Improving user journeys for humanitarian cash transfers: Kenya case study

Today, humanitarian agencies are increasingly delivering cash to affected people through a variety of systems and mechanisms. From digital payment systems to more traditional methods of delivering funds, there is still much to be learned about how well these systems are able to meet recipients’ needs and satisfy their preferences.

As cash transfer programmes become a standard component of humanitarian responses, aid agencies and donors seek a more comprehensive understanding of delivery mechanisms that are effective, efficient and offer good value for money, while meeting the preferences of affected people.

Funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), in collaboration with experts from Ground Truth Solutions and Oxfam, this report combines quantitative perception surveys with qualitative analyses of individual user journeys in Kenya.

Based on surveys with more than 260 cash recipients and in-depth user journey interviews in Kenya's Turkana and Nairobi counties, it looks at how recipients of humanitarian cash transfers – including forcibly displaced people – experience cash assistance in different forms and combinations, particularly where these make use of digital delivery mechanisms.