The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
Our goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With over 194 member states, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide. We believe that everyone can play a part in ending hunger.
Contributions
Improving Food Security and Nutrition through Cash+ in Armenia: Combining cash transfers, productive assets and inputs distribution with agricultural and nutrition trainings for vulnerable rural households in Lori and Shirak region
Case Study
Armenia is an upper-middle-income country in the South Caucasus with a population of three million people. It is landlocked and a net importer of food. The country is vulnerable to natural hazards, including floods and drought, and external shocks, namely global food price fluctuations, which often have negative impacts on food security and nutrition. In 2015, 16 percent of households in...
1 July 2024
Improving Food Security and Nutrition with Cash Assistance, Cash for Work and Inputs Distribution in Myanmar – Strengthening household resilience to socioeconomic and climate shocks in Rakhine State
Case Study
Rakhine State in Myanmar has been experiencing armed conflict, localized violence, political instability and extremely high levels of forced displacement for years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the local population faced further and compounding disruptions to livelihoods, and local government institutions and administrations experienced operational challenges.
In this complex situation, at...
3 June 2024
Enhancing Resilience and Restoring Agricultural Productive Capacity and Food Security through Social Protection in Indonesia – Emergency assistance for post-earthquake and tsunami recovery through cash assistance in Central Sulawesi
Case Study
In 2018, a series of earthquakes struck Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi Province, which is a major agricultural production centre in the country. The earthquakes triggered a tsunami and caused landslides with considerable damage and loss of life. Damages to the agricultural sector accounted alone for 40 percent of the total.
In the context of the severe impacts of this event, FAO delivered...
6 May 2024
Social Protection as a Pathway to Sustaining Peace
Policy paper
Global crises are becoming the new normal. From climate change to the contemporary food price crisis, vulnerable populations – and especially rural people – are facing increasingly difficult odds of flourishing. Such challenges are even more pronounced where there is conflict, whose multidimensional nature demands to direct more attention to its drivers and impacts.
Over the past decades,...
20 March 2024
Addressing Negative Socioeconomic Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic through Social Protection in Viet Nam – Supporting incomes and livelihoods with cash assistance in Dong Nai province
Case Study
In late April 2021, Viet Nam faced its fourth wave of COVID-19, with over 895 000 new cases reported. COVID-19 and related restrictions hindered livelihood options and vulnerable households faced financial stress to cover basic needs. Some of them lost their income and were unable to return to home villages for a certain period of time. In addition, many people living in vulnerable...
14 February 2024
Scoping Review on the Role of Social Protection in Facilitating Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation for Economic Inclusion among Rural Populations
Report
Rural populations, especially small-scale producers and women, are disproportionately impacted by climate change since their livelihoods depend largely on natural resources and weather patterns. This paper reviews the available evidence on the role of social protection programmes in facilitating climate change adaptation and mitigation, with a specific emphasis on economic inclusion for...
2024
Social Protection and Anticipatory Action to Protect Agricultural Livelihoods
Policy paper
As the quality of climate risk information and scientific forecasting has continued to improve, the imperative to act in advance of an imminent shock in order to protect people, assets and livelihoods has also gained notable attention and increasing investment. Recognizing this opportunity, some governments, and development and humanitarian partners are trying to gain a better understanding of...
6 October 2023
Unified Cash+ Framework of Bangladesh: For anticipatory action and response
Report
This document presents a proposal for a harmonised inter-sectoral approach to cash+ (cash and other forms of support) in anticipation of rapid onset hazard events as well as the response phase. The formulations are based on the HCTT pre-crisis survey conducted in June 2023 and the workshop on the 22nd of June where the initial proposal was formulated. The aim of this initial proposal is to be...
October 2023
Pre-crisis Assessment of Monsoon Flooding in Bangladesh
Report
Shifting the focus from response to anticipation of monsoon floods, the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator (RCO) and Humanitarian Coordination Task Team (HCTT) with support from NORCAP/CashCap implemented a pre-crisis survey to understand at-risk people’s perceptions and preparations for monsoon flooding and help define a unified intersectoral cash+ approach for Anticipatory action and...
