Senior Lecturer in Humanitarianism, Peace and Conflict Studies, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
Researcher, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Sweden.
Disasters. 2022 Apr;46(2):348-370. doi: 10.1111/disa.12478. Epub 2022 Feb 1.
Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) has become a widespread humanitarian tool to support people affected by conflicts, displacement, and disasters. It promises improved ways to meet the diverse needs of aid beneficiaries. Current policy and academic debates mainly centre on technocratic questions concerning economy, effectiveness, and equity, and, to a lesser extent, the effects on individual recipients and households. This paper challenges the assumption of CVA as a linear process and argues that the shift to CVA is more than changing the aid delivery platform. It contends that scholarship and practice have so far overlooked the social meaning of money, and therefore its broader implications for humanitarian aid and local markets. The paper presents evidence that CVA impacts on social relations and risks creating new, or exacerbating existing, conflicts in already fragile contexts. It highlights less explored areas of CVA and outlines a multidimensional research agenda that emphasises its potential social and socioeconomic consequences.
现金和凭证援助（CVA）已成为一种广泛使用的人道主义工具，用于支持受冲突、流离失所和灾害影响的人们。它承诺提供更好的方式来满足援助受益人的多样化需求。当前的政策和学术辩论主要集中在有关经济、效率和公平的技术官僚问题上，在较小程度上也集中在对个人受援者和家庭的影响上。本文质疑 CVA 作为一个线性过程的假设，并认为向 CVA 的转变不仅仅是改变援助提供平台。它认为，到目前为止，学术研究和实践都忽视了货币的社会意义，因此也忽视了它对人道主义援助和当地市场的更广泛影响。本文提出证据表明，CVA 会影响社会关系，并有可能在已经脆弱的环境中引发新的冲突，或加剧现有的冲突。本文强调了 CVA 中较少被探索的领域，并概述了一个多维的研究议程，强调了其潜在的社会和社会经济后果。
