Start Fund: Learning from Cash Programming

Cash-based transfers are among the most-well researched of humanitarian interventions, and are estimated to represent 6-7% of humanitarian spending. At the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, donors committed to increase the use and coordination of cash-based programming. The Grand Bargain on cash included commitments to develop markers that will measure the outcomes of cash-based programming, to build evidence on costs, benefits and risks, and to collaborate and share information. Start Fund project reports provide a valuable source of data on how cash is used in emergencies, across multiple organisations, partnerships and contexts. This document provides a synthesis of experiences and lessons learnt during implementation of 63 projects that included cash-based programming across 87 responses (that encompassed 222 total projects) within the range of Alert 001 in early 2014 and Alert 132 in late 2016. The projects were implemented by 19 agencies across 25 countries in Africa, Asia and Central and South America. 

This review is one in a series of learning products developed by the Start Fund Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning team with the intention of providing actionable recommendations to improve decision making at the project, crisis and system level.