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Investigating the impact of Social Cash Transfer on poverty reduction among

the beneficiaries in Zambia. A case study of Chisamba district

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Investigating the impact of Social Cash Transfer on poverty reduction
among the beneficiaries in Zambia. A case study of Chisamba District.

BY

Chishimba Soko

The University of Zambia

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of Political and Administrative studies

©2019

1
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Many countries are beginning to recognise the role of social protection in promoting food
security among vulnerable groups. Social transfers are a regular and predictable transfers of
cash, food, or agricultural inputs, which are an important part of social protection programmes,
and have been embraced by both governments and NGOs across Sub-Saharan countries and
Latin America with a particular growing interest in cash transfers. In the past, responses to
food insecurity were based on humanitarian food aid assistance, which was reactive and served
to keep people alive, or at best bring them back to their original starting point. By arriving
regularly, whether monthly or quarterly, cash transfers allow beneficiaries to take a longer-
term perspective and plan their livelihoods accordingly, which means that they actively allow
people to improve their livelihoods, reducing their vulnerability and level of poverty.

Studies have shown that there is an increasing amount of evidence from cash transfers across
the region that shows that, in addition to promoting food security, social transfers have
additional beneficial effects. These are wide ranging and extend beyond the direct recipient of
the transfer to the wider family. For the recipient, there is evidence to suggest that cash
transfers promote self-esteem, social status and empowerment. They also improve food
security and nutritional status, not just for the transfer recipient, but also for other household
members. Receipt of cash also reduces absolute poverty and narrows the poverty gap,
promoting equity; and also provides necessary capital to allow beneficiaries to participate in
other social policy benefits, including healthcare and education.

The poor remain vulnerable, facing challenges including food insecurity and inadequate access
to basic services such as education, safe drinking water, and healthcare. The most vulnerable
include women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, vulnerable migrants, refugees,
internally displaced persons, and minorities. The 2014 Zambia National Social Protection
Policy established dedicated efforts by the government to ensure that the role of social
protection in pro-poor growth remains central and increases systemic efficiency. The ultimate
goal of social protection in this framework is to effectively promote and provide sustainable
security against deprivation and extreme vulnerability. This intent is further mirrored in the
country’s Vision 2030 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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The SCT programme has grown very significantly in terms of coverage and domestic
allocation of resources, now representing the core government strategy for poverty and
inequality reduction in the country. The programme reduces poverty, hunger, and income
inequality, thereby promoting inclusive growth. Across the region, SCTs have also been found
to promote human development through improved nutrition, health, education, and gender
equality.

As the government commits to ambitious poverty reduction targets during the period of the
implementation of the 7NDP, there are expectations that the SCT will make a significant
contribution to such targets. It is therefore critical to assess whether in its current form the SCT
is geared towards making a significant dent in poverty reduction and to discuss possible design
reforms that would increase its impact on poverty and inequality (Ibid). Therefore, this research
aims at establishing the extent to which poverty has been reduced in beneficiary households
through Social Cash transfer.

BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL CASH TRANSFER

According to the American Institutes for Research (2016), it was argued that the SCT
programme has been operating in Zambia since 2003 and is implemented by the Ministry of
Community Development and Social Services. It aims at reducing extreme poverty and the
inter-generational transfer of poverty, focusing on non-productive groups of the population.
Following successive reforms to the selection and identification approach since 2017, as stated
in Arruda and Dubois (2018) that the programme targets vulnerable households which include:
persons with a disability, the elderly (65 years and above), the chronically ill in palliative care,
female headed households with three or more children and child-headed households. In a quest
to reduce poverty and vulnerability in a more sustainable and cost-effective way in the country,
the government introduced support based on giving actual cash through the Social Cash
Transfer (SCT) Scheme in 2003. This programme pays monthly grants of ZMW90
(approximately US$9) per household and bimonthly grants of ZMW180 (approximately
US$18) for households with persons with disabilities .

Further, in 2011, the programme started with a caseload of 32,643 beneficiary households,
growing to the current caseload of 537,766 by the end of 2017. The programme is currently
operating in all districts of the country. The SCT has become the flagship non-contributory
social protection programme in Zambia. Since 2011, budgetary releases have been steadily
rising, from ZMW42 million to ZMW551 million in 2017. Domestic financing of the SCT has

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also significantly increased during the past five years. More than 80 per cent of the total SCT
budget was financed with resources from the general budget in 2017, with the remainder being
financed by cooperating partners.

