Humanitarian Assistance through Mobile Cash Transfer in Northern Afghanistan

In response to severe droughts in 2011, DFID committed to address emergency needs in northern Afghanistan with nutrition, food security and farming inputs. As such, between June and September 2012, a pilot initiative was launched in four districts of the Northern provinces of Faryab, Jawzjan, and Samangan to test an innovative approach to help drought-affected farmers achieve food security by delivering cash using mobile phone technology. The objective of this independent comparative evaluation was intended to contribute to inform DFID about the overall efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and value for money of setting up emergency short-term, cash-based projects to disaster affected populations. Further, it contributed to DFID’s humanitarian knowledge base on the suitability of mobile phone technology as a method of payment in an emergency food security context in Afghanistan.