Key messages Displaced people often have greater needs than hosts given their loss of assets and threats faced before and during displacement, and their more limited access to networks, livelihoods and other rights in the host context. They will continue to have distinct and heightened needs for long periods after their arrival. This means they require different types and higher average levels of support to ensure their basic needs are met. Assistance recipients in our study generally showed better outcomes than non-recipients in various dimensions of both material and subjective basic needs and wellbeing. These positive outcomes are particularly pronounced for recipients of humanitarian assistance. Displaced people's basic needs may be neglected and their wellbeing jeopardised if humanitarian assistance closely aligns with social protection transfer amounts, type, or targeting approaches, without considering the unique nature and higher level of their needs. Any potential linkages should be considered in light of their effects on the displaced population's ability to meet their needs. If displaced people are to be served through national social protection systems, additional provisions will generally be needed to ensure that they can access the type and level of assistance they require. Where there are concerns that humanitarian assistance meets displaced populations' needs better than social protection meets hosts', this imbalance should be addressed by improving the adequacy of provision for hosts, not by reducing the support for displaced people and leaving an already-vulnerable population at greater risk.