Humanitarian

Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana in August, 16 years after Katrina. The financial and electronic payments infrastructure shut down due to power outages, leaving cash as the only functioning payment instrument.

Those facing disaster quickly revert to that which they know and trust – the cash economy – whenever they can. This is because they find cash helps them become more resilient by enabling them to determine survival strategies for themselves rather than being subject to political and commercial manipulation.

Innocent Tshilombo, who spent 10 years at Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, describes how attaching conditions to cash and voucher assistance can seriously impact its effectiveness.

Recent research led by the Norwegian Refugee Council on how ATMs are used by Syrian refugees in the Lebanon once again demonstrates that ATMs play a crucial role in disaster response.

As the Taliban resume their rule, Afghanistan runs out of cash and hard currency. U.S. dollar and afghani shipments have ceased, its international assets are frozen, and international aid has halted.

As U.S. and European troops departed, foreign currency shipments to Afghanistan stopped. As a result, Afghans face an acute cash shortage in the early weeks of the second Taliban regime.

Irish NGO Goal analyses ‘multi-purpose cash and voucher assistance’ and concludes that cash is more flexible, more resilient, and more cost-effective than other forms of financial support.

Millions of dollars in aid to Lebanon are being lost in currency exchange as inflation soars out of control, but internal UN documents and interviews with officials suggest that fixing the problem faces political and logistical hurdles, and could even spark violence.

Saying there might be a problem with humanitarian cash transfers is like saying that you don’t think Baby Yoda is that cute... The problem is not with cash transfers per se, but with the financial technology we rely on to implement those transfers, and which makes possible and monetises surveillance on a scale never seen before.

Cash Transfers are supporting Madagascar’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens during the Pandemic, but there are unintended consequences.

This webinar was the fifth in a series by CashEssentials exploring key trends shaping the future of cash. This was the first to focus specifically on ‘cash & crises’. Cash industry experts and international aid practitioners debates some of the advantages and disadvantages of digital cash assistance in the context of financial inclusion for societies in crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the 1st truly global crisis. Beyond the loss of life, there are numerous far-reaching consequences such as human seclusion, suffering, economic distress and a sense of helplessness. The Global Cash Community has joined forces to develop an initiative called HUMANIA that aims to support the people in society who have been most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in their efforts to recover and rebuild.