To share learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Grand Bargain Cash Workstream Sub-Group on Linking Humanitarian Cash (HC) and Social Protection (SP) has drawn up a series of case studies that offer practical examples of how actors in a range of different contexts have aligned or linked elements of existing and/or nascent humanitarian and social protection approaches in cash-based responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Annex to the case studies

Refugees have been supported by innumerable cash or voucher interventions implemented by international humanitarian and development actors during the Covid-19 pandemic, but only a few of these have explicitly aligned or integrated with government social protection responses. Refugees residing in low- and middle-income countries have mostly been excluded from government social protection responses, and where they have been included (largely in Latin America and the Caribbean) this typically represents a continuation of pre-pandemic policy.

This paper reviews the evidence on:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ecuador has developed a livelihoods, methodology with refugees and asylum seekers, who have been forced to escape from armed conflict and persecution. The methodology emphasises the importance that these households reach dignified and sustainable livelihoods that allows them to build a home in their

In settings where employment opportunities are scarce, the inability to work may generate psychosocial harm. This paper presents a causal estimate of the psychosocial value of employment in the Rohingya refugee camps of Bangladesh. We engage 745 individuals in a field experiment with three arms: (1) a control arm, (2) a weekly cash arm, and (3) a gainful employment arm, in which work is offered and individuals are paid weekly the approximate equivalent of that in the cash arm.

The Wadajir project – Enhancing Durable Solutions for, and Reintegration of, Displacement Affected Communities – was carried out in two districts of Somaliland, Hargeisa and Burao. The three-year project, funded by the EU within its RE-INTEG programme, was implemented by the Somaliland Durable Solutions Consortium, comprising World Vision, the Danish Refugee Council, Norwegian Refugee Council, Concern Worldwide, Taakulo Somaliland Community and Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat. The four result areas of the project were concerned with improving the ability of the targeted

Recognizing the limitations of humanitarian funding, donors and international agencies have increased their investments in programs that focus on the skills, experience, and economic values of refugees. The recent emphasis by UNHCR in particular on self-reliance and livelihood programming reflects recognition by the agency of the importance of local integration in sustainable responses to displacement.

This article discusses the reasons for the low labour force participation among Syrian refugees in Jordan; 77 percent of Syrian refugees are out of the labor force. Working illegally and informally remains common among Syrian refugees in Jordan, despite the work permit program. Refugees may choose not to obtain work permits due to a perceived higher risk of exploitation, fear of losing other aid or costs such as social security.

World Bank blog on how best to help displaced populations integrate into the labor market in the ir host communities. Some of the solutions should involve digital means.

How do we know whether a refugee household is self-reliant if this is not measured? Although self-reliance has been promoted as a critical assistance strategy for refugees in recent years, there have been limited attempts to rigorously measure the concept. This field report introduces a new measurement tool to assess the movement toward self-reliance among refugee households. The development and utility of a tool to measure self-reliance are described using the pilot studies conducted in Ecuador, Egypt and Lebanon over a 9- to 18-month period.

As part of the Colombian government’s strategy to support the armed-conflict victims, a
Graduation Program called “Transformando Mi Futuro” (Transforming my future) was
implemented. Unlike other graduation programs, this one targets the urban population and has
no assets transfers. To evaluate this program, a Results Evaluation (Before/After) approach was
performed using the information collected before and after implementing the program. The
main results show positive changes in well-being and a reduction in the gap between the actual

How can humanitarian and development donors and implementers
collaborate across historically divided aid bureaucracies with siloed tools, funding cycles, decision-making
processes and incentive structures? In response to this global call for durable solutions, a few organisations
are working on practical approaches in protracted crises and refugee contexts. The following thought piece highlights Mercy Corps’ learning from one such systemic approach — market systems
development (MSD) — which focuses on the widespread impact local businesses and market institutions have on

Assistance to refugees is shifting from a humanitarian model, which focuses on protection, emergency relief, and shelter, to a development model promoting refugee self-reliance through income-generating activities, market development, and cash transfers. Evidence on the effects of this paradigm shift is limited. Exploiting a regression discontinuity design, this paper tests whether the adoption of a development approach to refugee assistance in a new settlement in Kenya has a positive impact.

Understanding poverty and how to measure and eradicate it has evolved over the last 20 years to incorporate a multidimensional focus. The experience of Women for Women International (WfWI), a US- based non-profit organisation that works with women survivors of war in eight countries, shows that while economic inputs are crucial for moving above the US$1.25/day poverty line, a more holistic approach is needed for ultra-poor women in conflict-affected situations to achieve this goal.

Spending and investment by South Sudanese refugees displaced to the West Nile region of Uganda is
beginning to drive growth. Increases in the number of businesses and overall revenue in local refugee
settlements demonstrate the growing contribution of these individuals to emerging local markets. At the
same time, an influx of humanitarian actors are providing in-kind food assistance and direct delivery of
livelihood support, strategies which undercuts the development of key markets needed to support refugee

In July 2017 the Department for International Development (DFID) contracted Mercy Corps, the Palladium Group and DanChurchAid (DCA) to deliver a 12-month pilot programme, Demonstrating a Market System Approach in Bidibidi and Palorinya Settlements (referred to as “the pilot” in the remainder of this document) in the West Nile region of Northern Uganda with the goal of increasing refugee and host community farmers’ incomes (economic welfare) through growth of the agribusiness sector.

The paper examines the impact of internal displacement in Colombia between 1998 and 2005 on wages in destination municipalities. The analysis suggests that influxes of IDPs lead to a short-run negative impact on wages, i.e. a one percent increase in population due to internal displacement leads to an overall reduction in wages of 1.4 percent in the short-run. The author examines the wage effects by skill level and by gender, and finds that the decrease in wages is more pronounced for women, i.e.

World Bank policy research talk on the relationship between unemployment and underemployment on fragility, and whether employment generation programs are appropriate in fragile contexts.

Women for Women International (WfWI) works with the most
marginalized women in conflict-affected countries to help them move
from poverty and isolation to self-sufficiency and empowerment.
WfWI has been implementing its Signature Program (Figure 1), an
economic and social empowerment program, in North and South
Kivu provinces in DRC since 2004. WfWI worked with researchers at the University of Washington
and University of Texas at Austin and the data collection firms
Marakuja Kivu Research and the Innovative Hub for Research in

Women for Women International has been implementing its intensive 12-month economic and social empowerment program in Afghanistan since 2002. As part of the DFID-funded What Works to Prevent Violence Programme, the South African Medical Research Council undertook an individually randomized control trial (RCT) in six communities in Kabul and Nangarhar Provinces in Afghanistan from 2016 to 2018. The two-year long RCT investigated how our program affected women’s income and savings, household wellbeing, gender equitable attitudes, and experiences of intimate partner violence.