Resilience Plus was a programme funded via the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Nepal Emergency Response Framework (NERF) to ensure that COVID-19-related resilience of vulnerable households is strengthened and maintained into the monsoon season through coordinated cash and voucher assistance with integrated access to improved nutrition and protection services and linkages to safety nets.

Programme activities were undertaken by 7 consortium members, including 2 International NGOs, Mercy Corps (Consortium leader) and Plan International, and 5 district-based partner NGOs, namely Banke UNESCO Club, Rural Society Development Centre, Rural Development Centre Nepal, NEEDS Nepal, and Mandwi. The programme worked in partnership with 171 local merchants as well as a financial service provider (FSP), Prabhu Bank. The programme covered 6 districts (Sunsari, Dhanusha, Rautahat, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur) and local partners coordinated programme activities with palika and ward level officials, in collaboration with the protection committees in each of the 14 palikas.

The programme was implemented in two phases. Phase 1 was designed to deliver rapid cash and voucher assistance to households (HHs) facing the twin shocks of the COVID pandemic and the seasonal shocks of monsoon-related natural disasters, including flooding and landslides. The second phase expanded the programme reach and included a more specific effort to strengthen the coordination of humanitarian actors working in cash and voucher assistance (CVA) programmes by strengthening the Nepal Cash Coordination Group and increasing capacity building and support to local government implementation and monitoring of CVA.

The programme also initiated a pilot to use Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) to support the most vulnerable, excluded, and resource poor populations, totalling 995 households. UCT transfers, via a bank-issued cash card, were bundled with more specific follow up support, linkages, and referral to government social protection services, in pilot locations in Kailali and Kanchanpur districts.