About Cash Transfers

What's the issue?

Cash Transfers, In-cash Support, Cash Transfer Projects or Cash Based Responses are synonyms for the direct, conditional or unconditional distribution of cash to individual beneficiaries in need. Cash Transfers Projects are known in a wide range of applications, such as government-driven welfare instruments, Insurance scheme, Remittances, humanitarian assistance among others.

Growing body of experience

Particularly among the international humanitarian aid community, there is a growing interest to respond with Cash Transfer Projects to emergencies and a growing body of experience in implementing such projects. There is clear evidence, that the provision and direct distribution of cash during and after an emergencies can be highly appropriate to empower the victims and increase their coping ability in a way of being highly effective in order to cover the needs on an individual basis. Cash Transfer Projects have been proven useful as immediate emergency aid as well as in shelter rehabilitation and livelhood restoration after natural or man made disasters.

Despite this growing experience with Cash Transfer Projects, the humanitarian system as a whole remains dominated by the in-kind provision of relief, cash responses are often not considered even where they might be appropriate and there are structural institutional and organisational constraints to the wider adoption of cash-based responses.

Nevertheless, the heated debate between the promoters of Cash Transfer Projects and its sceptics has lost its almost ideological signature. More and more implementing agencies active in emergency relief, livelihood recovery, rehabilitation as well as social protection have started to capitalise their experiences.

Literature

There is a growing list of publications on Cash Transfer projects available on the internet.  A recent integral literature review focussing on the application of Cash Transfer Projects in emergencies has been compiled by P. Harvey (2005) and provides detailed overview on the different aspects of the topic and many references for further reading.

Scope

This information platform focuses mainly on Cash Transfer Projects in emergencies as a provision of humanitarian assistance. The issue "Cash Transfer Projects and Social Protection" is not considered in detail. However, due to is increasing importance, there are useful links made available to some key documentations.