28 September 2023
Cash and Voucher Assistance to Improve Maternal and Child Nutrition Outcomes in Emergency Contexts of Nigeria
Case Study
In Nigeria, nearly 12 per cent of children under 5 years are wasted according to the National Food Consumption and Micronutrient Survey (2021). Wasting is largely concentrated in the North with 58 per cent of all cases residing there. In the Northeast and Northwest regions of Nigeria, the prevalence of wasting is 17 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. In 2023, it was projected that nearly...
July 2023
A Minimum Guideline for Implementers: Cash for work
Guidelines and Tools
This guide is to be used as a recommended practice for CfW programming and mainstreaming gender and protection measures, based on global best practices and the Philippines’ context. It should be used as complementary to the DSWD Cash-for-Work guidance. The details outlined in this guide pertain to CfW activities to be delivered during the Early Recovery phase and post-disaster.
March 2023
The Changing Landscape of Cash Preparedness: Lists, Risks and Relationships
Report
What are feasible lead times to deliver CVA to recipients in the Horn of Africa? What are the barriers and enablers to ensuring a timely and high quality humanitarian response? What does it take for organizations to be effectively prepared?
August 2022
Cash Transfers and Women’s Economic Inclusion: Experimental evidence from Zambia
Case Study
This paper investigates whether an increase in exogenous income through the Child Grants model of the Social Cash Transfer programme in Zambia fosters economic inclusion among rural women. We conceptualize economic inclusion as a transformative process comprised of four pillars: productive capacity, financial inclusion, social power, and psychological assets. Using experimental data, we find...
2021
Evaluation of the 2017 Somalia Humanitarian Cash-Based Response
Report
After several years of poor rainfall, the humanitarian community responded to a famine alert issued in January 2017 with a significant scale-up of funding and programmes. Having originally published a 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) in November 2016, by May 2017, the Somalia Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) revised the HRP upwards to target 5.5 million people needing assistance. The UN,...
August 2018
The Livelihood Impacts of Cash Transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa: Beneficiary Perspectives from Six Countries
Report
Cash transfers (CTs) are a social protection mechanism to reduce the poorest households’ vulnerability to shocks and build human
capital by smoothing consumption and sustaining expenditure on education and social welfare.
This study examines whether and how CTs go beyond welfare objectives to promote livelihoods. Presenting a cross-case analysis using original qualitative data on...
2017
The State of Evidence on Social Cash Transfers in Africa. Transfer Project Workshop Brief 2017
Report
The annual workshop of the Transfer Project, “The State of Evidence on Social Cash Transfers in Africa” focused on new challenges arising from moving from fragmented programmes to integrated social protection systems, combining cash transfers with complementary (also referred to as ‘plus’) interventions, as well as the assessment of social protection in emergency contexts. This...
2017
Humanitarian Cash Transfer Programming Symposium – Cash based responses in North-eastern Nigeria: harmonising CTP approaches, sharing learning and cash transfer mechanisms experiences
Report
With the increasing use of cash based responses in NE Nigeria the humanitarian organisations identified the need to share the knowledge and experiences that exist to date. The Humanitarian Cash Transfer Symposium was a structured workshop for humanitarian organisations to share experiences, learnings, and to harmonise and agree on joint recommendations to move forward with some of the...
13 April 2016
The Impact of Social Cash Transfer Programmes on Community Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa
Report
Social cash transfer programmes are on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa, building on the momentum generated by the African Union’s 2008 Social Policy Framework Plan of Action. This plan motivated member countries to develop their own social policy frameworks and to give greater priority to social protection programmes. With support from development partners, individual governments are taking...
23 February 2015
Final Report for Assessment of the Impact of Cash For Work Beneficiaries training for Phases IIB and IV
Report
Phases IIB and IV of the Cash For Work (CFW) project were implemented by FAO Somalia over the period 2013-2015 and aimed at enhancing access to food by the food insecure households in the short-term, while supporting restoration of food production through the rehabilitation/construction of productive assets and rural infrastructure (water catchments, roads, river embankments and secondary...
2015
The Impacts of Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Programme on Community Dynamics
Report
This short paper evaluates the impacts of Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer (SCT) programme on the household economy, the local economy and the social networks. The SCT programme was launched in Mchinji district in 2006. The programme provides regular cash payments to ultra-poor and labour-constrained households. It seeks to reduce poverty and hunger; increase school enrolment and attendance;...
