No excuses: filling the evidence gap on social assistance in humanitarian settings

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The use of social protection tools and mechanisms in fragile and conflict-affected contexts has been growing in scale and relevance. Despite the existence of extensive analysis indicating the positive impacts of social protection on human well-being, major knowledge gaps remain when considering the extent of these effects in humanitarian settings. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where large-scale conflicts have left millions of families and children in need of humanitarian assistance, the demand for evidence-oriented policy and programming is even higher.

Considering the relevance and immediacy of these challenges and recognizing the recent efforts from international development partners to fill in this evidence gap, the IPC-IG and UNICEF MENARO invited three experts to present significant findings in a webinar: first, findings from a rigorous impact evaluation of Lebanon's Min Ila programme (a child-focused refugee safety net), presented by Sarah Hague (UNICEF Lebanon). Following that, the results of a field experiment in Yemen were presented by Benjamin Schwab (Kansas State University), which contrasted the effects of different transfer modalities (especially cash grants and food baskets) being implemented in the country. Finally, James Omolo (FAO) contributed to the debate by presenting results of the on-going impact evaluation from Mali’s emergency Cash plus, followed by a Q&A session at the end.   

Speakers: 

Sarah Hague, Chief of Social Policy, UNICEF Lebanon 

Benjamin Schwab, Development Economist, Kansas State University

James Omolo, Cash Transfer and Social Protection Expert, FAO Subregional Office for West Africa and Sahel

Moderator:

Raquel Tebaldi, Researcher, IPC-IG

 

This webinar the sixth of the Social Protection in the MENA region webinar series, which was organised by IPC-IG and UNICEF MENA Regional Office. Please join the Online Community Social Protection in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) if you are interested in following the most recent discussions on the topic.