Post-Distribution Monitoring of Cash-Based Intervention (2020, 2022) [Pakistan]

UNCHR Pakistan has always been at the front line of dealing with the Afghan refugee crisis. In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic and its far lasting financial impacts, UNHCR Pakistan has rolled out an Emergency Cash Assistance Program to help refugees meet their basic needs and to mitigate harsh socio-economic impacts in the time of crises and countrywide lockdowns. UNHCR implemented a one-off emergency cash assistance to vulnerable refugee and asylum seeker families to help meet their basic needs including food, rent, and access to essential supplies and services. This large-scale cash distribution required an independent third-party post distribution monitoring (PDM) to confirm whether the beneficiaries have received their entitled cash payment and also to clarify the mode of utilization of cash, whether it has been shared, spent, or saved.

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, and related services. 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.

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?)