As countries implement social assistance (or safety net) programs, a range of technicalhurdles can affect their implementation differently in rural and urban areas. In urban areas,the focus of this study, cost of living can be higher and more prone to economic slowdowns.Poverty can be more...

As countries implement social safety nets programs, a range of technical hurdles affects their implementation differently in rural and urban areas. In urban areas, the focus of this study, living in is expensive and more vulnerable at economy slowdowns. Poverty can be more severe than in rural...

As countries implement social assistance (or safety net) programs, a range of technicalhurdles can affect their implementation differently in rural and urban areas. In urban areas,the focus of this study, cost of living can be higher and more prone to economic slowdowns.Poverty can be more...

Governments in low and middle-income countries are increasingly investing in social protection, and also address many of their own people's 'humanitarian' needs themselves. For their international partners, who may have an important role in filling gaps when household needs exceed national...

Poverty and crises are rapidly "urbanizing". Yet experience with operationalizing cash transfers in urban areas is limited. This paper captures early lessons from a new generation of urban cash transfer responses to Covid-19 in eleven African countries. The analysis contextualizes such...

Over 60 million people are currently displaced due to conflict or violence, and about 140 million are exposed to natural disasters. As part of humanitarian responses to those affected populations, growing attention is paid to cash transfers as a form of assistance. Cash is being strongly...

The longstanding "cash versus food" debate has received renewed attention in both research and practice. This paper reviews key issues shaping the debate and presents new evidence from randomized and quasi-experimental evaluations that deliberately compare cash and in-kind food transfers in ten...

The debate over whether to provide food assistance and the form that this assistance should take has a long history in economics. Despite the ongoing debate, little rigorous evidence exists that compares food assistance in the form of cash versus in-kind. This paper uses a randomized evaluation...