CASH IN EMERGENCIES TOOLKIT

August 9, 2021

How can practitioners of Cash and Voucher Assistance protect the personal data of the people they attend to?

Author: IFRC Cash team

The IFRC has published a practical guidance on Data Protection and Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) to help staff and volunteers apply data protection principles in their delivery of humanitarian cash and voucher. The guidance, which complements the Cash in Emergencies Toolkit, lays out the key principles of data protection and carefully guides the reader through the processes of CVA from targeting to post-distribution monitoring, asking a set of critical questions at each stage. Many of the questions are also illustrated by examples and practical advice on how to apply the guidance. The questions include, for example:

  • What legitimate basis should I rely on and is consent the most appropriate?
  • Do I absolutely need the data collected by an external source and how can I make sure the beneficiary data has been collected in an appropriate manner?
  • Is it necessary and safe to share personal data with the donors?

By formulating key questions in an accurate way, the guidance gives practitioners a practical framework for taking decisions in the best interest of the communities they serve.

According to the guidance:

“Data protection is not only a matter of good governance; it is also about building trust.”

Vietnam Red Cross conducting a survey with recipients of cash assistance for a Floods operation in 2017. Photo credit: IFRC

Beneficiary trust is, of course, vital for CVA and other humanitarian programmes to succeed. Therefore, by embedding data protection principles into programmes from the outset, practitioners are not only attending to beneficiaries, but also enhancing the reputation of their organisations.

Decision tree for determining whether Consent is an appropriate legitimate basis (Figure 3, Practical Guidance for Data Protection
in Cash and Voucher Assistance )

To find out more about this document, watch the recording of this webinar organised to launch the new Practical Guidance for Data Protection in Cash and Voucher Assistance – A supplement to the Cash in Emergencies Toolkit:

Practical Guidance for Data Protection in Cash and Voucher Assistance – A supplement to the Cash in Emergencies Toolkit from Cash Hub on Vimeo.

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