A MILLION-DINAR QUESTION: Can Cash Transfers Drive Economic Recovery in

The research was conducted with the Cash Consortium for Iraq (CCI), a partnership of the five large international NGOs delivering cash transfers in Iraq.iv The CCI was founded in 2015 to respond to the critical basic needs of conflict- affected, vulnerable households in Iraq through multi-purpose cash assistance. [...] (See Figure 1 for a timeline of these events and the research implementation.) Figure 1: A timeline of the Iraq crisis prior to and during the study Can Cash Transfers Drive Economic Recovery in Conflict-Driven Crises? | July 2021 9 Intervention The purpose of the Cash Consortium for Iraq (CCI) is to promote the welfare and self-sufficiency of impoverished, conflict-affected households in Iraq. [...] Additionally, immediately prior to the end of the study, the novel coronavirus emerged as a global pandemic, and Iraq implemented restrictions on movement and the operation of businesses in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus. [...] In this sense, the impact of cash transfers on the supply of labour mirrors the effect observed on productive and household asset accumulation: Transfers of the duration and magnitude provided by CCI appeared better suited to preventing backsliding as opposed to an expansion of employment. [...] The size of the effect appeared to correspond to the magnitude of the transfer where the larger the initial transfer, the greater the decrease in intra-community trust.