UnBlocked Cash in Numbers — report from Vanuatu implementation
Oxfam in Vanuatu leads the UnBlocked Cash first live implementation and presents statistics for the first calendar months of the program (10-11/2020)
Bombarded with the severity of the Tropical Cyclone Harold and COVID-19 restrictions in Vanuatu since March until today has resulted in a significant reduction in income and livelihoods across Vanuatu, particularly amongst households with pre-existing vulnerabilities. In order to address the needs of our people Oxfam in Vanuatu is now deploying a cutting-edge innovation to meet the needs of nearly 6,000 families across the country.
The UnBlocked Cash (UBC) project, a blockchain-powered cash transfer solution piloted in 2019, is now going to full scale for humanitarian response, emergency recovery, here in Vanuatu. The project involves the use of an automated, live tracking system for purchases using cash provided to households, via ‘tap and pay’ cards provided to households, which are redeemed at a network of hundreds of local vendors at the province level. The project has harnessed the capacities of 17 partners across government, private sector, and local and international NGOs to form the UnBlocked Cash Consortium.
Delivering together in the Pacific’s first consortium-led response, Oxfam is providing technical design, operational leadership and strategic direction for the initiative.
Numbers for October 19 — November 30, 2020
Program Kick-off
With the three provinces of Sanma, Shefa, and Tafea being targeted, the response commenced in October 2020 in Sanma Province with 2,708 participants (beneficiaries and vendors) registered to receive cash-based assistance for a six-month period until March 2021. Since kick-off on the 19th of October, over 50 million vatu ($608,600 AUD) has been distributed across Sanma Province, of which over 40 million vatu (or $487,000 AUD) has been spent across a network of 183 vendors.
A team of 15 staff and interns from Oxfam in Vanuatu was deployed to Luganville (Sanma Provincial capital) where they were stationed throughout the response in October, supporting 6 implementing partners to enroll over 2,500 families in the space of 10 days.
Unlike the other two provinces, beneficiary registrations in Sanma covered the entire province with 89% coverage on the island of Santo alone. Santo was one of the worst-hit islands during TC Harold, this is one of the reasons why there is a wider response coverage on the island.
Beneficiaries
With the criteria of beneficiaries being elderly, people with disabilities, single mothers, widows/widowers, and displaced people, most of the registered beneficiaries in Sanma fall under the elderly (38%) and disability (36%) criteria. They’re followed by widows/widowers (11%), single mothers (9%), and displaced people (3%). More than half of all beneficiaries are female (54%).
The program facilitated a total of 12,655 payment transactions. Beneficiaries spent on average 8,460 Vt. Details of transactions are available via an online dashboard monitored by Oxfam and partners which provides real-time monitoring of transactions being made.
Vendors
Results from the dashboard have shown that most spending by beneficiaries in Sanma Province were made on long-life foods which top the ratings at 68%, followed by hardware (17%), sanitation/hygiene (13%), clothing (12%), fresh food (6%), and water (2%). The remaining categories were at 1% or below.
Vendors where the beneficiaries use the e-vouchers also vary in type and across sectors. 53% of e-vouchers have been used at community stores, 25% used on transportation costs and 12% at local market vendors. The rest of the expenditures happened at other vendors across the network, which totaled 183 vendors covering the Province.
With the first distribution of e-vouchers in Sanma Province having been completed in October, preparations were underway for the Tafea response to commence in November 2020. Oxfam partner, the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council (VBRC) provides support in identifying and training suppliers and vendors, formal and informal, who will be providing the goods and services to selected households across all three targeted provinces.
VBRC has conducted vendor surveying in Tanna island (Tafea Province) in October, while Oxfam’s cash transfer team headed to Tanna in mid-November to begin training for partners and preparations for the response.
