Cash Practitioner Development Programme

The growth in importance of cash based programming and the British Red Cross experience have highlighted the urgent need to develop senior level cash based programming expertise that goes way beyond awareness, sensitisation and basic proficiency. There is a clear need and common interest for more competent, confident and qualified individuals to design and implement cash based assistance programmes within the Red Cross / Red Crescent Movement. The Cash Practitioner Development Programme aims to address the shortage and to grow and develop a cadre of cash experts to facilitate scale up across the Movement, specifically answering the shortage of cash delegates.

The Cash Practitioner Development Programme is a 12-month programme to strengthen the cash based assistance programming expertise of humanitarian professionals. The 12-month scheme is a flexible, work-based learning programme for individuals that tailors a combination of training, mentoring and humanitarian deployments to develop and enhance advanced cash based programming expertise.  The British Red Cross is launching the pilot programme in September 2018, with participants attending from across the Movement, with more places becoming available over the coming years.

The British Red Cross worked with a team of specialists in humanitarian training from the Conscious Project, alongside input from other humanitarian organisations pivotal to the development of the programme, to research and design the programme. Research showed us that it was fundamental to design a programme that looked for opportunities and appetite for collaboration. In order to build an inclusive model, it was recognised that there is a strength and sustainability in working with other entities. Since cash is an area that is rapidly growing and changing, opportunities to improve the number of cash specialists and the quality of their capacity across the sector can only be an advantage to the scheme. Additionally there is a need to have multiple entry points into the programme, so that individuals can develop depending on their previous experiences and skills.  Cash learning being most effective on deployment when it is applied in context was a strong theme, and has been built into the core of the programme. Whilst there is a clear need to develop technical knowledge, there is also a need to develop non-technical competencies.  This programme therefore focuses on strengthening expertise in four main areas: technical competence, professional competence, organisational understanding, and application in the humanitarian context.

The programme allows practitioners to be part of a community of practitioners holding themselves to a high standard of competence, and to benefit from a structure for continuing professional development.

Jenny Harper, Cash Assistance Learning & Development Manager