Purpose:

The case study highlights the importance of community engagement in cash transfer programming, and it showed the success story of doing so in the cash transfer programming in Typhoon Wutip and Nari operations which the central provinces of Viet Nam in October 2013.

To improve preparedness in cash transfer programming, a review was conducted in 2015 to capture best practices in beneficiary targeting and impact stories. This initiative provided an opportunity for community members and local authorities to raise their voice and concerns about the process.

Overview:

The lessons learnt gathered on the beneficiary selection process from the review includes:

• The feedback box was not effective as a feedback mechanism: the Red Cross only received a few response letters from across the nine project sites. This was attributed to the limited availability of the feedback box and also the fact that villagers are more comfortable with verbal communication, which they believe to be more secure and quicker.
• Informal feedback, such as to a village head, is common in many rural communities in Viet Nam. As such, the National Society should also have in place a mechanism and reporting templates for village heads and commune authorities to record the informal feedback they receive. Alternatively, community groups representing various groups such as men, women, children, the elderly, the disabled can be established to respond to community concerns.

Below are some steps to follow to integrate community engagement in cash transfer programming:

• Step 1: Identify the most trusted communication channels in the community, as well as how the community would like to receive information and provide feedback.
• Step 2: Plan and set up the community feedback and response mechanism.
• Step 3: Respond to feedback from community members.
• Step 4: Inform community members about how the feedback was responded to.

Usage: Guidance for implementation

Audience: National Society staff

See also: Vietnamese Version [pdf, 1.87 MB]