Influence the normative framework
- Advocate with regulators to increase access to financial services
- Protect cash recipients' personal data
- Advocate with regulators to strengthen client protection
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Mitigating risks of abuse in cash assistance
A toolkit by UNHCR and WFP
Cash-based assistance is increasingly used by humanitarian actors to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable. Regular customers can usually choose between several financial service providers. People assisted by humanitarian agencies do not have this freedom of choice and cannot use this as a leverage to improve service provision. Such imbalance of power can lead to abuse of power such as agents charging abusive fees, or treating cash recipients rudely. Click here to explore some of the risks reported during field missions. Additionally, many cash recipients are first-time users of financial services, are sometimes illiterate and possess little digital know-how, making them particularly vulnerable to potential abuse through the cash transaction.
You will find below tools to help you identify and mitigate such risks of abuse of power.
Click here to explore some of the risks reported during field missions.
Promote good behaviour of private sector agents and their performance
- Tips to partner with the private sector and sample contract clauses
- Code of conduct and animation to promote agents' appropriate behavior
- Questions to review the performance of your financial service provider
- Encourage your financial service provider to get international certifications offered by GSMA, Smart Campaign and BTCA
- Monitor the perceptions of people receiving cash transfers in your PDM, with mystery shopping or “Trip Advisor” type of tools to rank agents
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Improve communication and feedback with cash recipients
• Questions to understand how cash recipients want to receive information and provide feedback
• Training sessions and animation to raise cash recipient awareness about their rights, the behaviors to expect from agents and how to make a complaint
• Tips to set up a functional complaints and feedback mechanism, including referrals
• Dealing with sensitive complaints
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Identify risks of abuse of power
- Sample questions to identify risks of abuse of power during participatory assessments
- Protection in cash-based interventions
- User Journey to identify risks at each step of the cash assistance process
- Consider Age, Gender and Diversity in cash-based interventions
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Train cash recipients on digital and financial literacy
• Tips to design digital or financial literacy trainings
• Training on how to use bank cards
• Training on how to use e-vouchers
• Training on how to use mobile phones and mobile money
• Training on budgeting
• Training on savings
• Training on debt management
• Training on formal financial services
• WFP UNCDF five weeks financial literacy toolkit
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