing CVA coordination through the existence of active national cash working groups (CWGs). CaLP is seen as a neutral actor that is best placed to be leading CWGs, as it has been done in the past. Key informants think that this would ensure effective, active and neutral CWGs that would serve the entire community of practice and ensure the involvement of government members. Moreover, informants believe that significant capacity-building work is still needed in the region and that CaLP Is best placed to continue contributing to this. Even if a critical mass of practitioners has been trained, more could be done considering staff turn-overs and the need for capacity building among governmental institutions, some embarking into cash transfers for the first time. The question has been raised as to whether CaLP’s members, if they are to take over the capacity￾building role, will make the same effort to include government members. Another area mentioned as one where CaLP could have a role is the negotiation of contracts with Financial Service Providers (FSP) nand helping CVA actors navigate the whole FSP assessment and contracting process, which is a barrier to speed implementation of CVA in most cases. CaLP is seen as having a key role to play in the integration of private actors to CWGs for example, or for the facilitation of a dialogue between organisations to share mutual agreements with FSPs. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 40 While using the network approach could allow for better results, it is important for all practitioners that CaLP keeps its global vision and neutrality. This is important for its credibility in continuing to influence the global CVA agenda, even in the WCAF region. CaLP will have to pursue the difficult challenge of reinforcing its network approach and speaking for its members while maintaining its neutrality at all levels. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 0 VI. Annexes VI.1. Project timeline Capacity Building Knowledge manage￾ment Coordina tion Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 1 Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 2 VI.2. Evaluation matrix The below matrix spells out the evaluation questions and the indicators that will be used to form judgement on each of these. Working questions How judgement will be formed Sources of information Relevance: How relevant was CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa (WCAF) to the needs and interests of the intended audience? 1. Who was reached by CaLP’s work in WCAF? 1.a. Project documents allow to identify the initial intended audience of the CaLP’s activities in the region 1.b. Activity reports (training/meeting/workshop participant lists) show whether this intended audience was reached or not. 1.c. CaLP staffs are able to explain why some intended target groups were not reached, if any Desk review: project proposal, baseline, activity reports, monitoring data Analysis of the perception survey Key informant interviews with CaLP staffs 2. To what extent was CaLP's work in WCAF in line with the needs and interests of these target groups? 2.a Desk review and key informant interviews demonstrate that CaLP work in WCAF is designed on the basis of a continuous assessment of needs and interest of the intended audience, 2.b. Consulted participants to CaLP activities in WCAF attest that the activity responded to their needs and interests over the period 2.c. Examples of adaptation of the work in WCAF, by the CaLP team, based on feedback from its audience Desk review: project proposal, baseline, CWG meeting minutes Analysis of the perception survey for WCAF respondents Key informant interviews with CaLP team members and key CVA actors Coherence: How well do the different objectives of the CaLP WCAF work fit with regional and global CVA priorities? 3. Does CaLP work in WCAF align with regional CVA priorities? 3.a Desk review shows that CaLP’s work’s objectives in WCAF are aligned with regional CVA strategies 3. b Key informants explain how CaLP’s work in WCAF is aligned to regional and global CVA priorities Desk review: CVA regional strategies, workshop reports, CWG meeting minutes Key informant interviews with the CaLP staff and key CVA actors Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 3 3.c Documentation on CVA experiences and lessons learnt in the region shows that the project addressed some of the challenges, gaps and constraints faced by the humanitarian community 4. How well does CaLP work in WCAF match with global CVA strategies? 4.a Desk review and CaLP staff show that CaLP’s work’s objectives in WCAF are in line with CaLP’s Global Framework for Action (up till 2020) and the CaLP strategy (2020 onwards) 4.b Desk review and BHA staff show that CaLP’s work in WCAF aligns with BHA global strategy vis a vis CVA Review of project documents, Global Framework for Action, CaLP strategy, Grand Bargain, BHA emergency application guidelines. Key informant interviews with CaLP staff, BHA and key CVA actors Effectiveness: To what extent has CaLP’s work in WCAF generated significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, changes? 5. How effective has the BHA funded project been in reaching its intended outputs and outcomes? 