The scale up of cash assistance is catalysing rapid change in the humanitarian sector – the emergence of new operational models, changing use of technology and partnerships with private sector actors, and stronger links between humanitarian assistance and other types of financial flows. This has implications for the future roles of humanitarian actors and for the ways in which they plan and deliver to optimize results for people in crisis.

This report is the product of a collaborative process with Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) to envision the future of financial assistance to meet humanitarian needs, with a 2030 horizon. The analysis uses foresight methodologies to propose 4 scenarios for the future of financial assistance. These aim to support humanitarian actors involved in cash assistance to collectively understand how they will most effectively capitalise on the future trends relating to financial assistance, to best meet humanitarian needs.

CaLP and IARAN organised a webinar on the Future of Financial Assistance, in which the scenarios and key issues were presented to gather feedback.