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Catherine Nabulon of Abulon, Kenya, uses an e-wallet card distributed by the Hunger Safety Net Programme to cope with the effects of ongoing drought. The e–wallet gives her more flexibility, dignity, and the ability to make her own choices to address immediate needs. Photo: Joy Obuya/Oxfam

Why digital cash is the future of emergency aid

Written by Nigel Tricks, regional director of Oxfam in the Horn, East, and Central Africa.

Two weeks ago, I visited Oxfam’s drought response in eastern Somaliland. We drove across a stark landscape; what should be a pastoralist heartland is now completely devoid of water and almost empty of livestock. Not a blade of grass and barely a green leaf to be seen. The carcasses of camels, always the last to succumb to drought, littered the landscape and we soon lost count of their number. The drought is severe and it is taking a similar toll across Somalia’s borders and into neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya.

Most people we met had settled near dwindling water sources that were either just enough to sustain a handful of families or unfit for human consumption altogether. Clustered around every town was a growing camp of internally displaced families, now dependent on the delivery of essential relief from government and aid agencies.

What I saw this time in Somaliland convinced me, if it were needed, that aid is changing. Telephone masts delivering 3G and 4G phone signals stand sentinel on hilltops across the country, and access to a signal and a registered SIM card means access to a wonder of modern Africa: digital cash.  Any family—regardless of where they live—with access to a phone, can receive money sent at the touch of a computer button from the nation’s capital.

Through a contracted telephone company, money is transferred to a registered SIM card-based account and can be withdrawn from local traders. People are free to decide what to use the money for and when, enabling them to play a more active role in meeting their own needs. One man I met in Somaliland told me, “We can decide and buy what food and how much water we need or whether to invest in hay for a lamb or education for a child. The market will deliver; we know the traders and the main roads are good.”

Moving to a new model

It is clear – humanitarian agencies now have the absolute obligation to accelerate the transition from direct relief to unconditional cash transfers as the first and the default response. Indeed Oxfam has significantly boosted its current drought response with an increased proportion of cash. In early May, 1,750 families in Somaliland each received $140, expected to meet their most immediate needs for three months.

The traditional model of humanitarian response where food, water, and other essentials arrive on the back of a truck has always played a vital role as it is immediate. Cash transfers are a more efficient and cost effective way of getting help directly where it is needed and are equally accountable to tax payer’s money.
Direct distributions also run the risk of duplication as different actors may end up delivering different types of aid on different days, locking families in winding queues in distribution centers, unable to focus on other activities. Worse still, they may bypass fragile local markets, providing basics that would otherwise be locally sourced.

Empowering individuals to make their own choices

Though less visible, digital cash transfers can be significantly more effective. They enable communities to organize their own water trucks and food deliveries, or buy essential medical supplies in local health centres, thereby reinforcing local businesses and institutions, rather than replacing them. Communities can even band together to repair water harvesting infrastructure, in hopeful anticipation of the rains.

Emergency responses in pastoral areas tend to end with some form of restocking exercise where families are provided with a number of livestock to help restore their traditional livelihoods. Witnessing the growing fragility of that same livelihood for some pastoralists, we must consider that restocking is not for everyone.

Pastoralists resettling in Garadag district, Somaliland, after a 37-mile journey on a truck with their animals. Photo: Petterik Wiggers/Oxfam

If the same livestock is monetized, families can either buy the very animals they seek at choice markets, or opt to inject the cash as restart capital for a small business. Others may prefer to use this money to migrate to urban areas in search of paid employment or save some of the allocation for a rainy day.

The benefits cut across. By combining digital cash transfers with market stimulation, aid agencies can avoid cumbersome logistical scale ups, and deliver assistance more quickly, accountably, and efficiently, particularly in hard-to-reach areas. A 2015 study by the Cash Learning Partnership on the value of cash transfers in emergencies suggests that cash assistance is up to 30 percent cheaper to deliver compared to its in-kind equivalent. As we get better at cash distribution and it becomes more mainstream, this difference will only increase.

In addition, aid agencies can build on established social protection programs, such as Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net Programme, that are proving themselves in helping vulnerable families take early action and cushion themselves against the worst of a crisis. Through this mechanism, Oxfam is currently providing cash assistance to drought-affected families in Turkana and Wajir Counties, simply by topping up the money on cards already allocated to registered households.

Saving lives is the ultimate goal in any surge response, but as crises like the one in Somaliland worsen against a back drop of advancing technology and improving infrastructure, aid must keep pace. Aid has to be smarter.

Severe drought, climate change, conflict, and poor governance have pushed millions of people across South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen to the brink of starvation. Oxfam and its local partners are striving to ensure families have access to clean water, food, sanitation services, and are also providing cash, so families can buy what they need. Help us expand our response.

Donate to our Four Famines appeal

Za’atari is the largest Syrian refugee camp in the world. Photo: Tom White/PA

In 2013, Za’atari was Jordan’s fourth largest city, split into 12 districts. At the time it was home to about 156,000 people. Sounds like a normal city, right?

