Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance 2023: Considerations and recommendations

MPCA has been a major component during the humanitarian response in Iraq and it has been proven to be a successful assistance to support vulnerable populations to meet their immediate needs. During the past years, members of the Cash Working Group (CWG) agreed to harmonise the MPCA approach and its components. This helped in providing efficient and consistent assistance among humanitarian organizations.

In late 2021, the CWG organized a workshop to redefine the MPCA strategic and operational components to explore linkages with longer-term solutions. This was the first step to consider MPCA as a non-standalone activity. In 2023, the humanitarian coordination response is de-activated and existing programs are aligned to this new transitional context to durable solutions and development.

In the current context, MPCA became a much smaller component but still relevant for specific population groups, geographical locations and for the integration to other programming to reach sustainable solutions. The MPCA approach can vary depending on the type of programming by continuing to address humanitarian needs, playing an essential role in supporting (re)integration and transition to durable solutions, can be linked with Social Protection, and can support addressing the emerging climate change risks.

The Iraq Cash Forum (ICF) members agreed to update the guidelines with more flexibility in the harmonized components, to easy the needed adjustments considering the different approaches where MPCA can be integrated. In this regard, this guideline aims to provide considerations and recommendations, rather than a single harmonization approach, to design MPCA activities with different lends.