5.a Monitoring data show that intended outputs have been achieved 5.b Key informants illustrate the extent to which the different strands of CaLP’s work in WCAF have contributed to increasing the scale and quality of CVA they deliver in WCAF 5.c. Key informants illustrate how CaLP’s activities have had an effect on the way CVA is delivered by their organisation or community of practice Review of monitoring data such as the Global Tracker Review of workshop minutes with key CVA actors in the region Key informant interviews with the CaLP staff and key CVA actors 6. What have been the positive and negative unintended64 effects of CaLP’s work in WCAF? 6.a CaLP staff illustrate how CaLP’s work in WCAF influenced CaLP’s work globally 6.b BHA staff illustrate how CaLP’s work in WCAF influenced BHA work in the region and globally 6.c Key informants share unintended effects of CaLP’s work in WCAF 6.d Survey respondents focusing on WCAF report the main effect of CaLP’s work in the region Key informant interviews with the CaLP and BHA staff and key CVA actors -------------------------------------------------- 64 Unintended here refers to those changes that are not planned for as per the BHA proposal. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 4 7. What have been the main drivers and constraints of changes? 7.a Key informants identify factors, internal and external, which have had had effect, positive or negative, on the project’s effectiveness and impact Key informant interviews with the CaLP staff and key CVA actors Sustainability: To what extent has CaLP ‘s work in WCAF integrated sustainability considerations? 8. To what extent has CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa integrated sustainability considerations? 8.a The review of project documentation and CaLP’s staff show how sustainability considerations have been integrated in the issues worked on (publications, trainings, webinars, discussions, technical support provided, etc.) 8.b Key informants illustrate how CALP’s work in WCAF integrated sustainability issues (e.g links with SP, nexus programming, localisation, etc) Review of project documentation and materials (such as training agendas, meeting minutes, etc.) Key informant interviews with CaLP’s staff and key CVA actors Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 5 VI.3. Detailed methodology The evaluation was based on a qualitative approach, relying on a variety of primary and secondary data sources, both capturing qualitative and quantitative data. The following steps were taken, in chronological order. VI.3.1. Inception phase In-depth briefing The evaluation started with an in-depth briefing with CaLP’s consultancy managers which took place Friday 13th August 2021. Beyond fostering a broad and general understanding of the project background and of the evaluation’s ToR, this briefing was used to refine the list of documents available and discuss ways of working throughout the evaluation. Desk review Following the briefing, the consultants undertook an extensive desk review of all relevant documentation shared by CaLP, including: programme proposal and workplans, baseline and midterm report, monitoring data such as the Global Tracker documents, CaLP Strategy (2017- 2020) and new Strategy (2020-2025), Global Framework for Action, the State of the World’s Cash reports 2018 and 2020, reports and publications produced as a result of the programme, data and evaluation information from training courses and face to face events, programme reports, both internal and external, and data from CaLP perception survey (latest completed in November 2020). The desk review allowed the consultants to map the different activities of the programme and draw an initial timeline (available in section VI.1). It will also allow to start the identification of the outcomes and changes induced by the programme and inform a stakeholder mapping in order to clearly define the individuals directly targeted by the programme. This mapping will be used to identify key informants for the evaluation. Inception report At the end of this inception phase, the consultants produced this inception report, including a review of the documentation, a stakeholder mapping, and programme timeline as well as refined methodology for the evaluation, detailed evaluation questions and evaluation matrix (see section VI.2), data collection tools (see section VI.5), a finalised timeframe for the evaluation and designated roles and responsibilities. The evaluation questions were based on the lines of inquiry and the evaluation questions proposed in the Terms of Reference (ToR) but also reflected changes made during the in-depth briefing or other preliminary discussions, as is consistent with a participatory approach. The inception report was then reviewed by the review group composed of four members of the CaLP team working both at global and regional level. