Cash transfers have risen rapidly up the agenda in both emergency and developmental contexts, provoking widely disparate reactions and raising a number of political, financial and operational challenges for governments, donors and NGOs. This special theme issue of Development Policy Review considers growing experience with cash transfers in development in Africa and Asia and draws on lessons learned from the implementation of cash transfer schemes in Latin America. It is complemented by the simultaneous publication of papers in Disasters: The Journal of Disasters Studies, Policy and Management 30 (3) which consider experience with cash transfers in emergencies.