Post-Distribution Monitoring of Cash-Based Intervention, May 2021, Quarter 3, 2023 [China]

UNHCR uses Post-Distribution Monitoring (PDM) as a mechanism to collect refugees' feedback on the quality, sufficiency, utilization and effectiveness of the assistance items they receive. The underlying principle behind the process is linked to accountability, as well as a commitment to improve the quality and relevance of support provided. UNHCR increasingly uses Cash-Based Interventions (CBIs) as a preferred modality for delivering assistance, offering greater dignity and choice to forcibly displaced and stateless persons in line with UNHCR's core protection mandate. In order to ensure that the cash assistance provided meets the intended programme objectives and that desired outcomes are achieved, UNHCR conducts regular post-distribution and outcome monitoring with a sample or all of refugee recipients.

UNHCR supported 109 refugee households in 11 provinces in China with cash assistance in Quarter 2, 2021. The CBI PDM was conducted between June and July 2021 to assess outcomes of the assistance. More than half the households receiving cash assistance are individuals without family. UNHCR's cash assistance is beneficial to its recipients as respondents point to improved living conditions (90%), relieved financial burdens (90%/75) and reduction in feeling of stress (96%). In terms of coping strategies, almost 68% of all beneficiaries had to take out a new loan or borrowed money over the last three months.  PDM was conducted with 64 respondent covering people who received CBI in China in 2023.

The household survey covers the following sections:
1. Household demographics
2. Receiving and spending the cash assistance (basic facts)
3. Risks and problems: Did people face problems with the CBI? Did the CBI put POCs at additional risk?
4. Markets and prices: Can POCs find what they need, and at a price they can afford, in the markets?
5. Expenditure: What did people spend the money on?
6. Outcomes: What changes is the cash assistance contributing to in POC households?
7. Longer-Term Outcomes: Has the cash assistance helped put POC on the pathway to sustainable solutions?
8. Accountability to Affected Persons: Is the CBI intervention accountable to persons of concern? (What preferences do people have over how assistance is delivered?)