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 6 VI.3.2. Primary Data Collection The primary data collection comprised on the following components: Perception/satisfaction survey launched by the CaLP team. As part of CaLP’s effort to monitor the perceptions around its work at the global level, the team regularly launches perception survey shared with all stakeholders taking part in CaLP activities. The survey is designed to collect data on global outcomes, not only for this evaluation. The evaluation team did not influence the design of the questions but were able to use some of the collected data. The survey included lines of enquiries common with the evaluation questions included in the matrix. They related particularly to: - Barriers to access CaLP’s capacity building initiatives; - Increase in knowledge following participation in a training; - Increase in the effectiveness of cash coordination; - Use of CaLP’s guidance and research outputs; - Ability of CaLP to facilitate critical discussions around CVA. To answer some of the matrix indicators, the consultants analysed the survey results, with a particular focus on perceptions from survey respondents whose work is focusing on West and Central Africa in order to triangulate and feed into the evaluation findings, especially for areas of inquiry related to coherence and effectiveness/impact. In total, 56 respondents from West and Central Africa respondents to the survey (29 from West Africa and 27 from Central Africa). Key informant interviews Based on the stakeholder mapping established at inception stage and presented on the figure below, on the list of key stakeholders shared by the CaLP team, and on preliminary calls with CaLP team members, the consultants identified key informants for semi-structured interviews which were conducted remotely by Skype, Zoom or phone. The selection was done purposefully, targeting people thought to be best able to answer the evaluation questions. Informants were representative of the key stakeholders of CaLP work in WCAF as per the below figure. In total the consultants conducted 24 interviews: about half with regional informants, a quarter with CaLP current and ex-staff and BHA staff and the last quarter with national stakeholders. They included 9 women and 15 men. Figure 3: Evaluation stakeholders Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 7 Discussion Workshop The consultants initially planned to hold a remote workshop aiming at assessing the contribution of the programme to the intended outcomes. The workshop was meant to target CWG leads at regional and national levels across the different countries in the region in an effort to also gather national perspective. However, due to connectivity issues and clashing conferences and events, the participation to the workshop was much lower than expected despite a good mobilisation effort from the consultants and CaLP team. As only three individuals joined the meeting, the consultants adapted the content of the workshop and facilitated a focus group discussion instead, covering questions from the key informant interview guide. VI.3.3. Data analysis and drafting Analysis The quantitative data coming out of the perception survey for respondents focusing on WCAF was analysed on Excel. However, the consultants also looked at results coming out from other regions to identify whether some trends were specific to WCAF or not. The sample size for each indicator was included to ensure that the results presented are not misleading in terms of representativity of the findings. Qualitative disaggregated data gathered through key informant interviews and desk review was recorded and coded into a matrix in Excel organised per evaluation questions and indicators to analyse emerging trends. The analysis was done iteratively to adjust the data collection tools and explore some of the trends more in-depth. Data was triangulated across sources to ensure accuracy. - CaLPstaffs in WCAF - Global CaLPstaffs who have been involved in WCAFwork - Regional CWG chairs and members - Regional CVA stakeholders (UN, NGO, Red Cross, BHA) - National CWG chairs - Governmental counterparts for social safety nets Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 8 The analysis was done at regional level and not disaggregated by country as the sample size did not allow for meaningful country data and as the perception survey did not disaggregate at country level. The analysis of the effects of CaLP’s work in WCAF was done using a light version of process tracing to test whether CaLP achieved the BHA project’s overall objective of increasing scale and quality of CVA in the WCAF region and the vision of an enabling environment for CVA. Process Tracing is considered particularly useful for governance capacity building or advocacy initiatives, which are difficult to evaluate with experimental and statistical methods. 65 Challenges include establishing the link between specific activities and more global changes in the environment which can be influenced by a multitude of factors and actors. The process tracing for this evaluation will follow three key steps: This method allowed us to nuance some of the findings when CaLP’s contribution to a specific outcome was not clear. Presentation of findings The consultants developed this evaluation report presenting the main findings from the evaluation. The report was reviewed by the CaLP team for inputs and comments. The consultants then revised the report integrating the feedback when possible. A presentation was also organised to present the evaluation findings to the CaLP staff team and invited CaLP members. VI.4. Data protection Key Aid Consulting complies with the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) directive that came into force on May 25th, 2018. This directive sets out individuals’ rights regarding the processing, handling, treatment