This study explores the role of the World Food Programme (WFP)’s cash assistance programme to Syrian refugees in Lebanon in influencing social cohesion within Syrian refugee communities and between Syrian refugees and their host communities. It draws on 270 interviews (in-depth and focus group) with Syrian and Lebanese respondents in three locations in the Bekaa Valley, carried out over the course of 2018–2019. Hosting the largest per capita refugee population in the world, Lebanon has been coping with nine years of refugee influxes and prolonged displacements which has invariably impacted the country’s social fabric. This study examines whether and – if so – how, the provision of the WFP MPC to Syrian refugees in Lebanon shapes relations, social cohesion and stability among Syrian refugees as well as between Syrian refugees and their host communities. This study aims to complement ongoing research studies, including impact evaluation studies based on large-scale surveys, and contribute to the growing body of literature exploring cash assistance and its effects on social cohesion and stability.