Multipurpose Cash Assistance
Multipurpose Cash (MPC) are unrestricted cash transfers that people affected by crises can use to cover their basic needs. By its nature, MPC is the assistance modality which offers people a maximum degree of choice, flexibility and dignity. There is also growing evidence that it is more cost-efficient and cost-effective to meet multiple needs.
But this requires new ways of collaborating between humanitarian actors, at all stages of the program cycle, and across sectors. While solid tools exist to support collaboration, they have not been widely adopted and MPC is still used in an ad-hoc way. Challenges remain to be addressed if we are to successfully fit MPC into the humanitarian system.
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Multipurpose cash outcome indicators and guidance
Guidelines and Tools
The indicators in this document, developed by the Grand Bargain Cash Workstream, focus on the primary objectives of humanitarian Multipurpose Cash Assistance (MPC), and the outcomes to which MPC can most strongly contribute in a given context.
Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) Decision Making Tools
Guidelines and Tools
Update: This publication was revised in 2022. Please read the revised publication here.
The purpose of this tipsheet is to accompany practitioners and decision makers through key stages in the process of calculating an MEB to: (a)
identify what is the most appropriate path to take in relation to their
particular context, identified objective, existing capacities and available
resources; and...
Operational Guidance and Toolkit for Multipurpose Cash Grants
Guidelines and Tools
This operational guidance and toolkit brings together worldwide expertise on cash-based interventions (CBIs). It provides comprehensive and practical guidance for humanitarian actors to assess the feasibility, conceptualise the design and structure the implementation of MPGs. The guidance focuses on MPGs whose primary objective is to meet basic needs as defined by affected people...
Definition of Minimum Expenditure Baskets (MEB) in West Africa
Report
Throughout 2017, five countries in West Africa have worked collectively to define minimum expenditure baskets, in order to better capture the contribution that humanitarian assistance is making to address the basic needs of affected populations, and improve the impact of assistance. This heavy process raises technical and coordination challenges. The CALP Network, with support from USAID /...
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Cash & Voucher Assistance (CVA) & Child Protection (CP) Global Study – Research Report in the DRC, Egypt, Lithuania and the Philippines
Report
Since 2022, Save the Children has been scaling up its use of CVA for Child Protection (CP) programming through various pilot projects.
Research was commissioned in four countries in 2022-23 to generate evidence and learning to inform the design of future programming but also to design a robust...
Cash and Vouchers Assistance (CVA) and Child Protection: Summary of practice and evidence from Save the Children programmes 2023 Edition
Report
In an effort to increase global knowledge and learning, Save the Children conducted a global review of twenty Country Offices and their programs in order to assess and highlight the impact that different forms of Cash and Vouchers Assistance (CVA) have on Child Protection (CP) outcomes, to identify...
Cash and Protection in the Ukraine Response
Report
This learning report stems from bilateral discussions with the Collaborative Cash Delivery (CCD) Network’s members in Ukraine and Poland, many of whom were on the cusp of designing or implementing C4P programmes as part of the Ukraine response and were seeking learning and experience from each other.
Empowering Communities: Multi-purpose cash assistance to wildfire-affected households in Maui
Case Study
On August 8, 2023, catastrophic wildfires in Maui County, Hawaii spread rapidly due to intense winds brought on by Hurricane Dora, devastating the town of Lahaina and causing widespread displacement across communities. It ranks as one of the 10 deadliest wildfires in US history since 1871 and the largest...
Understanding how Cash and Voucher Assistance Programs for Nutrition are Implemented: A review of programmatic case examples from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Somalia, and Colombia
Report
The purpose of this review was to identify and document case examples of programs in different countries and contexts that use cash, vouchers, or in-kind food assistance with nutrition activities to understand why and how these programs are implemented, and identify innovations that may inform and support...
Will our Opinion Matter? Community consultations on the design of multi-purpose cash programmes in Lebanon
Report
Since late 2019, Lebanon has been grappling with a severe economic and financial crisis. The Lebanese lira has lost more than 98 percent of its value, and over half of the Lebanese population is estimated to be living in poverty. The Government of Lebanon and development and humanitarian agencies have...
Rapid Reflection on the Optimal Use of CVA for the Ukraine Response by DEC Member Charities and their Partners
Report
Since February 2022, Ukraine and the neighbouring countries are facing a humanitarian crisis of unparalleled scale, ranking among the fastest-growing crises observed in the past decade and the largest in Europe since the end of World War II. In the first two months of conflict, more than 30 percent of...
