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.
Featured content
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 /...
Thematic lead
Latest
Humanitarian Assistance and Fertility Decisions: At what extent Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) targeting criteria had influenced the fertility rates and fertility calendar of Syrian refugees in Turkey
Report
Turkey, as the country with the highest number of refugees, is currently a home to 3.7 million Syrians who had to flee from their country due to the conflict started in 2011. Since December 2016, refugees from all nationalities in Turkey can apply for the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN), the largest...
Linking MPCA to longer-term solutions in Iraq: Strategic and operational revision workshop
Report
The CWG in Iraq organized a 2-day workshop to discuss strategic and operational components and revise the MPCA approach, in line with the transitional context to durable solutions. This is a report with the summary and key decisions taken during the workshop and it can serve as a case study on linking...
East and Southern Africa Regional Cash Working Group Leads and Co-Leads Workshop Report
Report
Cash Working Group Leads and Co-Leads from different countries in East and Southern Africa came together to exchange learning, share experiences and discuss global and regional trends in cash and voucher assistance. The topics covered which are available in this report were; Minimum Expenditure Baskets...
The Receipt
Report
Save the Children Australia: Pacific Cash Preparedness and Response Program Newsletter
Humanitarian Cash Transfer: A reference guide for practitioners in the Philippines
Guidelines and Tools
This reference guide strives to provide parameters for context-adapted cash transfers. It includes a set of minimum operating standards, discussed with the CWG membership. In particular, the following themes were the subject of detailed discussions and considered as key issues for CVA practitioners in a...
SMEB and MPCA Transfer Value for Iraq 2022
Guidelines and Tools
SMEB and Transfer Value narrative document documenting the revision process and final decision for the MPCA Transfer value 2022 in Iraq
Iraq MPCA Vulnerability Model Review 2021: Technical Report
Guidelines and Tools
A new socio-economic vulnerability assessment tool (SEVAT) used to target vulnerable IDP, returnee, and host community households eligible for multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) in Iraq was developed in 2021. Actors delivering MPCA in Iraq have used a harmonised tool to identify households since 2016...
Financial Literacy Training In Uganda’s Refugee Response – A Learning Brief
Report
The Financial Literacy Training (FLT) Learning Brief draws together experiences and lessons learned from the U-Learn Financial Literacy Training analysis, the FLT discussion paper and a learning event. It provides an overview of FLT practices and experiences in Uganda, and includes recommendations that...
Meeting Needs Index – guidance note
Guidelines and Tools
The Meeting Needs Index, or MNI, is a proxy measure of household welfare, providing a single-figure composite indication of how able a household is to meet multiple basic needs. It was first developed and utilized by Mercy Corps in the Gaza Strip, then at larger scale by the Gaza Protection Consortium, as...
Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) in COVID-19 context: Case studies from Nepal
Case Study
With the first and second surge of COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal, followed by lockdown with mobility restrictions imposed by the government to reduce the spread of the virus, most vulnerable people witnessed impacts on their lives and livelihoods-affecting food security, health and nutrition, and education,...
Digital identity, biometrics and inclusion in humanitarian responses to refugee crises
Report
Digital identity and biometrics have long been divisive topics in the humanitarian sector. On the one hand, they have the potential to be more inclusive and reach people in need at scale due to perceived efficiency gains. A legal identity for everyone as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)...
Market-Based Programming in WASH: Technical Guidance for Practitioners
Webinar recording
This webinar was co-hosted by the Global WASH Cluster, PRO-WASH, Oxfam, the German WASH Network and the CALP Network in September 2021. Over recent years, humanitarian aid organizations have increasingly used market-based programming (MBP) to deliver water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in emergencies....
Disability Inclusive Cash Assistance: Learnings from Practice in Humanitarian Response
Guidelines and Tools
This case study collection describes lessons learned from seven inclusive humanitarian cash transfer projects implemented from 2015 – 2020 in Niger, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, and Indonesia, and five ongoing projects from the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic responses. This good practice...
IOM Cash-Based Interventions Annual Report and Case Studies 2020
Case Study
The IOM Cash-Based Interventions (CBI) Annual Report and Case Studies 2020 features case studies from a large number of missions that implemented CBI in 2020 and highlights the increasing use of cash and voucher assistance in IOM, reaching more than 1.6 million beneficiaries in 56 countries. The case...
The Receipt
Report
Save the Children Australia: Pacific Cash Preparedness and Response Program
Financial Inclusion in Fragility: Wealth, Saving, Borrowing and Lending in Iraq
Report
Access to credit and savings are critical to a household’s resilience to shocks. Socio-economically vulnerable populations in Iraq often bear the brunt of the crises and respond by using accessible financial coping mechanisms. By having access to useful and affordable financial products and services...
Transfers with Impact – Pathway to Link Humanitarian Cash to Social Protection through Social Accountability
Policy paper
In response to the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic, governments have introduced over 1,600 social protection measures in almost all the world’s countries and territories. Cash assistance – a critical intervention in supporting the world’s most vulnerable people – also grew by 240% during...
Cash and Voucher Assistance in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic Lessons Learned from a CARE Multi-Country Program
Report
CARE implemented a multi-country program with the aim of reducing the negative impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations, especially women and girls, using complementary and multimodal approaches, including the provision of cash and voucher assistance (CVA). Given the nature and scale of this program...
The Key to Fairness is Inclusion: Understanding Perceptions of Fairness and Aid Modality Preferences in Northeast Nigeria
Report
The use of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) is increasing in Nigeria: CVA currently makes up around 50% of the food security response, and was received by 1.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in 2020. Following-up on a quantitative survey that we conducted in 2020, this report contains...
CVA for Child Protection Outcomes: Case study from Cambodia
Video
Save the Children Cambodia and seven partner organizations are working to improve households’ ability to care for their children and achieve positive child protection outcomes. With support from USAID Cambodia and European Union in Cambodia, FCF|REACT is providing monthly cash transfers and supporting...