Helpdesk Research Report: Cash Transfers in Fragile/Conflict-Affected Environments

In-kind assistance has traditionally dominated social protection programming in fragile and conflict-affected contexts (Holmes, 2009). In recent years, however, there has been a rise in the implementation of cash transfer schemes in such environments. These programmes have often been relatively small scale, in comparison with larger commodity distributions. Despite this rise in cash programming in such environments, there is limited research and evaluation of this area. This helpdesk report aims to draw out some of the challenges, outcomes and lessons learned from experiences in fragile or conflict-affected environments from the available literature.