Delivering Humanitarian Cash Transfers to Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia

Since the war began in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, over 840,000 refugees from Ukraine have crossed into Slovakia. The vast majority (80 per cent) are women, children, older people and others with specific needs.

To support Ukrainian refugee populations, Slovakia joined other EU countries in applying a Temporary Protection Directive which provides access to some parts of its national social protection system. Slovakia’s Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family provides cash assistance to vulnerable households through its own Material Needs Benefit programme. However, given the sheer scale of this emergency, the Ministry required support to ensure that Ukrainian refugees could benefit from that assistance and that they have access to food, shelter and other basic needs.

The Government of Slovakia has, therefore, asked UNICEF, UNHCR and IFRC to support and manage a new programme to deliver Humanitarian Cash Transfers to jointly meet the basic needs of around 44,000 Ukrainian refugees.

In addition, UNICEF is supporting the Government to provide a so-called “Carer’s Benefit” to support parents of children with special needs.

In keeping with principles of accountability to affected populations, UNICEF Slovakia aims to provide the most accessible support possible for refugee children and families, including simplifying payment options. With 76 offices over the country, Western Union was chosen as a partner taking into account beneficiaries’ needs.

Thanks to strong collaboration between DFAM, SD, Legal office, PG SP Humanitarian Cash Transfer team and ECARO a new agreement with WU was signed with Slovakia the first country to benefit from this global agreement and since 22 July, UNICEF Slovakia started to deliver cash assistance via Western Union.

Within that project, UNICEF supported around 11,000 families with monthly cash assistance and a total of 20,000 families might benefit from a targeted cash assistance over the coming months. Initially only paying via Bank transfer, with this new payment mechanism, UNICEF is now able to cover families without a Slovak bank account, simplifying and accelerating support for families in need.

With its Quick Cash solution, ordering a payment via Western Union is quick and easy. That solution is already available for 190 countries, more detailed information are available on the Western Union Quick Cash Leaflet.

"Using Western Union in Slovakia was a big added value for the team, their platform is easy to use, transferring cash assistance to the programme beneficiaries takes us 10 min. With their daily payment reconciliation we can monitor the distribution and adjust our communication to beneficiaries if needed," said Jessie BACAL, UNICEF Beneficiary Data Specialist, Slovakia.