Strategic roadmap 2025-2027: A hybrid approach to risk-informed and people-centred cash programming in Asia and the Pacific Region

Summary

The Asia-Pacific region is the most disaster-prone globally, accounting for 74 per cent of disasterrelated displacements from 2014 to 2023—an average of 19 million people displaced annually due to climate-related events. The Philippines ranks No. 1 in global disaster risk, with Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Nepal also in the top 10. This reality highlights the critical importance of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) as both life-saving aid and a driver of resilience, empowering communities to make decisions, strengthen preparedness, and lead recovery.

The RCWG Strategic Roadmap (2025–2027) positions CVA as a core tool within disaster risk management and social protection systems. It promotes localized, community-driven approaches that link humanitarian assistance to government mechanisms, reinforcing local capacities and reducing long-term risk.

The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has significantly increased its CVA support—from US$97.6 million in 2023 (15 per cent of its funding) to $104.7 million in 2024 (18 per cent). This reached 4.2 million people across 41 countries, with 78 per cent delivered as cash (multi-purpose, sector-specific, conditional) and 22 per cent as vouchers.

This shift reflects a growing recognition of CVA as flexible, dignified, and effective. It also supports anticipatory action in disaster-prone settings. However, data gaps, market constraints, and financial service limitations still hinder scale-up and effectiveness.

The RCWG Strategic Roadmap embodies the vision of the Humanitarian Reset by redefining the role of all actors — governments, UN agencies, Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, NGOs, INGOs, and donors — not as implementers, but as facilitators of community-led action. It is grounded in the lived realities of communities who are first to face crises and first to respond. Recognizing that those closest to risk are also closest to the solutions, the roadmap calls for a decisive shift: passing the hat to the community as the primary implementers, with systems designed to support and enable local leadership.

By 2027, the Asia and the Pacific region will have inclusive, crisis-ready, and responsive cash coordination systems that are nationally led, locally implemented and regionally supported. Communities are not just recipients but active partners in the design, delivery, and accountability of these systems, contributing to a more prepared, empowered, and resilient society. Together, coordinated systems enable timely, effective, and dignified responses to crises. At its core, the Roadmap’s Locally Led Action Strategy rests on two foundational principles: people-centredness and risk-informed programming. This means shifting decision-making power and resource ownership to local actors — particularly community members, grassroots organizations, and informal networks — who are best placed to lead preparedness and recovery efforts. Through integrated approaches that include anticipatory action, digital financial inclusion, and evidencebased planning, communities can shape what effective response and recovery look like on their own terms. This aims that cash programming is not just a tool — it becomes a platform for community self-determination. Communities evolve from being recipients of aid to co-designers, direct implementers, and stewards of accountability in crisis response.

In line with the Humanitarian Reset, all other actors — including local and national authorities, civil society, NGOs, INGOs, donors, and UN agencies, Red Cross and Red Cross movement — are champions as facilitators for the community to implement. Their collective responsibility is to enable, resource, and champion the leadership of the community by removing systemic barriers, providing flexible and timely support, and fostering an environment where communities can chart their own course. True resilience takes root when those closest to the risk hold the compass—leading the way on their own terms—while others walk beside them— not ahead of them.