In recent years, development practitioners and academics have begun to suggest that cash transfers are an appropriate response to reducing vulnerability to food and livelihood insecurity in southern Africa. To demonstrate this dynamic, in 2005 to 2006 Concern Worldwide planned and implemented an emergency response to a hunger crisis in Malawi that included cash transfers to the affected population.

As this was a pilot programme aimed at evidence gathering as well as mitigating the effects of the food shortage, Concern undertook high quality M&E data collection and analysis, case studies and an external evaluation led by Stephen Devereux of ODI. The paper presented here summarises the results of this evidence gathering exercise, drawing recommendations for future cash based programmes.