HOPE goes live in Kandahar

Nienke Voppen, Programme Specialist for Cash Based Assistance in UNICEF Afghanistan, on mission to the Kandahar field office, to roll-out UNICEF’s new HOPE system. HOPE will support the scale up of Humanitarian Cash Transfers, which she pioneered in the country office. 

Known as HOPE, UNICEF’s new Humanitarian cash Operations and Programme Ecosystem, the system enables the country office to reach more beneficiaries with cash transfers, in a more secure and transparent way while protecting beneficiaries’ personal data.

Cash gives families choices 

Listening to beneficiaries during my time in Afghanistan has underlined how diverse families’ needs are, and what a difference cash can make to a family living in poverty. Cash empowers parents to make choices that benefit their children’s wellbeing, with dignity.  

Abdul, a 39-year-old recipient of a cash transfer in Ghor, has 9 children. He perfectly sums up the power of cash assistance: “Each one of us has a specific problem. No one else knows about my difficulties and problems so it is very good to give us the money to provide for our basic needs. If you give me spoons and plates and I am sick, can I use those things to pay for a doctor and medicine?"

Delivering results for children 

Every day, poverty forces parents in Afghanistan to make difficult decisions. Sharifa was working in her neighbor’s house. 

But she was asked to stop coming due to fear of COVID-19. With no other choice, she sent her son, Taliq, to work in a brick factory. Molding the bricks with his bare hands and breathing in dangerous dust, Taliq worked late into the night which left him vulnerable to violence and abuse on his journey home. Days were long.  Starting at 3am, Taliq worked 14 hours daily to support his family. When UNICEF provided Sharifa with a cash transfer, it meant relief. She no longer had to send her son to work.

Scaling up cash in Afghanistan

In July 2021, the New York HQ Humanitarian Cash Team came on mission to Afghanistan to support the roll-out of HOPE, which launched after an intense, enjoyable, and practical week of training. 

As the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorates rapidly making programming ever more challenging, there is an urgent need to scale up cash assistance. HOPE will help make this happen.

Scaling up cash is a management priority  

UNICEF Representative, Hervé Ludovic de Lys, said, “Cash is a cost-effective way to reach more people in need -- with dignity. And in a humanitarian crisis, as Afghanistan is facing right now, for families who have to flee their homes, cash affords them choices at a time when they have few.”