Cash That Empowers: How UNFPA’s Cash and Voucher Assistance Transforms Lives in Asia Pacific

Across Asia and the Pacific, women and girls are facing growing crises— from intensifying climate disasters to armed conflict—severely limiting their access to essential health and protection services. Those most at risk, including adolescent girls, transgender individuals, and persons with disabilities, often have nowhere to turn.

UNFPA is committed to achieving three Transformative Results by 2030—zero unmet need for contraception, zero preventable maternal deaths, and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices. Cash and voucher assistance (CVA), integrated into Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) programming, plays a vital role in achieving these commitments, giving women and girls the means to access life-saving services when they need them most.

Through anticipatory action, emergency response, and nexus programming, UNFPA’s CVA ensures that women, girls, and others at greatest risk, including individuals with diverse SOGIESC, persons who sell or exchange sex, older persons, and persons with disabilities, can access menstrual health products, contraception, HIV treatment, and other essential SRH and GBV services without resorting to harmful coping mechanisms. CVA shifts power to recipients, enabling them to make their own decisions regarding their health and well-being.

UNFPA’s CVA is always part of a larger, comprehensive response, complementing GBV case management, medical staff support and health systems strengthening. It fills critical gaps in humanitarian assistance that multi-purpose cash or assistance from other actors do not cover, ensuring that women and girls can access essential SRH and GBV services. Unlike cash or ‘cash plus’ models where cash remains the primary focus, UNFPA’s CVA is not a standalone intervention- it is fully integrated into SRH and GBV programming, making it a targeted and life- saving tool within a broader support system.

The UNFPA Asia Pacific Cash and Voucher Assistance Brief 2025 presents the figures, some successes and the opportunities to expand.