and storage of their personal data. The consultants implemented the following data protection measures to ensure that the confidentiality and anonymity of participants will be guaranteed. For qualitative data collected the consultants did: Present the objective of the project to potential interviewees; Not share any raw data collected (audio recordings, transcripts, interview database) from interviewees with the client, unless the client especially asks for it. In this case, only anonymised data will be given i.e. the interviewee's name, organisation as well as any -------------------------------------------------- 65 Jim Coe and Rhonda Schlangen, “No Royal Road: Finding and Following the Natural Pathways in Advocacy Evaluation” (Center for Evaluation Innovation, March 2019). Check for the presence of the outcome (what did the project achieve?); Reconstruct the pathway to change (what actions led to this achievement?); Investigate alternative explanations and multiple causes (what else might have happened to contribute to this?). Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 9 descriptive information that could breach data protection (age, location, etc.) will be omitted; Not quote individuals or refer to interviewee by name, position, or organisation in the final report. Individuals will be referred to by their stakeholder group (e.g. lead actors, etc.). For quantitative data collected (through the online survey), and as the survey was hosted on CaLP’s server, the consultants complied with the data protection rules already in place and did not share or give access to the data to any tierce party not directly involved in the project. All the data related to this project will be deleted by Key Aid’s Data Protection officer a year and a half after the start of the project. This includes project documents, primary data transcripts, data coding matrix or databases (including emails with any documents or database attached). VI.5. Data collection tools VI.5.1. Key informant interviews with CaLP current/former members of staff Introduction Hello and thank for taking the time to speak with me today. You’ve been identified as a key stakeholder to contribute to the evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa from August 2018 until now. This independent evaluation will serve as the endline of a BHA￾funded project which was implemented during this timeframe but the evaluation will also take into account any other activities such as technical support or training which were commissioned and funded by other organisations. The evaluation aims at assessing CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa, with a particular focus on evaluating CaLP’s overall contribution to building an enabling environment for CVA programming and draw lessons learnt for future programmes. By “building an enabling environment”, we refer to increasing the scale and quality of CVA programming in the broader sense. As you have been involved in the project yourself, we would like to hear your opinion on this as well as on the relevance, coherence, efficiency and connectedness of CaLP’s work in the region and as part of the. BHA-funded project. The interview will last around one hour. All information provided will remain anonymous and your answers will not be shared. We adhere to strict data protection policies (GDPR). In case you want to 1) correct outdated or incorrect information or 2) delete your data from the consultancy, you can contact Key Aid Consulting at info@keyaidconsulting.com. Please note that Key Aid will keep your data on a protected server for 30 days after the end of the project, after which it will be deleted. Do you accept to take part in this interview? • Yes • No Respondent Information Name: Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 10 Organisation: Title/Position: Email address: Introductory question 1. Could you start by explaining how you have been involved in CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa since August 2018 (refer here to a specific landmark e.g. 18 months before the pandemic)? Relevance 2. Do you think that CaLP’s work in the region over the last 3 years or so have reached their intended audience? If no, who has been missed and why? (1.c) 3. Looking at CaLP’s work in the region over the last 3 years, do you feel like the activities were in line with the needs, expectations and interests of CVA actors in the region? (2.a) a. What do you base your judgement on? b. Are there elements that CaLP should have prioritised more or less? 4. Over the last 3 years, the context in the region has changed quite a lot (e.g. the use of CVA has increased, there have been new needs – ebola/conflicts etc, COVID-19 pandemic). How do you feel CaLP’s work has been adapted to those changes in context? (2.a) 5. Has CaLP adjusted its work throughout the period on the basis of practitioners’ feedback? Can you share examples? (2.c) Coherence 6. In your opinion, to what extent has CaLP work in WCAF been aligned to regional and global priorities? (3.b) a. Were there any priorities or topics which were not addressed at all or not sufficiently according to you? 7. In your opinion, to what extent has CaLP work in WCAF been aligned to CaLP’s Global Framework for Action then the new CaLP strategy (over the last year) and its shift towards a more collaborative