Haiti Country Mapping: Large-Scale Cash Transfers for COVID-19

As COVID-19 impacts on health, livelihoods, and well-being of all people around the world, the UN Under Secretary General – Emergency Relief Coordinator called on international community for a recovery package of USD90 Bn necessary to support 700 million extremely vulnerable people around the world. In light of the inherent benefits of using cash assistance in the response to COVID-19, there is a potential for a large proportion of this aid to be delivered through such assistance.

This is a rapid country review aiming to identify the best ways to quickly deliver cash transfers by (i) prioritising reasonably actionable measures to channel the available aid towards the most in need, and (ii) identifying a better modus operandi for an articulated humanitarian and development action to support such measures. This rapid exploratory review finds that there is significant potential to scale up cash assistance to those in need in the context of Haiti. Cash assistance currently delivered through humanitarian channels reaches about 10% of the people in need (PiN) identified by the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) updated for 2020 whereas the cash assistance delivered through social protection mechanisms (SSN) reaches 15% of the estimated in need following the COVID-19 impact.