Cash and Voucher Assistance for Education in Emergencies: Synthesis Report and Guidelines

In light of the Grand Bargain cash commitment to develop an evidence base for assessing costs, benefits, impacts and risks of CVA, the Global Education Cluster (GEC), with a financial contribution from DG-ECHO and technical support from NORCAP has set out to build evidence around CVA for EiE.

Cash and voucher assistance for education in emergencies removes economic barriers to education which prevent crisis affected children from accessing education. Cash and voucher assistance helps families purchase the necessary supplies for school; covering school fees and transportation costs or even the opportunity cost of lost child labour. Cash and voucher assistance has been shown to prevent drop-outs, lead to re-enrolment of children who have been out of school and to increased attendance.

However, cash alone will not be enough to bring these children to school if they are bullied and discriminated against because of their displacement status, if they do not have the required documentation to enrol in school, if parents do not consider education important, or if schools do not have sufficient capacity to receive them. Such situations call for the integration of cash and voucher assistance with interventions aimed at reducing or eliminating these barriers which are not economic in nature.