New online guidance on cash and social protection in the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement

The online information hub for humanitarian cash assistance hosted by the British Red Cross has now been expanded to include a section on cash and social protection, including information and operational guidance on the work of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in this field.   

The new content is made available by the Cash Hub and the Movement’s Social Protection Technical Working Group, established in April and jointly chaired by the Climate Centre.

“Access to adequate social protection, especially cash transfers where these are appropriate, is essential at times of crisis,” says the home page of the new section, which went live earlier this month.

“Linking…humanitarian cash responses with national social protection programmes and systems, where feasible and appropriate, can contribute to an efficient and effective response and achieve lasting results.”

The Turkish government and Red Crescent’s Emergency Social Safety Net, funded by European Commission, is the largest humanitarian programme in the history of the EU and the largest programme ever implemented by the IFRC, providing cash assistance to at least 1.7 million refugees.

‘Preferred modality’

The Red Cross has worked with several other successful social protection efforts, including in response to drought in Kenya, and in the British Virgin Islands after Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

The new online guidance includes links to briefs for National Societies advocating with their governments for cash assistance and on social protection for Covid-19.

The site adds that national response efforts to Covid-19 are stepping up the use of cash as the “preferred support modality for social assistance”.

The National Society in Eswatini, for example, has supported its government in setting the level of assistance to vulnerable households affected by Covid-19 based on previous experience in responding to food insecurity.

The working group and the Cash Hub’s helpdesk are providing remote technical support to staff or volunteers of the Movement.

Jamalpur, Bangladesh, June 2020. Bangladesh Red Crescent Society teams provided unconditional cash grants to at least 4,300 people affected by monsoon floods as part of forecast-based action in the country. (Photo: IFRC)