Special focus on nutrition-sensitive programming
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Doing cash differently:<br />
how cash transfers can transform<br />
humanitarian aid<br />
Summary of research 1<br />
Research<br />
Locati<strong>on</strong>: Global<br />
What we know: Humanitarian aid is increasingly provided in the form of cash assistance. Unc<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>al and<br />
multi-purpose cash <strong>programming</strong> allows beneficiaries to choose what resources to procure, making the<br />
interventi<strong>on</strong>, by definiti<strong>on</strong>, multi-sectoral.<br />
What this article adds: A recent report of the High Level Panel <strong>on</strong> Humanitarian Cash Transfers evidences<br />
that humanitarian cash transfers can be provided to people safely, efficiently and accountably. Cash is spent<br />
sensibly by recipients and makes limited humanitarian resources go further. Greater use of unrestricted cash<br />
assistance has multiple advantages in terms of efficiencies, speed of resp<strong>on</strong>se, m<strong>on</strong>itoring, value for m<strong>on</strong>ey,<br />
meeting needs, aut<strong>on</strong>omy of affected populati<strong>on</strong>s and accountability. Expansi<strong>on</strong> of the use of cash transfers<br />
should be accompanied by specific measures to catalyse wider change and better coordinati<strong>on</strong> of the<br />
humanitarian system and related instituti<strong>on</strong>al architecture. Twelve recommendati<strong>on</strong>s are made centred <strong>on</strong><br />
greater and more efficient cash transfers (with str<strong>on</strong>g, locally accountable systems) and different funding<br />
streams (to enable reform and realise opportunities).<br />
This report of the High Level Panel <strong>on</strong><br />
Humanitarian Cash Transfers explains<br />
why giving aid directly in the form of<br />
cash is oen a highly effective way to<br />
reduce suffering in places experiencing humanitarian<br />
emergencies and to make limited humanitarian<br />
aid budgets go further. e panel<br />
describes the problem of a widening gap between<br />
humanitarian need and humanitarian assistance<br />
and presents the evidence and experience of<br />
humanitarian cash transfers. e panel urges<br />
the humanitarian community to give more aid<br />
as cash and argues for a more coordinated<br />
system of cash transfers that will precipitate<br />
broader reform of the humanitarian system. Finally,<br />
the report presents twelve clear recommended<br />
acti<strong>on</strong>s of the panel for actors in the<br />
humanitarian community.<br />
with physical commodities: food, shelter, water,<br />
tents, clothing and medical help. However, with<br />
changes in technology, growing access to financial<br />
services, greater urbanisati<strong>on</strong> and the emergence<br />
of government safety nets, unprecedented opportunities<br />
now exist to reach people in new<br />
ways.<br />
Cash transfers are am<strong>on</strong>g the most well-researched<br />
and rigorously-evaluated humanitarian<br />
tools of the last decade. e Panel identified<br />
more than 200 resources and studies, including<br />
randomised c<strong>on</strong>trol trials, which evaluate the<br />
effectiveness of cash transfers. ese provide<br />
evidence about the feasibility, cost and effectiveness<br />
of cash transfers in humanitarian settings.<br />
is evidence is compelling and shows that, in<br />
most c<strong>on</strong>texts, humanitarian cash transfers can<br />
be provided to people safely, efficiently and accountably.<br />
Furthermore, people spend cash sensibly,<br />
both women and men oen prefer cash<br />
over other forms of assistance, and cash is no<br />
more pr<strong>on</strong>e to diversi<strong>on</strong> than in-kind assistance,<br />
especially when delivered through digital payments.<br />
Evidence also shows that local markets<br />
have resp<strong>on</strong>ded to cash injecti<strong>on</strong>s without causing<br />
inflati<strong>on</strong>, cash transfers have generated positive<br />
impacts <strong>on</strong> local ec<strong>on</strong>omies and cash can be<br />
delivered in increasingly affordable, secure and<br />
transparent ways.<br />
e ‘humanitarian system’ comprises a web<br />
of humanitarian aid agencies, d<strong>on</strong>or governments<br />
and nati<strong>on</strong>al organisati<strong>on</strong>s that employs over<br />
450,000 people and spends about USD25 billi<strong>on</strong><br />
per year. Most humanitarian aid is spent in protracted<br />
crises, rather than <strong>on</strong> quick-<strong>on</strong>set disasters.<br />
89% of humanitarian aid goes to places that<br />
have required humanitarian funding for more<br />
Assistance in the form of Cash<br />
than three years, and 66% of humanitarian aid<br />
Transfers in Barsalogho,<br />
is spent in places that have needed it for eight<br />
Burkina Faso<br />
years or more. e humanitarian system is being<br />
stretched and the gap between needs and funding<br />
1<br />
ODI Centre for Global Development. (2015). Doing cash<br />
is widening. Humanitarian organisati<strong>on</strong>s have<br />
Cash transfers can also make limited humanitarian<br />
resources go further. It usually costs humanitarian work: Report of the High Level Panel <strong>on</strong><br />
differently: how cash transfers can transform<br />
traditi<strong>on</strong>ally supported crisis-affected people<br />
less to get cash transfers to people than in-kind Humanitarian Cash Transfers. September 2015<br />
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WFP/Rein Skullerud<br />
44