The magnitude of migration and displacement has been constantly on the rise and is set to continue increasing. Humanitarian needs are outpacing resources, and there is a clear demand for United Nations agencies and partners to reach more people, and thereby maximize the impact of available resources. Cash-based interventions (CBI) have been demonstrated to be a highly effective and efficient way to provide assistance, especially at scale. As the United Nations migration agency, IOM aims to increase and leverage the use of CBI as a key enabler to improve access of the people we serve to basic needs, protection and other rights, as well as enhance their resilience in situations of crisis, transition, recovery and development.

The IOM Cash-based Interventions Strategy 2022–2026 builds on the previous IOM Strategy for Humanitarian Cash-based Interventions 2019–2021 and lessons learned from IOM and other stakeholders. Using a rights-based and people-centred approach, the 2022–2026 CBI Strategy sets the overall direction for the use and scale-up of CBI as a priority modality of assistance across all IOM programme areas and in an increasing number of locations. With this Strategy, IOM will endeavour to use CBI as a catalyst for more comprehensive and sustainable solutions mainly by linking humanitarian cash assistance with social protection systems, livelihood support and other development programmes where possible.

In particular, the 2022–2026 CBI Strategy focuses on three strategic objectives to contribute to this goal:

• To address people’s needs and reduce vulnerabilities through the use of CBI modalities across IOM programmes
• To build partnerships and strengthen systems for increased impact and more sustainable solutions
• To build institutional capacity to scale up the use of CBI across IOM