Humanitarian Ration Cuts: Impacts on Vulnerable Groups

Abstract

Humanitarian ration cuts have had a wide range of devastating impacts on individuals, households, groups, and communities, who rely on this aid for survival. Humanitarian rations can include in-kind transfers, food vouchers or cash transfers: the focus in this report is on in-kind food rations. This report discusses various impacts of humanitarian ration cuts on vulnerable groups, and on displaced persons as a whole—identified through a broad survey of academic, donor, and non-governmental organisation (NGO) literature and news reporting on different aspects of ration cuts. The focus is primarily on refugee populations and sub-groups of refugees, such as women and children. There was inadequate information on impacts on the elderly, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ communities, and ethnic or religious minorities. The elderly and persons with disabilities are often overlooked in the design and implementation of programming; and in data collection (Jote & Tekle, 2022; Nisbet et al., 2022). Much of the literature also centres on sub-Saharan Africa.