Actual Number of Beneficiaries of Cash Assistance

The indicator measures the number of people who were actually supported by the project’s cash programming intended to meet their basic needs (i.e. not the planned number of beneficiaries). This indicator shows the scale of the provided assistance. It is mandatory for all projects providing cash assistance.

Determine the indicator’s value by using the following methodology:

1) Review the following sources to identify the number of people (not households) who were supposed to be supported by the project’s cash assistance:

- distribution lists (in the case of payments in cash)

- financial reports / bank statements (in the case of bank transfers)

- documents providing evidence on the average number of people living in the supported households (if households, not individuals are the intended beneficiaries)

2) Verify the number of supported people from the results of post-distribution surveys (e.g. the % of intended beneficiaries who reported receiving the assistance shown by the documents listed above). If required, adjust the number of benefiting people (e.g. if 3% of the respondents say that they did not receive any assistance, the number of people identified in step 1 should also be reduced by 3%).

3) The indicator’s value includes all the people who were supported by the project with any type of cash assistance for meeting their basic needs (i.e. do not automatically use the originally planned number of direct beneficiaries – use the actual number of people that were supported). If support was provided to households, count the number of people living in the targeted households, not the number of households.

Disaggregate the data by gender.

1) In addition to this indicator, always use also the following indicator: number of people directly supported through cash / voucher / in-kind programming (see guidance). It might appear similar to this indicator; however, it enables Tearfund and its partners to count the number of people who benefited from any of the three main emergency modalities (cash / vouchers / in-kind) without the risk of counting the same people twice.

For example, imagine that 1,000 people are supported with cash and 500 of these people also receive in-kind support. If you do not use the indicator above and only report on 1) the number of people who received cash and 2) the number of people who received in-kind support, it might incorrectly appear as if 1,500 people were supported. That is why it is very important to always use both types of indicators.