Awareness of Cash-Based Assistance Programme

The indicator measures the proportion of the cash-based assistance beneficiaries demonstrating awareness of the key information related to the provided assistance, such as targeting criteria, conditions, vendor location (for voucher programmes) and awareness of the complaint and response mechanism. The indicator is not specific to a cash programme and can also be used in other contexts.

To determine the indicator's value, use the following methodology:

1) Prepare a list of the key information each beneficiary should be aware of. This might include, for example:

  - the provided assistance is non-conditional, and no one should pay anyone for receiving it

  - what types of people receive the assistance and why (targeting criteria)

  - how the vouchers / bank card / other modality can be used

  - where the nearest shops are where the vouchers / cards / other modality can be used

  - whom and how the beneficiary can contact in case s/he faces any difficulties or wants to raise a complaint

At the same time, be realistic about the information people can remember. For example, while it is unlikely that someone will tell you a complete list of your targeting criteria, s/he should be able to tell you, for example, that assistance is provided to people who are in a very poor economic situation.

2) Divide the list of the key information by 1) the most essential information that each beneficiary must be aware of (e.g. where to reimburse a voucher); and 2) other information each beneficiary should know (e.g. the project's targeting criteria). Limit your expectations to several types of information only.

3) Set a benchmark of what types of information a respondent must be aware of in order to be meeting the indicator. For example, a respondent must be aware of all three types of “essential” information and at least one “other” type of information.

4) Clarify with the project team when this information will be provided to the beneficiaries (e.g. whether before the distribution or only when providing the vouchers / bankcards / cash …).

5) Conduct a quantitative survey among a representative sample of the project beneficiaries, assessing their knowledge of the information you listed in step 1. This can be done either through personal interviews or over the phone. In areas where people might be receiving assistance from multiple agencies, ensure that prior to the interview, the enumerators carefully explain which assistance they are asking about (while not providing any of the information they will be asking about, such as for whom the assistance was intended).

The survey should be conducted after people receive the required information (see step 4) but before they have a chance to use the assistance. At the end of each interview, the enumerators should provide the respondent with any of the information s/he is missing (e.g. how to provide feedback to the aid agency) and ask whether s/he has any questions regarding the use of the provided assistance. At the same time, ensure that the enumerators do not provide this information during the interview, as this might influence the respondent's answers.

6) To calculate the indicator’s value, divide the number of respondents aware of the required types of information (see step 3) by the total number of respondents. Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage.

Disaggregate the results by gender, age group, location, disability, and other vulnerability criteria.

1) Ensure that the survey avoids using leading or binary (yes/no) questions. For example, instead of asking “Do you know where to reimburse the vouchers?”, ask “Can you please tell me all the places you know of where you can reimburse the vouchers?” The answers can still be recorded in easy-to-analyse format, such as “yes, knows several places”, “yes, knows 1-2 places”, “no, does not know any place”.

2) While it is important that the project beneficiaries have the desired awareness, it is equally important that other stakeholders also – such as formal or informal authorities or the market vendors – have a good understanding of the CBA programme, especially its targeting criteria. Consider conducting focus group discussions and key informant interviews, allowing you to assess the awareness of these stakeholders. Alternatively, you can use a separate indicator: “% of targeted formal and informal authorities who understand the project targeting criteria” (however, such an indicator would require using a representative sample of (in)formal authorities).

3) If you do not have the capacity to conduct a survey using the sample size you usually use, use a larger margin of error (e.g. 7.5%) and conduct the survey among a smaller number or respondents. The data will be slightly less precise but it should still give you a good understanding of how well-informed people are about the provided assistance.

4) Consider also reporting separately on the key types of information the CBA recipients are aware of, for example:

  - % of the intended CBA recipients who understand the targeting criteria

  - % of the intended CBA recipients who are able to explain how to use the [specify the modality]

  - % of the intended CBA recipients who know whom to contact in the case they face difficulties with using [specify the modality]