It’s not.

Za’atari is a refugee camp, established in July 2012, and home to a huge number of displaced Syrians. The camp grew so large it was recognised as one of the largest cities in Jordan.

Another camp was established in 2014 to ease the pressure on Za’atari, its people and its infrastructure, so the population there today has lessened. But it’s still home to 80,000 Syrians. Za’atari is now the largest refugee camp in the world and the 11^th largest city in Jordan.

The camp is so big you can see it from space.

Photo taken from NASA’s Terra satellite in 2013.

From a cluster of tents to a city, these images show Za’atari’s growth between 2012-2015. Photo: telegraph.co.uk

In 2011, a brutal civil war broke out in Syria which has displaced 11 million Syrians to date, both within Syria and internationally. The war is still ongoing and is showing no signs of slowing down. Displaced Syrians cannot yet return, so those 80,000 are still calling Za’atari home.

Za’atari in numbers:

• In total, 461,701 refugees have passed through the camp
• 57% are under 24 years old
• There’s an average of 80 babies born per week in the camp
• The camp covers an area of 5.3km squared
• There are 11 schools where 20,771 children are enrolled
• There are 27 community centres
• There are 2 hospitals with 120 community health volunteers
• There are approximately 3,000 informal shops and businesses including fruit and vegetable shops, a wedding dress shop and restaurants

Source: http://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/zaatari-refugee-camp-factsheet-january-2017

Oxfam is currently working in 3 of Za’atari’s 12 districts, providing:

• Clean water and sanitation services – vital for staying hydrated, clean and healthy
• Waste management
• Community centres
• Cleaning and maintenance of toilets, basins and showers
• Hygiene promotion activities – crucial in preventing disease which could spread so widely and easily in a camp of this size

Children participate in a lesson about hygiene in an Oxfam community centre inside Za’atari refugee camp. Photo: Sam Tarling/Oxfam.

We are also working with UNICEF and others to install a water network to ensure people have access to safe water. Upon completion it will be the largest ever water network to be constructed in a refugee camp.

Oxfam engineers work to install the first water network inside Za’atari. Photo: Sam Tarling/Oxfam

Mohammad, 30, fled his home in Syria and now lives in Za’atari refugee camp where he is working with Oxfam helping to install the first water network in the camp. Photo: Sam Tarling/Oxfam

Oxfam also put on a children’s activity/recycling programme in Za’atari, where 36 Syrian boys and girls got creative by designing and building toys from recycled materials. Not only was this a fun day for many children, it raised awareness of environmental issues and diverted 21% of waste produced in the camp away from landfill over a 42 week period.

To continue these activities and the provision of vital services and aid, we desperately need your help. The crisis is unrelenting, but with your support we can continue to help people in Za’atari and in other affected areas. Please show your support and donate today.

Donate to our Syria Crisis appeal

Blog written by Oxfam Australia’s Chief Executive, Helen Szoke.

As I reflect on the recent week I spent in South Sudan, I am deeply saddened at visiting a country full of lovely, kind, generous and caring people who are trying to survive under appalling conditions – war and famine.

It is heartbreaking to see a country that could be rich and rewarding to live in, to be in such turmoil. It is volatile, of more concern unpredictable, and there does not seem to be any political will to build coalitions to achieve the peace that is so desperately needed.

The capital Juba itself, which is bordered by the majestic White Nile River, is oppressively hot and dusty and a palpabale tension hangs in the air. Buildings are gated and surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire, photography is generally prohibited and Oxfam staff are on strict security restrictions in terms of curfews and travel.

The country’s economy, almost entirely reliant on oil sales, is in tatters. At the time we were there inflation was around 350%.

The Oxfam team on the ground is quite large, with ten field offices in different states running a huge range of important programs in very difficult circumstances.

On our first day in Juba, we saw Oxfam staff loading a huge truck with food and other aid supplies – the smell of the dried fish was overpowering. By the next morning it had left for the former Jonglei state, where more than 100,000 people had fled after fighting reached their towns and villages.

An Oxfam truck is packed with dried fish, food and other emergency provisions for distribution to people displaced in South Sudan. Photo: Dylan Quinnell/OxfamAUS

We then flew north to Unity State over the amazing and seemingly endless Sudd Swamp, the biggest in the world, before a very bumpy landing on a dirt strip beside the town of Nyal.

Nyal is just south of the area declared to be in famine in February this year, and is itself on the verge. Being surrounded by swamp somewhat shelters its 30,000 residents from the conflict but it also means it is inundated with fleeing civilians who used to live on the other side of the swamp in the famine and conflict hit Leer and Mayendit Counties.

Often, the only way to get aid in is by air, so Oxfam is working with communities to help them support themselves, for example with fishing kits or by starting community gardens.

It was here that I met Mary Manuai*, a strong and resilient woman and mother who wants what is best for her children. But like so many others in South Sudan, she is struggling because of the war.

