Social Protection: An operational tool for the humanitarian, development and peace nexus – Linkages between cash-based interventions and social protection in humanitarian and non-humanitarian settings

This paper explores linkages between Cash-Based Interventions (CBIs) and social protection in humanitarian and nonhumanitarian settings, focusing on linkages between humanitarian aid and sustainable social protection for migrants, including communities affected by forced displacement such as IDPs and refugees, climate change events or economic factors. Many of these target groups are effectively undocumented and reliant on humanitarian aid, informal economic activity and informal forms of social protection to generate income and for economic survival. The paper focuses on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region but draws from experiences elsewhere in the world and simultaneously reflects on the normative framework from the perspective of international norms and standards. The impact of COVID-19 on migrants and displaced populations in the MENA region has emphasized the need for a renewed focus on strengthening the links between CBI and social protection.