As the movement for cash transfer programming advances, how can we ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind in cash transfer programming for emergencies?

Marie Leduc, Ricardo Pla Cordero, Pierre Mercier, Handicap International
Miriam Guastalla, Cash Learning Partnership

It is estimated that 15% of the world’s population has a disability and evidence has shown that those with a disability are likely to be disproportionately affected when a crisis hits. In a 2015 global consultation carried out by Handicap International, 75% of respondents living with a disability, the majority of whom had been directly impacted by a crisis, reported that they did not have “adequate access to basic assistance such as water, shelter, food or health”. Additionally, 92% of the humanitarian actors surveyed estimated that people with disabilities “are not properly taken into account in humanitarian response”.

A Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action was launched in Istanbul at the World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016. The Charter has received endorsement from over 140 governments,organizations and agencies, and demonstrates a broad commitment to advance effective inclusion of persons with disabilities across the humanitarian system. The Charter includes a commitment to promote inclusive response and services in humanitarian contexts.

It is important, then, to ask how and where cash transfer programming fits into this picture. This article comprises a light review of the relevant literature, aiming principally to bring attention to this question:

As the movement for cash transfer programming advances, how can we ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind in cash transfer programming for emergencies?