Analysing Markets: Learning from cash responses to the tsunami

This report by the ODI tsunami cash learning project follows earlier ODI research on emergency cash transfers (summarized in Harvey 2005). Since the publication of ODI’s 2001 review (Peppiat et al. 2001) cash transfers have become much more common in disaster recovery and chronic emergencies and now feature as a core component of many safety net systems. The overwhelming majority of reviews demonstrate that cash is an effective resource transfer option in many contexts. The tsunami disaster was an opportunity for agencies to implement cash transfers for two main reasons: first, because of the considerable level of unrestricted donor funding, which gave agencies the flexibility to innovate; and, second, because early and unequivocal signs of market recovery gave agencies the confidence to make cash a central element of recovery. This project set out to record the experiences of agencies implementing cash-based interventions, and their results, and to develop guidelines for future emergency cash interventions. The project covers tsunami interventions in Aceh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.