The empowerment currency

World Vision has been using cash and voucher-based programming in emergency and recovery contexts for more than 15 years. The first large-scale use of cash and voucher-based programming took place in the mid-1990s and soon began disrupting the traditional mode of humanitarian in-kind assistance all over the world. It has grown at a rapid rate –40 per cent of global humanitarian aid (US$4.7 billion) was distributed through cash and voucher-based programming in 2018 –and is no longer viewed as an innovation, but a must-have in any humanitarian toolkit.

This publication reviews our objectives around cash programming and gives real-life examples of our work in action.