Towards strengthening nutrition-sensitive social protection in Sri Lanka
Results and lessons learnt from UNICEF’s short-term nutrition-sensitive cash transfer programme
Highlights
Since early 2022, Sri Lanka faced the profound repercussions of the most severe economic crisis since independence in 1948. In a context of soaring inflation, heightened income insecurity and acute scarcity of essential products such as food, fuel, fertilizers and medicines, more and more families were unable to meet their basic needs. UNICEF Sri Lanka implemented a short-term nutrition-sensitive cash transfer programme that provided monthly cash transfers to more than 114,000 families with young children for five months to increase their purchasing power, while strengthening linkages to health and nutrition services to tackle more complex determinants of undernutrition. This brief summarises results and lessons learnt from the programme to strengthen nutrition-sensitive social protection in Sri Lanka.
