Overview
The Government of Slovakia’s Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, and Family (MoLSAF) provides social aid in the form of cash transfers to vulnerable Slovak households via their Material Needs program. The Government began to welcome refugees from Ukraine into this program as well, effective from February 2022.
To mitigate costs and help manage the scale of enrolment, MoLSAF requested international support through the inter-agency Cash Working Group with transitional cash aid. UNHCR targeted a total of 34.500 refugees (representing 60% of the 57.500 registered individuals) in the initial emergency phase.
Until September 2022, almost 52,327 individuals (26,806 families) were enrolled to receive cash assistance. To facilitate the process, UNHCR established five cash enrolment centres in Bratislava, Nitra,
Zilina, Kosice and Michalovce. UNHCR effectively assisted with cash payments up to 34,000 individuals during the four-month period from June to September 2022, and in addition provided a one-time supplementary cash payment (top-up) as winterization support to 34,064 individuals, bringing the total amount of UNHCR's cash assistance to USD 9 million, as of December 2022.
In 2023, UNHCR continues to further complement the government-led efforts and address needs in social protection systems in Slovakia through targeted Cash for Protection assistance for vulnerable individuals that, due to their protection profile, require additional support to meet their basic needs. In addition, the Cash for Protection programme is being implemented as a protection intervention to respond to specific protection situations or profiles, help reduce refugees' reliance on negative coping mechanisms and achieve further protection outcomes.