Key Findings:
- Multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) enables recipients to consume higher quality products, such as nutritious foodstuffs, and in greater quantities than if they had not collected MPCA. Sales of meat and poultry, for example, increased in areas populated by MPCA recipients.
- Most merchants experienced a slight increase in sales during MPCA implementation, with butchers witnessing the greatest increase. Profit margins, however, tended not increase as a result of the MPCA.
- Mini-market owners and pharmacists were more likely to stock Lebanese products during MPCA, because consumers perceive them to be of higher quality than cheaper imported goods from Turkey, Syria, and Iran.
- Cash assistance directly impacted merchants’ willingness to provide credit to customers across all sectors (minimarkets, butchers, and pharmacies). This is a product of increased trust between consumers and vendors.
MPCA enables beneficiaries to make long-term investments that can save money or even
create value:
• Medicine: Ability to invest in preventative healthcare and long-term medical solutions, rather than short-term indefinite pain relief.
• Education: Ability to buy books for children to attend university.
• Livelihoods: Ability to purchase inputs for adding value to basic ingredients, for
example selling Kishik and Mloukhieh.
- However, cash assistance does not generally help beneficiaries increase their personal savings over longer periods of time, or save for large investments.
- MPCA recipients are more likely to pay for goods in dollars if they receive cash assistance, especially when the exchange rate is stable. Reasons to exchange cash include arbitrage opportunities and ensuring “accurate” payment for goods.
- Several interviewees (beneficiaries and local actors) mentioned the positive psychological effects of cash assistance.
- Local actors perceived a decrease in petty crime such as theft, which they attribute to the MPCA program. They also perceived decreased tensions between Syrian and Lebanese communities, pointing to the fact that, by the end of the program, there was a general perception that Lebanese community members are receiving a roughly equal share of cash assistance.
- While market actors recognize the participants having received MPCA from the change of behavioral/economic patterns, few report sustained patterns once the MPCA is cut off. This findings has important implications for exit strategies, explored in the conclusion section.
By Crisis Analytics Team, Mercy Corps Lebanon