The Influence of Cash Assistance on Disaster Response and the Humanitarian System
Report
The research presented in this thesis is based on four studies that cover various aspects of the
transformative effect of CVA on humanitarian organizations and the humanitarian system. Study 1 shows the changes that the humanitarian organizations have experienced due to the shift to CVA. New skillsets...
Joint Market Assessment Round 2
Report
This report assesses the feasibility of implementing Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA), specifically Multipurpose Cash Assistance (MPCA), to support individuals impacted by the February 6 earthquakes. The evaluation focuses on the acceptance of various forms of cash modalities, availability of key items,...
Cash and Voucher Assistance at Scale: Addressing food insecurity by supporting families in the Netherlands
Case Study
With an increasing number of families experiencing financial trouble in the Netherlands, in September 2022, the Dutch parliament voted to allocate €100 million for free school meals in vulnerable neighbourhoods across the country. After the proposal was approved, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture...
Piloting Mobile Money Cash Assistance in Sudan
Case Study
In the 7 months since the onset of conflict in Sudan in April 2023, an estimated 6.1 million people have been displaced, making Sudan the country with the highest number of displaced individuals globally. Humanitarian organizations are considering cash assistance as a response to the crisis, employing...
Feasibility study on CVA in Tigray Region, Ethiopia_October 2023
Report
The two years of conflict in Tigray has fueled a large-scale humanitarian crisis and resulted in loss of livelihoods and widespread food insecurity of the population especially Internally Displaced Populations and agrarian communities in the region.
The crisis affected the livelihoods of the...
WVI Cash Roadmap 2.0 – New Avenues – Leveraging, multiplying “Nexus” cash to take children and their families further than imagined
Policy paper
WVI's strategic global Cash Roadmap 2.0 (2024-2027) speaks to the organisations' commitment that amidst polycrises and resourcing constraints, there is urgency to maximise and multiply World Vision's capabilities, assets and cash voucher programming (CVP=CVA) is a powerful tool to do so.
Increasing...
Recommendations on Cash for Protection for General Protection Actors
Report
The aim of this document is to offer recommendations on the use of Cash for Protection interventions in Ukraine, including to create a common understanding among humanitarian partners, and to harmonize practices. This includes: ● Defining Cash for Protection & its objectives ● Scenarios for possible...
Empowering Communities, Piloting Multi-purpose Cash Distribution in Khartoum
Case Study
On April 15th, 2023, conflict erupted in Sudan resulting in wide-scale displacement and more than 25 million people in critical need of assistance. In Khartoum, rife with conflict and where international assistance is minimal for myriad reasons, many people remain sheltering in place, or moving from...
Adjusting CVA Transfer Values for Inflation: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Food Security Cluster Coordinators
Guidelines and Tools
Over the past 3 years, the global community has experienced a series of unanticipated, challenging, and interrelated shocks: COVID-19, conflict, climate change, and rising costs. A significant number of countries experienced substantial levels of local currency depreciation coupled with high inflation,...
Working with Financial Service Providers to Provide Emergency Cash Assistance
Guidelines and Tools
This report, prepared and published as part of VenEsperanza’s research and learning agenda, presents lessons learned and best practices related to the collaboration between humanitarian actors and financial service providers (FSPs) in delivering multi-purpose cash assistance in emergency contexts. Using...
Making the Most of Cash at Scale: Policy paper
Policy paper
This Policy Brief draws out key messages from Mercy Corps’ Cash at Scale study and makes recommendations for the better use of cash at scale. This explores the potential of cash at scale to meet increasing humanitarian needs and deliver people-centric response.
For Mercy Corps, cash at scale to date...
Exploring GBV Risk Mitigation in Iraq and Colombia
Case Study
In 2022, UNFPA and the Global Women’s Institute (GWI) at George Washington University undertook operational research in Iraq and Colombia with the goal of developing proxy indicators for mitigating GBV risk to women who receive cash assistance. Proxy indicators for detecting GBV risks to women in cash...
UNFPA Indicators for GBV Risk Mitigation in Cash Assistance with Supporting Guidance
Guidelines and Tools
This guide offers proxy indicators for assessing GBV risks to women in cash interventions. Cash actors can adapt these proxy indicators, which were developed based on operational research that focused on multipurpose cash assistance programmes, according to their context and the structure of their cash...