Perceived Safety

The indicator assesses the extent to which the target population feels safe when accessing and using the cash-based assistance (CBA). This data can help you with ensuring greater protection of the target population and minimizing any security risks the CBA recipients might face. It is essential that you disaggregate the results by gender, as women and men are likely to face different types and different extent of risks.

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

1) Identify a limited number of the main times when a person who is accessing and using your project’s cash-based assistance might face any safety issues. This might be, for example:

   - the person travels to the place where cash / vouchers / other cash-based assistance (CBA) is provided

   - the person receives the CBA

   - the person travels with the CBA back home

   - the person keeps the CBA at home

   - the person goes to a vendor to use the CBA assistance

Adjust the selected situations based on your modality, the local environment, and the possible limitations of the questionnaire length.

2) Conduct individual interviews with a representative sample of the CBA recipients (possibly as a part of your PDM), asking them about how safe they felt during the above-listed stages. In several cases you will first need to understand whether people actually travelled (e.g. to a market) before you ask them how safe they felt when travelling. The survey should take place within less than one month after the distribution, so that people can still clearly recall how safe they felt (see comment below).

Asking how safe people felt can be done in two different ways:

1. Asking people a direct question. For example: When travelling to the market to use the vouchers, would you say that you felt very safe, quite safe, rather unsafe or extremely unsafe? Be aware that in some contexts, people might not be used to being asked such types of questions and their answers might not accurately represent how their actually felt.
2. An alternative version is to take advantage of the visual scale provided at the bottom of this page. Explain what each smiley means (feeling very safe, quite safe, quite unsafe and extremely unsafe) and ask the respondent to always point to the smiley that best represents her/his feelings. For example:

   - Can you please show me on this picture how safe you felt when you travelled to the place where you received [specify the modality]?

   - Can you please show me on this picture how safe you felt when you were at the place where you received [specify the modality]?

Whenever a respondent states that s/he felt quite unsafe or extremely unsafe, ask for a reason. Furthermore, always ask whether there was any other situation directly related to CBA when the person felt unsafe.

3) To calculate the indicator’s value, divide the number of respondents who during all surveyed times felt very safe or quite safe by the total number of respondents (exclude those who did not remember or did not reply). Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage.

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

1) In some contexts (e.g. more conservative countries), while one household member might be the CBA recipient, the journey to the market can be done by a different household member. In such a case, you might need to interview the CBA recipient about the situation s/he experienced and then interview another person (e.g. husband) about the remaining situations (e.g. going to / from the market).

2) If you conduct cash transfers / voucher distributions in several phases (or in several locations), do not wait with the post-distribution monitoring (PDM) until all distributions/transfers are over. Starting with the PDM immediately after the first phase / location will help you identify potential weaknesses and address them in the remaining distributions. Remember, the most important thing is that you are able to act effectively on the survey’s findings.

3) In addition to risk perception, consider also measuring actual security incidents. An indicator in this respect might be: % of beneficiary households reporting theft or forced handover of distributed cash/vouchers.

4) If you implement an ECHO-funded intervention, consider replacing this indicator by the following ECHO Key Outcome Indicator: % of beneficiaries reporting that humanitarian assistance was delivered in a safe, accessible and participatory manner.

5) In some contexts, your enumerators might encounter people who experienced physical or sexual violence related to accessing or using the provided assistance. Collecting information about such incidents is sensitive and poses risks to the respondent as well as to the enumerator. Furthermore, people might find it difficult or not be willing to report on the incidence of violence. As a very minimum, adopt the following measures:

   - ensure that the enumerators are familiar with and carry with them Constant Companion listing 1) the main DOs and DON’Ts and 2) contacts for relevant service providers that can provide support to people who experienced violence (see at the bottom of this page)

   - ensure that all enumerators were trained in the principles of gender-sensitive interviewing and are not from the same communities as the interviewees

   - instruct the enumerators to ensure that the interviews are conducted in a place where no one else can hear or observe the respondent (if the enumerators cannot ensure complete privacy, they should skip this part and move to less sensitive parts of the questionnaire)

   - instruct the enumerators to re-assure the respondent about the confidentiality of her/his answers

   - train the enumerators to quickly switch the topic if during the interview someone comes near the respondent

   - train the enumerators in how to close the topic and move to the next part of your survey in a sensitive manner

   - ensure that there is emotional support available to the enumerators