Cash transfers: providing dignified and effective aid

“Cash transfers are a major paradigm shift in humanitarian aid”

According to Noémie Jouve, technical advisor for SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL, humanitarian aid meets the urgent needs of vulnerable populations and can be distributed in much the same way as it is in European countries.

“Who would want welfare benefits handed out in a sack of rice? The question does not even arise.” Indeed, the humanitarian community and its donors are tending to replace food or hygiene item distributions with cash transfers. This method accounted for 22% of global humanitarian aid in 2023 and is growing steadily.

Preparing items for delivery, storing them, and transporting them to often hard-to-reach villages is a slow and costly logistical challenge. Cash transfers, which can be performed by bank transfer or phone, have the advantage of being traceable and unbeatably fast.

“In Ukraine, we are now able to distribute aid within 12 to 24 hours after a bombing. I have never seen anything like it.”

Aid is delivered when it is most urgently needed.

These payments also have a virtuous effect on the local economy by revitalizing markets that frequently suffer from the aftermath of crises. Whereas merchants are quick to resume their activities after an attack or natural disaster, people who have lost their source of income soon no longer have the resources to buy anything. That is why restoring purchasing power to those who have been deprived of it is a real solution. Even in Sudan, which has been ravaged by a particularly violent conflict for the past two years, famine is more a question of means than of food availability. It is now estimated that, if cash transfers were made whenever possible and appropriate, 50% of global humanitarian aid would take this form¹.

Finally, recipients of cash transfers can exercise their free will and better meet their needs by deciding on their priorities and purchases. This opportunity to take charge of one’s own life is essential to restoring the dignity of those receiving aid and restoring their confidence in their ability to care for themselves and their loved ones. That’s why this principle guides SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL in each of its actions.

Source :
¹ CALP Network