Choice in difficult times: Cash assistance helps refugee families put food on the table

Outside her home in Bidibidi refugee settlement, northern Uganda, Suzan, a refugee from South Sudan, arranges tomatoes, onions and small piles of mukene – dried silver fish – on her food stall. The business brings in extra income that helps her feed her family.

Each month, Suzan receives the equivalent of UGX 64,000 (about US$16) from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) through mobile money. The amount is calculated for four people at the rate for WFP’s 30 percent food-basket category, which is intended to cover only part of a person’s basic food needs. Nine people depend on it.

Funding shortfalls over the years, and especially in 2025, have forced WFP to reduce food assistance to refugees in Uganda. In May 2025 alone, WFP had to cut food assistance for 1 million refugees, leaving about 663,000 receiving support at the time. Today, WFP supports 784,000 refugees.

Cash cannot make Suzan’s assistance any bigger, but it lets her decide how to use it – and she has turned that choice into a small business that helps keep her family going.

“For me, cash makes a big difference,” she says.

Suzan fled fighting in Yei, South Sudan, seeking safety with her family in Uganda.

“We decided to leave because of the fighting,” she recalls. “We wanted our children to be safe.”

She initially received food from WFP. Collecting it meant walking a long distance and carrying the supplies home.

“Before, I had to walk about five kilometres to collect food and carry heavy loads,” she says. “Now I receive the money on my phone. There is no lining up. It is very easy.”

The transition to cash assistance for refugees came with WFP training in budgeting and managing money.

“When we were told we would receive cash, we were trained on how to use it,” Suzan explains. “They [WFP] taught us how to plan for food and even how to invest.”

She put that training into practice, buying food for the family and setting aside money to start her stall.

“When I receive the money, I first budget for food – things like cooking oil, maize or cassava flour,” she says. “Then I use some to buy items for my business like onions, tomatoes, beans and salt.”

Sales from the stall bring in additional money to help cover the family’s needs.

“This helps me get extra income. It supports my family beyond the cash I receive.”

Suzan also puts some of her earnings into a village savings group. How much she saves depends on how business has gone that week.

“I try to save UGX 5,000 [about US$1.30],” she says. “Sometimes, if business is not good, I save only UGX 2,000 [about US$0.50]. But I make sure I save something.”

Spending by families such as Suzan’s can also benefit the traders and producers who supply them. WFP research in four Ugandan refugee settlements found that food and cash assistance can support incomes beyond the families receiving it, including in neighbouring Ugandan communities. The effects varied between settlements and types of assistance.

With support from European Union Humanitarian Aid, WFP is providing digital cash assistance to refugees in Uganda through mobile money and banking agents.

Digital transfers also reach people quickly and safely, without crowding at food distribution points. “Cash transfers are at the heart of a more efficient and people-centred humanitarian response, empowering refugees by putting choice in their hands,” says Marcus Prior, WFP’s Deputy Country Director in Uganda.

Yet choice cannot make up for an amount set for four people and shared among nine. Her business and savings help Suzan manage that gap, but they have not removed her family’s need for food assistance.

Suzan's family is not alone. More than 642,000 people in Uganda's refugee settlements face Crisis or worse levels of acute hunger, according to the latest IPC analysis, and acute malnutrition is expected to rise as harvests fail. New arrivals continue, with more than 147,000 refugees registered in 2025. WFP urgently needs new funding to keep food assistance reaching families like Suzan's.

“I am happy that I am still alive,” she says. “This help allows me and my family to continue surviving.”

Learn more about WFP's work in Uganda.

Suzan’s surname is withheld for her protection. WFP conducted this interview in June 2026.

WFP gratefully acknowledges European Union Humanitarian Aid (DG ECHO) for supporting life-saving food assistance, delivered through digital cash transfers, to refugees in Uganda.