Digitization of UNHCR Zambia cash-based interventions in Meheba Refugee Settlement, Zambia

• Oct 29, 2018
• 1 min

UNHCR Zambia had been providing cash assistance to refugees in the Meheba Refugee settlement camp. MSC was engaged to design and test the digitization of cash payments under a project that designed and implemented the digitization of UNHCR’s cash-based interventions (CBI) in the camp. At the time of writing, UNHCR would be replicating lessons from the project in other sites.

UNHCR Zambia had been providing cash assistance to refugees in the Meheba Refugee settlement camp through the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). This project designed and implemented the digitization of UNHCR’s cash-based interventions (CBI) in the camp.

UNHCR provides initial assistance to newly arrived refugees and continuous support to vulnerable refugees. However, UNHCR face challenges in delivering and refugees in receiving cash. The project investigated and addressed the challenges that stakeholders faced in cash disbursement through digitizing cash payments.

MSC collaborated to design and test the digitization of cash payments. These are now being scaled up with a view to digitizing the majority of payments to refugees in Zambia. Lessons from the project, in particular, the streamlined processes MSC developed for digital payments, are to be replicated in other sites where UNHCR has been digitizing payments.