Over the last five years there has been a growing trend towards the use of cash transfer programming (CTP) as a response modality in emergencies across the humanitarian sector. The fungibility of cash, when provided without restrictions, offers increased choice for affected populations to meet cross-sectoral needs according to their priorities. As a result, there is a growing interest in the mainstreaming of cash transfers in response, recovery and rehabilitation, and in the potential of so called multi-purpose cash grants within some international non-government organisations and donors. The effective and appropriate use of CTP requires strong intra and inter-agency coordination and communication between various actors across sectoral divisions, which poses particular challenges as well as opportunities for aid coordination efforts.

The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) and UNHCR commissioned this review in order to document lessons learnt on the effectiveness of cash coordination during the initial three to four months of the response to Typhoon Haiyan, and to provide recommendations on inter-agency and cross-sectoral coordination.