{"id":528,"date":"2021-12-16T08:10:29","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T06:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/?p=528"},"modified":"2023-12-08T18:09:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T16:09:57","slug":"the-digcba-project-responsible-use-of-digital-cash-based-assistance-in-refugee-crises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/2021\/12\/16\/the-digcba-project-responsible-use-of-digital-cash-based-assistance-in-refugee-crises\/","title":{"rendered":"The DigCBA project: Responsible Use of Digital Cash-Based Assistance in Refugee Crises"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

16.12.2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Amin Maghsoudi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral Researcher at the Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Research (HUMLOG) Institute at Hanken School of Economics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The number of refugees and\ninternally displaced persons (IDPs) is in the rise with the record of 82.4\nmillion in 2020 according to UNHCR. This means that there is more need of\nassistance to such affected populations. Humanitarian assistance is\ntraditionally delivered through in-kind with the direct distribution of\nphysical goods and services reaching to beneficiaries. The aid is also\ndistributed through cash-based assistance (CBA) as an alternative. CBA gives\nmore dignity and freedom choice to beneficiaries, while at the same time\nprovide a more timely, cost-efficient and effective response, particularly in\ndevastated areas where the access to both people and market is a huge\nchallenge. CBA can be delivered through different means, not limited to, but\nsome include physical cash, debit and smart card, vouchers, and mobile money.\nThe recent pandemic also proves that the digitalization of humanitarian assistance\nmust be a priority as more restrictions are enforced related to\nsocial-distancing policies. However, understanding and applying the appropriate\nuse of digital CBA in the context where not everything is in place, is a big\nchallenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DigCBA project contributes to the\nresponsible use of digital CBA in refugee crisis context through the design,\ndevelopment and evaluation of evidence-based frameworks to support policy\nmakers with the selection and use of the most suitable digital technology for\ndelivering CBA to refugees. The responsible use of digital CBA entails ensuring\npolicy makers such as humanitarian organizations, governments and donors make\ninformed decisions about the use of digital technology in CBA while accounting\nfor the contextual characteristics of the target community, and the technology\nreadiness of involved actors. Specifically, the project takes a\nstakeholder-centred approach addressing the needs of beneficiaries,\nhumanitarian organizations, international and local non-governmental\norganizations, donors, and business partners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DigCBA aligns with several UN SDGs.\nDigCBA aims to improve the effectiveness, timeliness, efficiency, and fairness\nof distributing grants and allowances to the people in-need, thus contributing\nto SDG #1 No poverty <\/strong>and SDG #2 Zero hunger<\/strong>. Considering criteria\nsuch as sustainable agriculture, health, and strengthening regional markets,\nthe outcome of this research will provide a road map on the use of innovative\napproaches for supplying cash assistance transparently where it is needed most.\nMoreover, DigCBA contributes to SDG #3 Good health and well-being<\/strong>, SDG\n4 Quality education, <\/strong>and SDG 5 Gender equality <\/strong>as CBA has been\nreferred to as one of the cornerstones of social protection efforts.\nFurthermore, DigCBA contributes to SDG 8 Decent work and economic growth<\/strong>:\nthe results from this project will help local markets and economic growth as\nthe project will restructure and relook innovative approaches to cash\nassistance in a more structured format considering the context of target\nlocations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DigCBA project is funded by Norwegian Research Council<\/strong> (project number: 325437 – FORSKER21) and coordinated by Dr. Hossein Baharmand and his time at Universitetet i Agder<\/strong> (UiA). The key project partners are HUMLOG Institute <\/strong>at Hanken School of Economics<\/strong>, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Westf\u00e4lische Wilhelms-Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnster (WWU), <\/strong>and Makerere University <\/strong>based in Uganda. The project consists of an interdisciplinary team of humanitarian operations researchers with focus on ICT, supply chain management, information systems and organization studies. \u00a0The project has also a strong practitioner orientation and thus collaborating with multiple actors such as Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Danish Red Cross, World Food Program (WFP), and Oxfam Australia. The project has started in December 2021<\/strong> for a duration of Three Years<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People at HUMLOG Institute that are involved on this project: Wojciech D. Piotrowicz (PI), Graham Heaslip (Advisor), Amin Maghsoudi (Project Researcher), and Russell Harpring (PhD candidate). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
With the TRC\/WFP e-food card provides every Syrian family living in 11 refugee camps in the Southeast Turkey a debit card topped up monthly per person in each family. Photo: WFP\/Deniz Akkus <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16.12.2021 By Amin Maghsoudi Postdoctoral Researcher at the Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Research (HUMLOG) Institute at Hanken School of Economics. The number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}