Prospects and bottlenecks of reciprocal partnerships between the private and humanitarian sectors in cash transfer programming for humanitarian response

As an alternative to commodity-based programming (in-kind aid), Cash Transfer Programming is attracting both humanitarian organizations’ and institutional donors’ attention. Unlike in-kind aid, Cash Transfer Programming transfers purchasing power directly to beneficiaries in the form of currency or vouchers for them to obtain goods and/or services directly from the local market. In distributing currency to beneficiaries, the private sector, especially financial service providers, plays a prominent role, due to the humanitarian sector’s limited relevant resources. The present work unveils challenges for the private and humanitarian sectors, which hinder implementing Cash Transfer Programming. Based on primary and secondary qualitative data, the paper presents the main characteristics and the mechanisms of Cash Transfer Programming to explore how the private sector is involved with Cash Transfer Programming. Then, this study presents bottlenecks of reciprocal relationships between financial service providers and humanitarian organizations in Cash Transfer Programming.