Aid cannot succeed without the trust of everyone involved, argues Hugo Slim, head of policy at the International Committee of the Red Cross. But what does trust in humanitarian action really mean, and how can we do a better job of fostering trust in the field?

In 2018, humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) totalled $4.7bn, and it continues to grow as humanitarian agencies increasingly begin their interventions with the question “Why not cash?”¹ Expectations are high that cash will allow for more effective humanitarian action. But how do people affected by crisis view cash-based aid and its recent scale-up?