Vulnerability and Protection of Refugeesin Turkey: Findings from the Rollout of the LargestHumanitarian Cash Assistance Program in the World assessesthe targeting performance and benefit level design of theEmergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) program for refugees inTurkey. It also provides a comprehensive look at thevulnerability of ESSN eligible households using amultidimensional lens, drawing from novel representativedata. The ESSN provides monthly cash transfers to help themost vulnerable refugees meet their basic needs, andcomplement Turkey’s response to the crisis. With near 4million refugees, Turkey hosts more refugees than any othercountry in the world. The program is funded by the EuropeanUnion member states, and implemented nationwide inpartnership with the Ministry of Family, Labor and SocialServices, the World Food Programme, and the Turkish RedCrescent. The study finds that the vulnerabilities of theESSN refugee population are multiple and complex. Refugeesin the ESSN program suffer from a shortage of resourcestoday, but also resort to coping strategies that crippletheir resource-generating capacity tomorrow. The ESSNtargeting criteria are relatively effective in selecting themost vulnerable refugees, but exclude a share of the poor.This issue is starting to get addressed by decentralizedallowances targeted with community-level information. TheESSN cash transfer value is found to be adequate to supportbasic needs. An untargeted design would have minimizedexclusion errors, but would reach everybody with smallertransfers, insufficient to meet basic needs. Future analysiswill focus on the impact of the transfers on household welfare.
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