Crises exacerbate existing inequalities and vulnerabilities for marginalised people, including women and girls, children and youth, older people, people with disabilities, ethnic and religious minorities, and sexual and gender minorities. Many of them face multiple and intersecting inequalities, especially people who are forcibly displaced. Social assistance seeks to alleviate crisis impacts by protecting vulnerable people and averting them from deprivation, but the same structures and systems that make some people more exposed (and excluded) generally can exclude them from social assistance in crises and further undermine their situation. There is substantial literature that already discusses the benefits and opportunities of social assistance generally. The added value of this paper is in examining the risks of navigating access to social assistance in crises for these marginalised people, and the positive and negative outcomes of accessing or not accessing this assistance. The existing evidence suggests that social assistance can improve marginalised people’s food security, help households meet their basic needs, reduce stress and household tensions, reduce gender-based violence, improve health, education, and wellbeing, and reduce negative coping mechanisms.

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Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research is a partnership between the Institute of Development Studies, Humanitarian Outcomes and the Centre for International Development Training funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). BASIC Research aims to inform policy and programming on how to help poor and vulnerable people cope better with crises and meet their basic needs. Visit the page to learn more and explore other resources.