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...
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...
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...
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...
Thematic lead
Latest
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...
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)...
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...