Key Highlights
> 2 million people assessed for multi-purpose cash assistance in 2018
207,064 inquiries related to cash assistance in December 2018
~ 1 million individuals reached with multi-purpose cash assistance in 2018
USD 232 million distributed via multi-purpose cash assistance in 2018
Regional Indicators
Needs: The vulnerability of Syrian and Iraqi refugees and IDP populations as a result of the long displacement has gradually worsened over time. From the initial point of refugee registration to ongoing needs assessments, UNHCR leverages protection data and leads jointvulnerability assessments to ensure needs are identified and a comprehensive response plan is put in place to address multi-dimensional individual and community vulnerabilities. In 2018 assessments were conducted across Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. They showed that for example in Jordan an estimated 68 per cent of Syrian refugees live below the poverty line; in Lebanon, this figure is 69 per cent with over half of households living below the Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket of USD 2.90 per person per day and nearly 9 out of 10 Syrian refugees in Lebanon in debt. Despite some improvements, one third of Syrian refugee households remain moderately to severely food-insecure. In Egypt 2 74 per cent of the total sampled households were identified as having difficulties meeting their basic needs. In Iraq, UNHCR/WFP conducted Joint Monitoring and Targeting Exercise (JMTE) in the nine Syrian refugee camps in KR-I, linked to the Refugee Assistance Information System (RAIS) which allowed cases/individuals identified as having specific protection needs to be referred to relevant services.
Protection: Protection risks are exacerbated by socio-economic vulnerability, notably in relation to child marriage, child labour, sexual exploitation, and domestic violence, and particularly so in protracted situations of displacement. UNHCR offers a fully integrated and protection-centred system, ranging from registration, vulnerability assessment, targeting, cash delivery, to monitoring and evaluation, as well as the possibility of leveraging biometric data for identity control and fraud prevention. The fact that both the assessment and post-distribution monitoring stages allow UNHCR the ability to immediate make referrals to other specialized protection services (as well as cash itself), means that UNHCR’s position as a leading agency for cash based interventions (CBI) is integral to the fulfilment of its mandate.
Partnerships: Eight years into the Syrian crisis, impoverishment among Syrian refugees remains high (between 50-70 per cent), along with related protection risks. UNHCR continues to seek synergies and innovative solutions in CBI with international financial institutions, the private sector, and humanitarian and development partners (including the World Bank). Our pioneering work in the LOUISE (Lebanon) and Common Cash Facility (CCF) (Jordan) delivery models are groundbreaking and are the foundation of the December 2018 joint declaration by heads of Agencies (UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF and OCHA) on collaborative cash systems – a prime example of the Global Compact on Refugees in action.