The British Red Cross is pioneering an innovative new cash project in Niger, which is supporting 4,000 families.
Eighty-four villages in the district
of Tanut, in northeast Niger, are the focus of the project, which is providing
£120 per household.
Eric Benoliel, an economist who led the project for the British Red Cross, explained the thinking behind it.
"It is quite a controversial project. The issue being how do you ensure the money is spent appropriately? It is the first time this has been done by the British Red Cross and certainly the first time in Niger,"he said.
"The argument we made is that food is available in Niger, but people don't have the purchasing power to buy it. By providing cash we are helping to boost the local economy."
Eric argued that relief programmes can be detrimental to the local economy by flooding the market with free food and only providing short-term support. By giving people small amounts of money, he said, they can also buy livestock and seeds to support them into the future.
The British Red Cross worked in close consultation with the Niger government to identify the district of Tanut as a particularly vulnerable area.
"This area was identified as severely affected by the food crisis and had not received much attention from the aid community,"Eric said.
Volunteers from the Niger Red Cross are distributing the cash in two phases.
"We liaised closely with each village head to ensure the cash instalments are received by each household,"Eric said. "The villagers were delighted. They hadn't seen much help up to then and the idea that we were going to distribute money, well, they just couldn't believe it!"
Many families have purchased food, repaid debts and bought cattle. But communities have also pooled some of the money to establish communal grain stores, repair wells and even invest in an ambulance service.