Doing Cash Differently: How Cash Transfers Can Transform Humanitarian Aid

What is the best way to help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable?

The current humanitarian aid system - based around the delivery of physical supplies to those in need - is in dire need of change to reflect a simple reality: more people are in need and for longer. Evidence points to how aid given as cash can be more efficient, more transparent and better for recipients than traditional aid-in-kind. But cash and vouchers remain just 6% of all humanitarian aid.

This event takes as its starting point the new CGD and ODI report by the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Cash Transfers ‘Doing Cash Differently: How Cash Transfers Can Transform Humanitarian Aid’. It will ask provocative questions: why is it taking so long to move towards a more cash-based system? What are the innovations needed in scaling up cash on the ground? What role can private sector companies play? How will cash impact aid agencies?