approach? (4.a) Effectiveness & impact 8. Over the last three years, to what extent do you think CaLP’s work contributed to increasing the scale and quality of CVA in the region? (5.b) Prompt the informant about the main stakeholders involved and which initiative(s) led by CaLP particularly led to this change, tend to give examples (5c) 9. Has CaLP regional work had an influence on CaLP’s global work? (6.a) 10. Have there been any unintended effects of CaLP’s work in the region? (6.c) 11. Can you identify the main internal drivers (internal to CaLP) that allowed CaLP to improve the quality of CVA in the region and beyond? (7.a) 12. Has there been any external factors playing a role in the achievement of those changes and effects in the regional CVA environment? Those factors could be either drivers or constraints. (7.a) Sustainability 13. To what extent has sustainability (links between CVA and SP, localisation, other nexus programming) been integrated into CaLP’s work in the region? (8.a) Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 11 a. Can you give examples on how this led to a change (8.b) Conclusion 14. What are the main lessons learnt that you draw from the work done over the last three years in the region? If you start all over again, what would you do differently? 15. Is there anything else that we have not discussed and that you feel is important for this evaluation? Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 12 VI.5.2. Key informant interviews with regional and national stakeholders Introduction Hello and thank for taking the time to speak with me today. You’ve been identified as a key stakeholder to contribute to the evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa from August 2018 until now. This independent evaluation will serve as the endline of a BHA￾funded project which was implemented during this timeframe but the evaluation will also take into account any other activities such as technical support or training which were commissioned and funded by other organisations. The evaluation aims at assessing CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa, with a particular focus on evaluating CaLP’s overall contribution to building an enabling environment for CVA programming and draw lessons learnt for future programmes. By “building an enabling environment”, we refer to increasing the scale and quality of CVA programming in the broader sense. As you are among the key CVA actors in the region, we would like to hear your opinion on CaLP’s work over the last three years. The interview will last around one hour. All information provided will remain anonymous and your answers will not be shared. We adhere to strict data protection policies (GDPR). In case you want to 1) correct outdated or incorrect information or 2) delete your data from the consultancy, you can contact Key Aid Consulting at info@keyaidconsulting.com. Please note that Key Aid will keep your data on a protected server for 30 days after the end of the project, after which it will be deleted. Do you accept to take part in this interview? • Yes • No Respondent Information Name: Organisation: Title/Position: Gender: Email address: Introductory question 1. Could you start by explaining to me how you have been involved in CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa over the last 3 years or so? Relevance 2. Do you think that CaLP’s work in the region over the last 3 years or so have reached their intended audience? If no, what has been missed and why? (1.c) 3. Looking at CaLP’s work in the region over the last 3 years, do you feel like the activities were in line with the needs, expectations and interests of CVA actors? (2.a) Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 13 a. What do you base your judgement on? b. Are there elements that CaLP should have prioritised more or less? 4. Over the last 3 years, the context in the region has changed quite a lot (e.g. conflicts, use of CVA, COVID-19 pandemic). Do think that CaLP’s work has been agile in adapting to those changes in context? (2.a) Coherence 5. In your opinion, to what extent has CaLP work in WCAF been aligned to the national CWG (if relevant), regional or global CVA related priorities? (3.b) a. Were there any priorities or topics which were not addressed at all or not sufficiently according to you? 6. In your opinion, to what extent has CaLP work in WCAF been aligned to CaLP’s Global Framework for Action then the new CaLP strategy (over the last year) and its shift towards a more collaborative approach? (4.a) For BHA staff only: 7. In your opinion, to what extent has CaLP work in WCAF been aligned to BHA global strategy vis a vis CVA? (4.b) Effectiveness & impact 8. Over the last three years, to what extent do you think CaLP’s work has contributed to increasing the scale and quality of CVA in the region? (5.b) Prompt the informant about the main stakeholders involved and which initiative(s) led by CaLP particularly led to this change, tend to give examples 9. Could you identify the effect(s) that CaLP’s work in the region and globally over the last 3 years has had on the way CVA is delivered by your organisation or your community of practice (5.c)? For BHA staffs only: 10. Has CaLP regional work had an influence on BHA’s regional and global work? (6.b) 11. Have there been any unintended effects of CaLP’s work in the region? (6.c) 12. Has there been any external factors playing a role in the achievement of those changes and effects in the regional CVA environment? Those factors could be either drivers or constraints. (7.a) Sustainability 13. To what extent do you think sustainability (links between CVA and SP, localisation, other nexus programming) been integrated into CaLP’s work in the region? (8.a) a. Can you give examples of changes this led to? (8.b) Conclusion 14. What are the main lessons learnt that you draw from the work done over the last three years in the region? 