Skip to main content

UNHCR Regional Cash Assistance Monitoring Update - Syria and Iraq Situations, January - December 2019 [EN/AR]

Countries
Syria
+ 5 more
Sources
UNHCR
Publication date

Key Highlights

  • >2 million persons of concern assessed for multi-purpose cash assistance in 2019

  • 827,370 individuals reached with multi-purpose cash assistance in 2019

  • USD 222 million distributed via cash assistance in 2019: USD 184 million to Syrians and USD 38 million to Iraqis and other nationalities

Needs

Protection needs

Throughout 2019, UNHCR placed an emphasis on monitoring and documenting the correlations between socio economic vulnerability and protection risks and threats.

A dedicated qualitative research was performed in the third and fourth quarters, during which the UNHCR MENA Protection Service assessed the protection impacts of cash-based interventions, with emphasis on child marriage, child labour, sexual exploitation and domestic violence in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

“Impact of cash assistance on child protection in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon” – main findings

  • Cash assistance complemented with case management and other protection services, provided in a sustained manner, results in a greater positive impact on the welfare of children than cash assistance alone.

  • Cash assistance has an indirect impact on mitigating structural drivers of protection issues, with specific emphasis on children, when part of a multi-faceted response for improved access to services, such as legal, education, health and psycho-social support.

  • Multi-purpose cash assistance led to mitigation of violence against children and reduced the need for children to engage in child labour.

  • Cash assistance resulted in an increase in spending on food leading to better dietary diversity, inclusive for children.

  • The duration of the cash intervention was found to have favorable protection impact, with longer-term grants correlating with a decreased number of protection incidents.