The most vulnerable people living in contexts of protracted crises risk experiencing political, gender and digital exclusion which can result in them not receiving social assistance. Throughout this paper our aim is to show the complex issues faced in delivering cash and voucher assistance (CVA) at scale using digital tools in challenging contexts, the different drivers of digitisation from the perspective of humanitarian and government actors, and the obstacles these actors face in delivering programmes in an inclusive and accountable way. Through interviews and focus group discussions with aid recipients in North East Nigeria and key informant interviews with professionals working in humanitarian and government cash assistance, this working paper aims to answer the research question: how does digitisation affect recipients’ experiences of inclusion and exclusion in social assistance systems?
Our research found a range of benefits to digitisation for governments, development agencies and recipients for whom digital systems were experienced as a convenient means to obtain information about entitlements as well as an improved platform on which to receive them. However, our data showed that intersecting political, gender and digital exclusions may result in the most marginalised people not receiving aid, and being excluded from accessing information about entitlements.
Drawing on existing literature and our findings, we present a framework of intersecting – and compounding – political, gender and digital exclusions. Although previous literature on the digitisation of social assistance has drawn attention to the risks of digital exclusion, this framework offers a new perspective to show how each axis of exclusion risks compounding the other. The aim of this report is to improve understanding of the risks and benefits of the use of digital technologies to support programming from the perspective of recipients. Furthermore it highlights how the risks and benefits are very different for recipients, for governments and for humanitarian agencies. While the findings from the interviews are specifically of interest to those working in contexts of protracted crises, the broader issue of compounding exclusions in digital delivery will be of interest to the wider social protection community.
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