At national level, the objective of
the SCTP is to promote the alleviation of poverty through the bolstering of
beneficiary resilience through financial support. Reports have shown that cash
transfers have “proven impacts, in terms of asset accumulation, food security,
women's economic and social empowerment, and livelihood diversification among
the poorest households”.
The SCTP programme is designed to support the
delivery of bi-monthly, unconditional cash transfers to 10% of households
identified as ultra-poor and labour-constrained across each of the 28 Districts
in Malawi. The SCTP aims to be a shock-responsive Social Protection System and
respond to the specific poverty context by enabling a social protection system
that is adaptive, resilient, and responsive to:
·
Malawi’s
extreme poverty context, with over 70% of the population living below the 1.90$
poverty line
· The specific challenges of increasingly frequent and diverse shocks, including climate, political and economic shocks
· The need for a flexible, shock-responsive social protection programme, and a matching MIS, that can support a large and changing number of people exposed to serial shocks in a context of extreme poverty
The general objectives of the Programme are to:
(i) Reduce poverty, hunger and starvation in all households which are ultra poor and at the same time labour constrained;
(ii) Increase school enrolment and improve the health and nutrition of childrenliving in target group households.
In broad terms the SCTP aims to promote the alleviation of poverty through the bolstering of beneficiary resilience through financial support.
Reports have shown that cash transfers have “proven impacts, in terms of asset accumulation, food security, women's economic and social empowerment, and livelihood diversification among the poorest households”.
The programmes’ Impact Evaluations have found:
- Economic impacts:
A positive economic impact of the project – an increased ability households to invest what they receive e.g into agriculture, livestock production and other small businesses
- Food security impacts:
Improved consumption, food security and material needs e.g:
An increase of 23% in total household annual consumption per capita, and 53% increase amongst the poorest
15% increase in number of meals eaten per day
20% of households less likely to worry about food
Improved diet diversity with significant increases in consumption of meat, fish and poultry products
Proportion of children in households having a pair of shoes, access to a blanket and change of clothes increased by 38%
- Health impacts:
A 12% increase in people seeking health treatment for children
A reduction in child wasting by 3%
A significant reduction in pregnancy rates among females in the poorest households
- Social impacts:
Increase in regular participation in school (e.g participation without withdrawal during the school year due to harvest time)
An increase in children receiving breakfast meal at home before going to school
A 22% increase in perceived quality of life and 11% reduction in stress levels of caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children
Most recently, Handa et al. (2021) found a consumption multipler of 2.94 – that is for every 1 Kwacha paid out, consumption is increased by 2.94x. The full article can be read here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dpr.12576
The objectives of the SCTP aligns with His Excellency the President and the Government of Malawi’s vision for social protection in Malawi. Specifically, the proramme aligns with:
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