ICRC’s Cash Assistance Programme (CAP) was launched in December 2003, targeting destitute IDP families falling below the national social security level, with no capacity to sustain themselves and therefore not eligible for any form of income-generation assistance. The programme was designed and implemented with the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Welfare of Serbia and Montenegro and the Commissariat for Refugees. It offered a monthly cash assistance in the amount of 30€ - equal to the standard social allowance provided by the state – to 7,500 selected IDP households (approx. 37,500 individuals).

In Serbia, the agreement was that each month, 500 out of 6,000 IDP families supported by the ICRC would be screened by the Ministry and if they met criteria, they would be included in the national social welfare system.

One of the major difficulties IDPs faced when applying for the state social assistance was to collect all required documentation. In order to overcome this problem, ICRC established cooperation with the Norwegian Refugee Council (Civil Rights Project) for obtaining necessary documents on behalf of IDPs and later on, developed the cooperation with Praxis. Praxis obtained more than 400 hundred documents (mainly excerpts from birth and citizenship registry books) for CAP beneficiaries After 12 months of the programme implementation in Serbia 16% of the initial caseload (5,761 persons) were transferred to the state social welfare system. As many as 57% (2,590 persons) of CAP beneficiaries did not formally apply for it, mainly for the lack of documentation (8%) or income-related reasons (71%). However, among those who did apply (1,961 persons) 47% were included in the social state system.

Read ICRC report from April 2005: The Situation of Internally Displaced Persons in Serbia and Montenegro
Read also: Serbia and Montenegro: the situation of the internally displaced