Can digital cash transfers serve those in active conflict zones? Evidence from Sudan
Digital cash transfers can be delivered even in active conflict settings like Sudan and can significantly protect vulnerable households—especially in the most insecure areas—from worsening food insecurity, though their impacts vary by context and household characteristics.
- conflicts
- Sudan
By Kibrom Abay, Lina Abdelfattah, Hala Abushama, Oliver Kiptoo Kirui, Halefom Nigus, and Khalid SiddigFebruary 20, 2026
Republished with permission from VoxDev.
Digital cash transfers can be delivered even in active conflict settings like Sudan and can significantly protect vulnerable households—especially in the most insecure areas—from worsening food insecurity, though their impacts vary by context and household characteristics.
While the recent surge in armed conflicts and natural disasters continues to increase demand for humanitarian services, humanitarian organizations face an increasing funding gap to meet this demand. In 2025, only one-third of global humanitarian funding requirements were secured, leaving a funding gap of roughly two-thirds of total needs (UN 2025). In addition to increasing humanitarian needs, armed conflicts complicate the targeting and delivery of humanitarian services (Ghorpade 2017, Lind et al. 20221). Delivering aid in fragile and conflict-affected settings is also prone to aid diversion and misappropriation (Shimada 2025).
Because of these constraints, humanitarian organizations are grappling with the double burden of widening funding gaps and increasing challenges to delivering humanitarian aid to vulnerable households in areas under the control of hostile state and non-state actors. These challenges demand innovative technological solutions that can address compounding constraints, including those arising from inaccessibility due to active conflict.