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Report

Humanitarian Crisis in the DRC: Why Cash is Best

8 October 2024 — By Cash Working Group RDC

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The policy brief, “Humanitarian Crisis in the DRC: Why Cash is Best” draws on from evidence and years of first-hand experience of implementing humanitarian programmes in the DRC to demonstrate that cash programming is critical to the effectiveness of the response in the country, where humanitarian needs continue to worsen amidst dwindling resources and global attention.

Despite evidence showing that cash transfers are four times more efficient and around 86% cheaper than in-kind aid, cash remains an underutilised modality in the DRC, and in-kind aid continues to be used as the default modality in many contexts where cash would be more appropriate based on market functionality and community preference. For humanitarian action to become more effective and accountable to affected populations, the humanitarian community in the DRC must embrace and fully implement the global cash revolution by taking the following steps:

  • Donors should significantly increase their budget allocations to cash and voucher assistance (CVA) in the next financial year.
    Humanitarian actors should use cash as the default response wherever market functionality and security allow, and in line with community preferences.
  • The HCT, CWG and cluster leads should lead efforts by all humanitarian actors to standardise the design and reporting of cash programming, including through harmonized transfer values and reporting mechanisms.
  • Humanitarian cash actors, the HCT and the CWG should jointly engage with and urge financial institutions such as banks, transfer agents and cooperatives to increase coverage and expand services to include wider adoption and coverage of digital transfer mechanisms, such as mobile money.
  • Humanitarian donors and operational actors should ensure that the design of cash programs is informed by evidence of what works and evolving risks. This should include refusing to compromise on quality and fraud prevention in order to achieve greater speed.