If you ask families in Zimbabwe what the biggest impact is from the Cash First project is, they will tell you that now they glow, because they are so much healthier and eating better food. One man even said that now he can buy soap, so his grandkids can go to school with clean feet and clean uniforms. Those metrics aren’t part of our formal evaluation plan, but they make the impacts so much clearer that any dataset ever could: people feel healthy and capable of leading their own lives.
With $40.9 million from DFID, CARE ran the Cash First Humanitarian response to reach 73,718 households in rural Zimbabwe to help them cope first with the 2015 drought, and then with the 2016 drought and cash crisis. Families got a $5 or $7 cash transfer per person per month to respond to the crisis, and an additional $40-60 grant to help prepare for planting season.
What did we accomplish?
- Better fed families: Families reported getting more and better food as the primary impact, and that now they are glowing with health. About 88% of the cash transfers went into purchasing food. There was a 69% drop in the number of families who had to reduce food intake, and an 84% drop in households suffering from food insecurity.
- More cost-effective results: For every $1 worth of support delivered to families, this project cost $0.29 in administrative costs. For comparison, the average food aid project in Zimbabwe costs $0.90-$1.01 for every $1 of aid delivered.
- Stronger local businesses: the big winners from this project—in addition to the families who could now get enough food—were local businesses that learned how to accept mobile money. Families liked to buy there because it saved them time and travel, and the local businesses would expand their selection to meet needs. It also meant that instead of money going to wholesalers in South Africa, the emergency response kept Zimbabweans in business during a crisis.
- Better technology use: as the cash crisis worsened in Zimbabwe, the mobile money transfers actually made it more important for families and businesses to learn how to use technology. The use of e purchases increased 4 times over the life of the project, up to 69% at the end. This increased the number of families who had SIM cards, exposure to technology, and ID cards.
How did we get there?
- Use evidence effectively: The project worked with solid market analysis and the gender analysis from the USAID ENSURE project to make sure that cash was an appropriate response to the food crisis and that the response was gender equitable.
- Be adaptable: CARE continued to use monthly market analysis, combined with mid-term results, to adjust project planning. This included changing the transfer from $5 per person to $7 to cover basic household needs. When technology logistics got in the way, CARE worked with private sector partners to get them resolved so communities could get the most use out of their transfers.
- Focus on local participation: The project worked closely with communities to make sure that the people who got money were those who needed it most. A quality check showed that the error rate was 3.7%--remarkably low for humanitarian aid programs.
- Create accountability systems: The project created several different platforms for communities to express concerns, including hotlines, help desks, and locally-based Gender and Accountability Focal Points.
- Private sector partnership: The mobile money networks that the project worked with subsidized SIM cards for project participants, and provided transaction details to CARE as part of the project M&E plan. This meant we got more data, faster, and communities had better access to communications and mobile money.
Want to learn more?
Check out the final evaluation. You can also take a look at the DFID-published case study that focuses on how the project helped families deal with the cash crisis.
Special thanks
CARE worked with World Vision International as a sub-grantee, and Econet and NetOne as the mobile money providers.