NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMMING

PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY Review of new technologies applied to humanitarian CTP at every stage of the project cycle Identify benefits & drawbacks as well as preconditions, user-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, accountability and broader consequences Identify barriers to uptake and unmet needs 2

1. E-PAYMENTS SOLUTIONS 3

3. DIGITAL DATA GATHERING 4 PDA / Smart Phone Digital Pen Mini computers Offline or online

5. CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES: COST EFFECTIVENESS For Agencies: High costs of initial investment are prohibitive with short- term funding horizons Costs of technological solutions decrease with scale and time

…COST EFFECTIVENESS CON’T For beneficiaries: Potential for time saved in registration & waiting time Opportunity cost of time savings in travel to distribution / cash points Manual Zap

ACCOUNTABILITY To donors: – Effective systems can improve accountability by providing clearer audit trails, reporting etc. To beneficiaries: – Potential for improved 2-way information flows – Importance of acceptance & investing in education – Concerns over movement to control expenditure, e.g. by using technology to restrict purchases to particular commodities – Concerns over privacy protection / informed consent

6. CONSTRAINTS TO WIDER ADOPTION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES Technical constraints – including capacity / availability of service providers & coverage Institutional – lack of knowledge, systems, procedures; lack of sharing between departments / offices; institutional inertia; lack of resources; low levels of knowledge & literacy among beneficiaries Operational – set-up time; lack of knowledge for costing & provider comparison; lack of systems and processes for coordination & administration Financial – high set-up costs; short funding horizons; lack of incentive / business case for private sector providers 8

…CONSTRAINTS CON’T Regulatory – restrictive national requirements; lack of regulations on data protection; proprietary nature of systems Political – competition for funding & reluctance to share; adversity to early adoption; private sector reluctant to admit limitations Attitudinal – risk adversity / reluctance to invest in new ways of working; distrust of private sector; donor attitude to funding; distrust by beneficiary population 9

7. RECOMMENDED ACTIONS Wider adoption of these technologies throughout the program cycle has the potential to improve humanitarian CTP and wider programming The period after a sudden-onset emergency is not the time to be developing / trying new systems Context-specific preparedness activities & institutional commitment are critical

ADVOCACY & POLICY At global level: – Develop codes of conduct & standards for management and sharing of personal data – Approach international regulatory bodies & advocate for guidelines on the adoption of KYC requirements appropriate to humanitarian contexts – Appoint a ‘moderator’ or focal point within the humanitarian system who can liaise with the ICT sector – Support the development of solutions to the mobile money interface problem Donors: create funding structures / incentives that allow agencies to invest in new technologies

ADVOCACY & POLICY CON’T At country level: – Where regulations are restrictive, lobby for agreement on KYC requirements for humanitarian contexts – Lobby for the expansion of the network to reach at-risk populations – Support the development of platforms & services that are ‘pro-poor’

COORDINATION Invest in sharing experiences (including negative) and gathering evidence Work together to achieve political significance / economies of scale Improve dialogue & coordination with service providers, including ‘pre-agreements’ & scenarios Explore the potential to scale-up existing transfer systems (social protection, remittances, payroll)

CAPACITY & PREPAREDNESS Improve in-house capacity to use e-payments: – Use systems that already exist, e.g. for payroll – Invest in training on open-source solutions – Engage in communication & education with recipient populations – Involve finance, IT and logistics Contingency planning: – Assess options, cost-benefit analysis DDG: – Assess needs & explore what open-source / off-the- shelf solutions are available – Invest in training

NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMMING RESEARCH BY CONCERN WORLDWIDE, THE PARTNERSHIP FOR RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND DEVELOPMENT (PRIAD) AND OXFORD POLICY MANAGEMENT (OPM) AUTHORS: GABRIELLE SMITH; IAN MACAUSLAN; SAUL BUTTERS AND MATHIEU TROMMÉ © THE CASH LEARNING PARTNERSHIP (CALP)