Under the Ready2Respond (R2R) programme supported by CRS, a 1.5-day training on the standard operating procedure (SOP) and toolkit for cash or fund transfers for emergency response was conducted on March 23–24, 2023, at Caritas India Head Office Delhi, attended by programme and finance staff from Caritas India National and Regional Offices.

The training began with an inaugural session attended by Fr. Jolly Puthenpura, Assistant Executive Director of Caritas India, and Mr. Neal Deles and Mr. Ananth Kaliyaperumal from CRS. Fr. Jolly in his opening remarks stressed the importance of having proper guidelines and documents in place to ensure the preparedness of the organisation and streamline the process of fund transfers during emergencies, as this is fast becoming one of the best response options in emergencies owing to the flexibility and choice it provides to beneficiaries.

The training focused on providing an overview of the SOP and the tools to be used for fund transfers in emergency response programs. As the objective of any SOP is to ensure the structuring of the processes for the organization, this training was used as a platform for the participants to do a detailed review of the fund transfers’ SOP developed under the R2R program and provide their inputs on the same.

Further, the participants were also oriented on the formats and checklists used in the process for cash transfers in Caritas India, including the market assessment tool, beneficiary registration format, key messages for beneficiaries at the time of distribution, a cash response feasibility checklist, a complaint handling and feedback mechanism log format, and a cash utilisation survey. The training was highly interactive and involved multiple group exercises where participants were made to analyse the prepared documents and checklists and provide their feedback on the same. Prior to concluding the training, Mr. Neal from CRS touched upon the concept of the cash readiness of the organisation and provided participants with an overview of the Holistic Assessment for Readiness in Cash (HARC) survey, which helps evaluate whether an organisation is “cash ready” or in need of additional capacity building.