WFP Cash Policy: Harnessing the power of money to help people survive and thrive

WFP’s new cash policy centres on people’s experiences, their stories and hopes for the future.

By sending people cash, we can effectively and efficiently support them to meet their food, nutrition, and other essential needs, while at the same time bringing unique benefits that can help people break the vicious cycle of poverty and vulnerability and bring multipliers for local economies.

Cash-based transfers now constitute 35 percent of all WFP assistance, making WFP the world’s largest provider of humanitarian cash. In 2022 alone, WFP sent US$3.3 billion to 56 million people in 72 countries. In 2022 WFP also helped 65 governments to design and implement their own cash transfer programmes.

WFP’s new cash policy centres on people’s experiences, their stories and hopes for the future. It links those stories to the evidence that shows why we use cash transfers to amplify people’s voices and contribute to positive changes in people’s lives.