Few areas of aid have changed as quickly as cash transfers. What began as small pilots now runs at national scale through mobile wallets, prepaid cards, banks and government social registries. That growth has brought scrutiny from donors, auditors and regulators, and organisations that deliver cash without a firm grasp of the governing frameworks risk delayed payments, rejected expenditure and breaches of recipient privacy.

This programme takes participants through the policy and regulatory landscape layer by layer. It begins with global and national policy positions on cash, the role of governments, clusters and cash working groups, and the alignment of humanitarian cash with social protection systems. It then turns to the legal and compliance duties that surround payment delivery: financial sector licensing, customer due diligence, sanctions screening, counter-terrorism clauses in grant agreements, tax treatment and the contractual obligations placed on financial service providers. A full day is given to data protection, consent, data sharing between agencies and the ethical handling of biometric information.

Teaching is built around real policy texts, sample donor agreements and anonymised programme scenarios. Participants analyse clauses, resolve conflicts between rules and draft policy language they can adapt for their own organisations. By the final session each person holds a compliance matrix, a risk register for cash delivery and an outline policy ready to take to senior management.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Explain how global and national policy positions shape cash and voucher assistance.
• Map the regulatory requirements that apply to a programme in a given country and delivery channel.
• Interpret donor conditions, grant clauses and counter-terrorism provisions affecting transfers.
• Apply know-your-customer, anti-money laundering and sanctions screening requirements to recipient registration and payment.
• Assess financial service providers against licensing, contractual and risk criteria.
• Align humanitarian cash with national social protection policy and coordination structures.
• Design data protection and consent safeguards for recipient information.
• Draft an internal cash policy and compliance procedures that withstand audit.

The programme suits people who design, fund, regulate or audit cash-based aid, including:

• Cash and voucher programme managers and coordinators
• Cash working group and cluster coordination staff
• Compliance, legal and risk officers in NGOs and UN agencies
• Finance managers and grants officers handling transfer budgets
• Social protection officers in ministries and county or district governments
• Donor programme officers and humanitarian advisers
• Data protection and information management officers
• Internal and external auditors reviewing aid programmes
• Staff of mobile money operators and banks serving aid agencies

Participants leave with practical tools they can use straight away:

• A compliance matrix linking donor, financial sector and national requirements to programme activities.
• A risk register covering diversion, sanctions exposure and data breaches in cash delivery.
• A checklist for selecting and contracting a financial service provider.
• Model clauses for data sharing, consent and recipient privacy notices.
• An outline internal cash policy ready for adaptation and approval.
• A clearer view of how to engage regulators, donors and government on difficult rules.

Learning is anchored in documents and decisions that practitioners meet in real programmes. Methods include:

• Close reading of sample policy texts, donor agreements and regulatory notices
• Scenario clinics where groups resolve conflicting compliance requirements
• Provider assessment exercises using realistic mobile money and bank profiles
• Drafting workshops for policy clauses and data sharing agreements
• Facilitated peer exchange across agencies, government and the private sector

Participants who attend the full programme and complete the practical exercises are awarded a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion by Vision Reach Global Consultancy, recognising their grounding in the rules that govern cash and voucher assistance.