15. Is there anything else that we have not discussed and that you feel is important for this evaluation? Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 14 VI.6. Bibliography Abdoulaye Hamidou. “Building Individual Expertise Programme (BIEP) En Afrique de l’Ouest et Du Centre - Rapport de Capitalisation de La Cohorte 2019-2020”. CaLP, 2020. ———. “Rapport de Formation - Formation Face à Face « Compétences de Base En Transferts Monétaires Pour Le Personnel Programme » (Dakar)”. CaLP, 2021. ———. “Rapport de Formation - Formation Des Membres Du Cash Working Group Burkina Sur l’analyse Des Options de Réponse et Le Suivi Des Transferts Monétaires”. CaLP, August 2021. Action Against Hunger (AAH) on behalf of The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP). “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Proposal Narrative to USAID/OFDA”, July 17, 2018. AGENDA FOR HUMANITY. “AGENDA FOR HUMANITY.” Accessed August 16, 2021. https://agendaforhumanity.org/initiatives/3861. Aly Teyéni Mana, Thérèse Faye, and Nathalie Klein. “Documentation de l’influence Des Transferts Monétaires Sur Les Normes et Dynamiques de Genre - Cas d’un Projet Pilote de La Croix-Rouge Malienne”. CaLP, 2020. British Red Cross. “Key Guidance Notes - For National Societies Advocating to Governments on the Use of Cash and Social Protection during COVID19”, Cash Hub, n.d. CaLP. “CaLP Strategy 2020-2025 :Increasing Impact through Collective Action”, 2020. ———. “CaLP Ways of Working - Old vs New Strategy (Draft)”, January 12, 2021. ———. “Capitalization Report of the BEP Pilot Phase in West Africa”, 2018. ———. “Evaluation de La Formation Face à Face Compétences de Base En TM - 2-6 Août 2021”, 2021. ———. “Recommendations and Key Messages Learning Event on Risks Linked to CVA : Protection of Beneficiaries - 29 October 2019, Douala, Cameroon”, 2019. ———. “Semi-Annual Report 1: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, April 2019. ———. “Semi-Annual Report 2: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, October 2019. ———. “Semi-Annual Report 3: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, May 2020. ———. “Semi-Annual Report 4: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, October 2020. ———. “Semi-Annual Report 5: Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa”, April 2021. ———. “Session de Formation Des Acteurs Humanitaires Du Mali Sur Les Compétences de Base En Transferts Monétaires Pour Le Personnel Programme - Rapport de La Formation”, n.d. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Inception report FV 15 ———. “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Baseline Assessment”, January 2019. ———. “Supporting Humanitarian Actors to Increase Scale and Quality of Cash Transfer Programming in West Africa - Mid-Term Assessment”, August 2019. ———. “Webinar Recording - CVA, the Environment, and Climate Change in Humanitarian Response”, June 2021. https://www.calpnetwork.org/publication/cva-the-environment-and￾climate-change-in-humanitarian-response/. Gabrielle Smith, Ruth McCormack, Alex Jacobs, Arushi Chopra, Aarsh Vir Gupta, and Thomas Abell. “The State of the World’s Cash Report - Cash Transfer Programming in Humanitarian Aid”. The Cash Learning Partnership, February 2018. Helene Juillard. “Training Report for CVA Briefing Modules for Donors- June - September 2020”, 2020. Jim Coe and Rhonda Schlangen. “No Royal Road: Finding and Following the Natural Pathways in Advocacy Evaluation”. Center for Evaluation Innovation, March 2019. José Jódar Vidal, Anna Kondakhchyan, Ruth McCormack, Karen Peachey, Laura Phelps, and Gabrielle Smith. “The State of the World’s Cash Report 2020- Cash and Voucher Assistance in Humanitarian Aid”. The Cash Learning Partnership, July 2020. Nathalie Cissokho. “Definition of Minimum Expenditure Baskets (MEB) in West Africa - Experiences from Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Chad and Nigeria. What Lessons Can Be Drawn for Other Countries?,” 2018. ———. “Handover – Nathalie Klein, CaLP WCAF Regional Representative,” February 2021. Regional Platform on Social Protection and Regional Cash Working Group for West and Central Africa. “A Call for Action Increase the Uptake of Cash Transfers to Ensure Rapid Response in Case of Shocks”, June 30, 2020. Schnitzer, Pascale. “How to Target Households in Adaptive Social Protection Systems? Evidence from Humanitarian and Development Approaches in Niger.” The Journal of Development Studies 55, no. sup1 (December 13, 2019): 75–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1687877. USAID. “Multipurpose Cash Assistance Sector Update - Fiscal Year (FY) 2018,” 2018. Evaluation of CaLP’s work in West and Central Africa Final report V1 0 www.keyaidconsulting.com 18 bis Rue Tiquetonne 75002 Paris