Fighting forced Mary (right) and her husband to flee the town of Mayendit in the north with their seven children while she was nine months pregnant. Photo: Dylan Quinnell/OxfamAUS

Along with other fleeing families they walked through the Sudd Swamp for nine days, dragging their young children and few belongings on tarpaulins, to reach the relative safety of Nyal.

Mary was forced to give birth to her daughter in the swamps on the way. “Her name is Nyamuch – it means ‘born in crisis’,” she told us.

Other women told me how their toe nails fell off because they were in the water for such a long time. And, as if that isn’t all hard enough, they were robbed by armed men on the long journey and had their few belongings stolen.

Helen Szoke visits the Oxfam-funded canoe program, which evacuates people from hiding in the swamps surrounding Nyal. Photo: Dylan Quinnell/OxfamAUS

But, true to the immense generosity of the South Sudanese that we met, Mary and 16 other families had been given some land to live on by a generous local family who were struggling to provide for themselves. We always hear about the divisive nature of South Sudan’s war, but there’s nowhere in the world where community means more.

With your generous support, Oxfam is helping Mary and many others in Nyal by fixing and building local wells and toilets – critical to keeping disease and resulting malnutrition at bay. We’re also helping people to grow remarkably productive food gardens and are running a canoe program that helps ferry hungry people living on islands in the swamp to aid and food distributions in Nyal.

As with every year since the war started, this July – the peak of South Sudan’s lean season – is set to see hunger on an unprecedented scale. Your support for the people of South Sudan has never been more appreciated – or more needed.

Donate here

Note: As we were leaving Nyal we heard word that villages two days away had been attacked, suggesting that the situation was going to continue be unsettled. It was evident that there were very few young men in the village.

*Names changed to protect identity.

Yemen sits at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, with Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the north. The nation is the Arab world’s poorest country and is facing a horrifying situation that is largely unknown to the rest of the world. They’re in the midst of not one crisis, but two.

A brutal and complex war escalated in March 2015 and is tearing Yemen apart. Over the past two years, airstrikes and fighting have killed more than 7,600 people – an average of 70 casualties a day. More than half of these are civilians. On top of this, three million have been forced to flee their homes and about 17 million people are going hungry. Of these, seven million are starving and on the brink of famine.

Stemming from this crisis came another. A surge of cholera cases have swept the country, so far killing 332 people and infecting another 32,000 in the last month according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“The speed of the resurgence of this cholera epidemic is unprecedented,” Nevio Zagaria, WHO country representative for Yemen, said. There could be as many as 300,000 cases in Yemen within six months, he warned. The disease has spread to 19 of Yemen’s 22 governorates.

Cholera is a severe diarrhoeal disease that is transmitted through drinking dirty water contaminated with the Vibrio cholera bacteria. Most of those who contract it will show only mild symptoms that are treatable, but in some cases those infected will get severe watery diarrhoea and can die from dehydration within just a few hours.

Yemen is particularly vulnerable to the disease. The country’s health system has been absolutely crippled by conflict. Less than half of the health facilities are functioning, and according to a New Scientist Article, doctors in Yemen have not been paid since September. On top of that, two-thirds of the population lack access to safe drinking water which increases the likelihood of the disease spreading and being contracted, and worsens the risk of dehydration for those infected.

It’s a race against time to save lives.

7.6 million people are at risk of contracting this disease, especially those among the displaced and starving population.

Nearly 20,000 people benefit from Oxfam’s water project in Al-Manjorah camp, Yemen. Every day, 264 cubic metres of water are trucked in, and it remains the camp’s only water source. Oxfam is working on a water network project so the camp can be permanently supplied. Here, Farah*, 8, collects water for her and her family. Photo: Moayed Al.Shaibani/Oxfam

Thanks to your support, this is how Oxfam is helping:

• Since July 2015 Oxfam has reached more than one million people in eight governorates of  Yemen
• We have provided clean water and sanitation services for more than 924,000 people by utilising water trucks, repairing water systems, delivering filters and jerry cans, building latrines and organising cleaning campaigns
• In Al-Hudaydah , Amran, Hajjah and Taiz governorates, Oxfam is providing over 205,000 people with cash, enabling them to buy food at the local market or livestock so they get a possible source of income
• Oxfam is also supporting over 166,000 people in the southern governorates of Abyan, Aden, Lahj and Al-Dhale with water, hygiene and sanitation services
• 35,000 individuals took part in our cash for work programmes
• In response to the cholera outbreak, Oxfam is delivering programmes on water, sanitation and hygiene in four governorates, which is helping prevent the disease from spreading further. The delivery of clean water, the cleaning and chlorination of water sources along with the building of latrines and the organization of hygiene awareness sessions have benefitted 920,000 people, including 380,000 children.

These crises in Yemen are happening now, and the conflict that is keeping people hungry and exposing them to disease is not showing any signs of relenting. The only way Oxfam can reach more people and save more lives is with your help. Please, be a part of the solution:

Donate here

*name has been changed