Global Shelter Cluster Position Paper: Cash & Markets in the Shelter Sector

The use of direct cash payments to support communities impacted by crisis is becoming increasingly commonplace as a response to humanitarian situations – and with good reason. Cash can often be faster and more cost-efficient to deliver than in-kind assistance and most importantly increases choice, flexibility and dignity for beneficiaries allowing them to exercise some of their basic rights whilst potentially stimulating the recovery of livelihoods and contributing towards post-crisis economic rehabilitation.

The shelter sector can claim to have a long history of using cash as a modality and could in some regards be considered one of the original CTP sectors.

The paper makes a number of recommendations including that the volume of humanitarian aid provided through direct unconditional cash payments should be increased dramatically, and suggests that a move to more CTP has the potential to push the reform of some aspects of the current humanitarian system.