Winter cash assistance, Lebanon

Provision of cash cards to refugees, who use them to purchase materials to protect them from winter. It allows refugees to control how they meet their needs and helps restore dignity for refugees.

Starting in November 2013, a cash program in Lebanon provided 150 US dollars per month to refugees from Syria and some vulnerable Lebanese, to help them stay warm, dry and healthy during the winter. UNHCR was the main operator of the cash assistance program, and adapted an intervention that had been successful in Jordan. Several other organizations including IOM, Oxfam, Save the Children and Mercy Corps were also involved. Cash assistance was provided to two categories of beneficiaries: those living 500m above sea-level and those whose shelter was deemed ‘inadequate’ regardless of altitude.
Each beneficiary family was provided with an ATM card, topped up every month with between 100 and 200 US dollars, which they could use to withdraw cash from local banks. WFP also provided families with 30 US dollars’ worth of food vouchers. An evaluation of the program that compared beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries found that the cash assistance increased access to schools, reduced child labour, increased mutual support between beneficiaries and other community members, and decreased tensions in beneficiary households. The evaluation also found that 80 per cent of beneficiaries preferred cash assistance to in-kind assistance, citing the increased level of choice as the reason.

Similar cash assistance programmes have been used in several refugee camps, including by the IFRC and UNHCR in Ethiopia, Iraq and other locations. However, the implementation of similar programmes has been challenging in some countries due to government concerns.