As cash and voucher assistance is becoming an increasingly popular form of humanitarian aid, more and more organizations are seeking efficient ways to deliver this to people in need. The 121 Platform enables them to reach recipients.
The platform was created by the Netherlands Red Cross in cooperation with five other humanitarian aid organizations – Dutch Relief Alliance, Dorcas, Cordaid, Help a Child, Tearfund, and ZOA. It is a response to the growing difficulties that many humanitarian actors experience in channeling assistance that is adjusted to meet people’s needs. This is why it was decided that cash transfers would ensure that recipients would not be deprived of aid. Although cash transfers are an increasingly popular form of assistance, the humanitarian organizations that are willing to use this system meet many constraints that hamper its implementation. Very often humanitarian workers do not have sufficient knowledge, tools, and skills or do not have access to proper systems to develop cash programs. The 121 Platform helps to overcome those obstacles.
“The 121 Platform is a unique platform to manage Cash and Voucher Assistance programs in that it is easy to deploy and use and in that it can be integrated with local financial service providers. The 121 Platform has been developed in collaboration with aid workers and people affected by crisis. With this Platform, humanitarian organisations can offer support fit for each individual,” says Anton van Wijk, Humanitarian Aid Expert at Dorcas and the project lead.
🔹 How does the platform work?
The 121 Platform offers solutions to aid organizations, aid workers, and recipients thanks to the Organization Portal, the Aid Worker App, and the Person Affected App. The portal enables registrations to be monitored, adding people, sending payments and notifications, and thus as a complete tool is able to manage the whole process. The Aid Worker App helps to validate registrations because it makes it possible to limit duplication, better handle data and increase the efficiency of the process. Finally, the Person Affected App enables self-registration on programs which limits the time needed to apply for assistance and avoids unnecessary bureaucracy. The platform is also equipped with the Cash Program Design Wizard, a decision-support tool that helps to create Cash and Voucher Assistance programs based on the best practices of the aid sector derived from its practitioners and the knowledge of the various NGOs that carry out such programs.
🔹 121 Platform pilots
The humanitarian organizations that have created the platform have so far conducted five pilots to check its application. These took place in the Netherlands (St. Maarten), Ukraine, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Kenya. In St. Maarten, the Netherlands Red Cross together with the St. Maarten Red Cross used the platform to bring relief to people affected by hurricanes Irma, Jose, and Maria in 2017. In Ethiopia, Dorcas, together with Ethiopian Red Cross, conducted a pilot by implementing Cash Based Aid to support people affected by poverty. The pilot study involved 20 people affected by internal displacement and three aid workers. The Humanitarian Organisation Portal, the Aid Worker App, and the Person Affected App are planned to be used in Lebanon and Ethiopia from December this year.
