1. “ Cash preparedness in Asia Pacific”
Asia Pacific State of the World Cash webinar Bangkok, 16th May 2018

2. Definition of preparedness:
“Building up of operational readiness for timely and appropriate emergency responses. With good preparedness, cash transfer programing (CTP) responses can be implemented quickly on a large scale” – IFRC
Preparedness also involves assessing risk and identifying whether CTP, in kind or a mixture of the two is required - CaLP

3. Is preparedness important?
People preparedness
Service providers agreements & contract negotiation
Pre-positioning CTP equipment
Inter-agency collaboration & simulations
Collaboration with government(s)
- enhance staff competencies and institutional ownership on prep.
- opportunities to explore linkage with SP systems

4. Communication & coordination
Potential activities
Enabling systems
Programme tools
Resources & capacity
Communication & coordination
Developing or adapting contingency plans for CTP.
Research and prepare most appropriate cash delivery mechanism.
Develop CTP SOPs.
Adapt financial system.
Assessment (e.g. market) tools adjusted for CTP.
NDRT/ERT trained and prepared for CTP.
Agreements templates etc. set-up.
Adapt M&E systems.
Train staff and volunteers.
Simulation exercises.
Peer to peer exchanges.
Develop advocacy messages (internal and external).
Coordinate actions with other organisations.
Develop and share case studies and learning with other organisations.

5. Stages in time:
The IFRC suggests a process organized into three stages to develop a CTP preparedness Plan of Action and strategy:
Stage 1. Prepare and analyze
Stage 2. Develop and implement
Stage 3. Review, learn and improve
For each stage, there is a road map with short guidance, minimum standards, description of sub-steps and existing tools.

6. STAGE 1. PREPARE AND ANALYSE
OCAT self assessment
Identify scenarios for preparedness
Cash preparedness Plan of action
STAGE 2. Develop & implement
Organizing Cash Task forces and cash focal points
Mainstream CTP in strategies, policies, contingency plans, develop SOPs/ guidelines so that cash can be implemented at scale
Conduct feasibility assessments: Markets, financial service providers, community/ authorities acceptance, gender & protection issues
Set up accountability mechanisms and beneficiary communication
Pre agreements with FSPs, cash transfer values
Coordination with relevant humanitarian actors and stakeholders (CWGs)
Conduct pilot/simulations
STAGE 3. review, learn & improve

7. CONSIDERATIONS:
Geographical considerations depending on the scale of the emergency: It may not be possible or efficient that each country has an ongoing level of response capacity for any emergency. Some capacities might have to be available at regional or global level, especially staff and to a lesser extent regional/global payment solutions
Cash pre-positioning: Money transfer from HQ to the field may take 3 weeks. Need to pre-position cash for immediate delivery in a few hours or days).
Forecast based financing
Classic approach to preparedness looking to natural disasters but not so much to Pandemics (Ebola in West Africa) or humanitarian crisis.
Tracks of content – all need to be developed for CTP to be institutionalised.
Where I talk of a NS you can consider your own organisation or any organisation / partner