2015
Productive Impacts of the Child Grant Programme in Zambia
Report
This short one page paper looks at the impacts of the Child Grant Programme in Zambia on asset ownership, agricultural activity, non-farm business activities, labour supply and local economies. The CGP is one of Zambia’s flagship social protection schemes. It targets ultra-poor districts not previously served by other government programmes. Established in 2010, the CGP reaches 20,000...
2015
Impacts of the Child Grant Programme (CGP) on the Local Economy in Zambia
Report
In this research brief, local economy-wide impact evaluation (LEWIE) simulation methods are used to assess the likely impacts of cash transfers on the local economy. When the Child Grant Programme (CGP) gives money to beneficiary households, they spend it to buy goods and services. As this cash circulates within wards and districts it also creates benefits for non-recipient households that can...
2015
The Economic Impacts of Cash Transfer Programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa
Report
This brief brings together the critical mass of evidence that has emerged from recent rigorous impact evaluations of government-run cash transfer programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. Most, but not all, of the programmes belong to the Transfer Project, a community of practice created to share lessons, experience and expertise between evaluators, government programme managers and development...
2014
Review of FAO Cash for Work Programme in Somalia
Report
The objective of this costing study is to understand the absolute and relative magnitudes of various drivers of programme costs and to assess the cost-efficiency of the CFW Programme’s operations, using the total cost-to-transfer ratio (TCTR) for the programme which represents the total cost incurred by the programme in order to disburse one dollar of cash transfer to the programme...
2014
Guidelines for Input Trade Fairs and Voucher Schemes
Guidelines and Tools
One of the main causes of food insecurity for farmers in rural areas is limited access to agricultural inputs. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) works to set up input trade fairs and voucher schemes to provide poor, vulnerable and food insecure farmers with access to the inputs (e.g. seeds, fertilizers and hand tools) they need to sustain their agricultural...
April 2013
Guidelines for Public Works Programmes: Cash‐, Voucher‐ and Food-for‐Work
Guidelines and Tools
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) manages public works programmes to provide transfers to vulnerable, food-insecure and/or crisis-affected households in return for the provision of labour (particularly through labour-intensive construction and rehabilitation projects). The two main objectives of public works programmes are to: provide income opportunities...
April 2013
Cash-For-Work in Somalia: Linking relief to recovery
Policy paper
In complex emergency situations such as that in Somalia, marred by violence, destitution and famine, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has managed to implement a large cash-for-work (CFW) programme. The programme provides emergency relief while building the base for future recovery. This concept note aims at gathering lessons learned from FAO – Somalia’s...
February 2012
Evaluating Local General Equilibrium Impacts of Lesotho’s Child Grants Programme
Report
This report presents findings from a local economy-wide impact evaluation (LEWIE) of Lesotho’s Child Grants Programme. Simulations indicate that total income impacts significantly exceed the amounts transferred under the programme: each loti transferred stimulates local nominal income gains of up to 2.23 loti. By stimulating demand for locally supplied goods and services, cash transfers...
2012
The Use of Cash Transfers in Livestock Emergencies and their Incorporation into Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS)
Guidelines and Tools
This paper reviews the use of cash transfers within the livestock sector and suggests how they can be incorporated into and support Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS). The paper’s structure reflects the stages of the LEGS Handbook as these in turn reflect good project cycle management. The paper provides information on specific cash transfer issues and case studies related...
2011
Impacts of the Social Cash Transfer Pilot Programme (sctpp) on the local economy in Ethiopia
Report
The Social Cash Transfer Pilot Programme (SCTPP) was launched by the Tigray Bureau of Labour and Social Affairs (BOLSA) with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in 2011. The goal of the SCTPP is to improve the quality of life for orphans and vulnerable children, the elderly and those with disabilities, and to enhance their access to...
2011
Market Assessment and Analysis: Learner’s notes
Guidelines and Tools
This document presents the “Learner’s Notes” that accompany a distance learning course on Market Assessment and Analysis. The course illustrates how markets operate and how they relate to and affect food security and vulnerable households. It describes market components and how they function and introduces some of the methods and indicators used to assess markets for improving food...
2008