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
The Early Lessons of Cash Coordination in Poland
Report
This report provides learning and initial outcomes of multi-purpose cash coordination in the Polish operational context since the establishment of the Cash Technical Working Group. Amongst those, it documents how the coordination structure has evolved to address the unique demands of the refugee response...
Community Participation in the Design of Multi-purpose Cash Programs – Perspectives from the field
Report
The design of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) programs, especially when implemented at scale, is often driven by technical considerations. The conversations often focus on the survival minimum expenditure basket, financial service provider’s fees and targeting algorithm. Important decisions regarding...
Advocating for Cash and Voucher Assistance with Governments
Webinar recording
‘Advocating for Cash and Voucher Assistance with Governments’.
We were delighted to be joined by a distinguished expert panel of Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement senior leaders:
- Alper Kucuk, Director General for International Affairs and Migration Services, Türk Kızılay;
- Caroline...
Harnessing the Transformative Potential of Generative AI for Humanitarian Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance Opportunities, Risks, Barriers, and Recommendations
Report
This report, authored by Market Impact lead consultant Thomas Byrnes, explores
the transformative potential of Generative AI for Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance
(MPCA) programs in humanitarian contexts. The report is divided into four main
chapters.
- The Potential Opportunities of AI tools and...
Enhancing Resilience and Restoring Agricultural Productive Capacity and Food Security through Social Protection in Indonesia – Emergency assistance for post-earthquake and tsunami recovery through cash assistance in Central Sulawesi
Case Study
In 2018, a series of earthquakes struck Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi Province, which is a major agricultural production centre in the country. The earthquakes triggered a tsunami and caused landslides with considerable damage and loss of life. Damages to the agricultural sector accounted alone for 40...
Cash Voucher Assistance, Social Protection and Cash Plus Programmes
Presentation
In this session, we examine the linkages between CVA and social protection and Cash Plus programmes. We closely follow a Case Study by Mercy Corps that looks into impact programs that combine cash interventions with vocational trainings on violence reduction.
In summary, we explore:
Linkages to...
Literature Review: Unconditional CVA ‘plus’ SBC for nutrition outcomes
Report
Over the years, CVA has gained attention in social protection schemes to improve child nutrition outcomes. While much of the existing evidence comes from conditional cash transfers, recent evidence demonstrates a push for more unconditional CVA. Evidence shows that nutrition-sensitive cash assistance can...
A Learning Review of Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance in Afghanistan
Report
In 2022, Islamic Relief Worldwide implemented a multi-million emergency humanitarian project in Afghanistan supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded Area-based Approach for Development Emergency Initiative (ABADEI) programme.
The 13-month-long project had three main...
Integrating Livelihoods Support into Emergency Assistance Programming
Guidelines and Tools
This report draws on research and learning to advocate for broader consideration of expanded humanitarian response programming, especially in situations of prolonged crises. Livelihoods programs have a crucial role to play in emergency settings, especially when combined with and aligned with cash...
Colombia and Lebanon Evaluation Report: Measuring the impact of cash on child protection outcomes
Report
As humanitarian crises break down traditional protection mechanisms and the loss of income restricts access to basic resources, children become increasingly vulnerable to abuse, neglect, exploitation, and violence. Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) is a critical modality that is increasingly being adopted...
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...
Year-End Post-Distribution Monitoring Report: UNHCR’s multi-purpose cash assistance to refugees in Egypt – 2023
Report
UNHCR uses cash-based interventions to provide protection, assistance, and services to the most vulnerable. From January to December 2023, UNHCR Egypt provided regular multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA) to 20,944 refugee and asylum seeker households from all nationalities, including new arrivals from...
Post-Distribution Monitoring of MCPA to Sudanese New Arrivals – Egypt 2023: A two-time UNICEF-funded cash assistance programme implemented by UNHCR
Report
UNHCR provided a multipurpose cash assistance funded by UNICEF to the most vulnerable new arrivals from Sudan, who were on UNHCR waiting list, to support them in covering their immediate needs, and mitigate potential protection risks, and also to reduce their resorting to negative coping strategies. The...
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.
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...
Cash Coordination in Poland: Early lessons learnt from the humanitarian response for Ukrainian war refugees
Case Study
This thesis was submitted for obtaining the Master’s Degree in International Humanitarian Action. By submitting the thesis, the author certifies that the text is from his hand, does not include the work of someone else unless clearly indicated, and that the thesis has been produced in accordance with...
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...