The influence of cash assistance on the localisation agenda in Kenya’s humanitarian sector

Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The influence of cash assistance on the localisation agenda in Kenya’s humanitarian sector
 
Creator Holm-Nielsen, Pablo V. Furu, Peter Raju, Emmanuel
 
Subject Humanitarian sector disaster response; cash and voucher assistance; localisation; Kenya; grand bargain; cash interventions
Description Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) has gained importance as a modality for humanitarian disaster response during the last decade. Research has documented its benefits and listed challenges for implementation. Simultaneously, humanitarian organisations have committed to the localisation agenda to better serve people affected by disasters through local actors. These two ongoing transformations in the humanitarian sector may support or challenge each other. The authors use Kenya as a case study to analyse how CVA influences the localisation agenda in the humanitarian sector. Semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted with national and international organisations to gain insights on how the international organisations and their local implementing partners view and experience the mutual support or potential tensions between CVA implementations and the localisation agenda. The analysis is based on seven dimensions of localisation applied to CVA in Kenya based on existing frameworks. The findings indicate that CVA can support the localisation agenda if properly managed. It provides smaller organisations an opportunity to get involved without expensive structures. International organisations need to redefine their role and withdraw from direct implementation and be willing to give up power. The local organisations benefit from forming national networks that give them a voice within the humanitarian system. These transformations rely on personal leadership and on capacity development focusing on coordination, collaboration and organisational strengthening beyond the technical skills needed for implementation.Contribution: This study identifies how CVA and the localisation agenda affect each other in Kenya. This contributes to the understanding of the future development of the humanitarian sector.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Danish Red Cross
Date 2023-11-21
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Interviews
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jamba.v15i1.1496
 
Source Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies; Vol 15, No 1 (2023); 11 pages 1996-1421 2072-845X
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/1496/2730 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/1496/2731 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/1496/2732 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/1496/2733
 
Coverage Kenya — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Pablo Villanueva Holm-Nielsen, Peter Furu, Emmanuel Raju https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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