Nakamba-Kabaso (2017) stated that in the past, the provision of social assistance in Zambia
was made primarily through in-kind support such as food aid, clothes, and other material items.
Programmes were run on an ad hoc basis and had limited coverage and funding. The primary
objective of such interventions was to provide emergency relief and protect households from
extreme levels of destitution, based on the assumption that those implementing the
interventions knew what the poor needed. Since its inception in Zambia in 2003, the
programme aims at reducing extreme poverty and the inter-generational transfer of poverty by
providing regular cash transfers to vulnerable households, which are those that include persons
with a disability, the elderly (those above the age of 65 years), the chronically ill in palliative
care, households headed by females with three or more children, and child-headed households

Despite recent progress, the government allocation to social assistance remains low in Zambia.
The World Bank (2018) calculated that in 2016 the allocation to non-contributory social
protection (excluding fee waivers and subsidies) stood at 0.25 per cent of gross domestic
product (GDP). Taking into account the rapid scale-up of the SCT that took place between
2016 and 2017, the allocation to non-contributory social protection rose to 0.4 per cent of GDP
in 2017 but is still far from the regional average of 1.5 per cent. Moreover, the 7th National
Development Plan (7NDP) envisages increasing the proportion of GDP allocated to basic
social protection programmes to 1.7 per cent by 2021.

Further, the report argued that the 7NDP sets out ambitious targets for the expansion of non-
contributory social protection schemes, and there has been an expectation that SCT coverage
would continue to grow in 2018 and beyond. The implementation plan for the 7NDP also
includes indicators such as increasing coverage of social assistance from 40 per cent to 70 per
cent of the poor; increasing the average value of per capita social assistance benefits as a
percentage of the poverty line from 6.5 per cent to 20 per cent and increasing the proportion of
beneficiaries receiving both social assistance and livelihood and support programmes from 27
per cent to 41 per cent.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

According to the evidence from Central Statistical Office (2016), it was argued that over the
past decade, Zambia has achieved macro-economic stability and has recorded an average

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annual growth rate of 6.4 per cent. It is now classified as a lower-middle-income country.
However, growth has been primarily driven by capital-intensive sectors in urban areas (mining,
construction, and transport). This limits the participation of the active population in growth
sectors such as agriculture and tourism which have potential for job creation. As a result, there
has only been a marginal decline in poverty while inequality has increased. The 2015 Living
Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) shows that 54.4 per cent of the population were living
below the national poverty line (76.6 per cent in rural areas and 23.4 per cent in urban areas).
The survey further shows that 40.8 per cent of the population were extremely poor (60.8 per
cent in rural areas and 12.8 per cent in urban areas). Further, the level of income inequality
estimated by the Gini coefficient was very high at 0.69 (0.60 for rural areas and 0.61 for urban
areas.

In-kind transfers have been proved to be problematic, with high logistical costs for example
for transport and storage, including pilferage, which had the potential to compromise effective
service delivery. Tembo and Davis (2018) provided evidence that government announced the
intention to further scale-up the project to reach 700,000 households in 2018, and reforms
regarding the expansion and streamlining of the programme were anticipated over the 7NDP
2017– 21 period. Further, they revealed that SCT had undergone a number of targeting reforms
during the past four years. SCT is expected to further refine targeting approach as the
programme’s coverage expands during the period of implementation of the 7NDP, with a view
to addressing the current limitations and coverage gaps of beneficiaries.

However, in spite of government increasing the number of households as beneficiaries of

Social cash transfer across districts nationwide, the levels of poverty seem to be increasing.
There has been less comprehensive analysis undertaken to assess the relative impact of social
cash transfer on poverty reduction among beneficiaries. Furthermore, less studies have been
conducted to weigh the impact of SCT in relation to targeting, coverage, and transfer value on
the overall poverty and inequality reduction goals that are stated in the 7NDP. Therefore, this
study will be conducted with focus on how much social cash transfer has contributed in
reducing poverty levels among the beneficiary household by using a case study of Chisamba
District in Central Province.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE
To investigate the impact of social Cash transfer on poverty reduction among the
beneficiaries in Chisamba.

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SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
1. To investigate the impact of Social Cash Transfer on food security among the
beneficiaries.
2. To investigate the impact of Social Cash Transfer on children accessing primary
school education among beneficiary households.
3. To ascertain the impact of Social Cash Transfer in accessing quality healthcare among
beneficiary households.
4. To ascertain the impact of Social Cash Transfer towards improving income status
among beneficiary households.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study hopes to raise awareness on the importance of supporting social protection programs
in particular Social Cash Transfer. It is hoped that by highlighting the major reasons of
promoting such social welfare programs, it will influence and drive relevant stakeholders to
develop more interest and support more special need people in different districts of the country.
It is also hoped that the findings of the study may implore relevant stakeholders to expose their
staff to more training and development programs aimed at advancing their skills towards fair
selection criteria of the beneficiaries. Further, the study intends to fill the gap in the literature
on the impact of Social Cash Transfer towards poverty reduction. Lastly, the results of the
study may lead to recommendations on the weaknesses that the study will discover so as to
support its continuity and smooth implementations to the beneficiaries.

OPERATIONALIZATION OF KEY TERMINOLOGIES

IMPACT
The word impact in the context of poverty reduction via cash transfers implies promoting self-
esteem, status and empowerment amongst vulnerable people, enabling them to be active
members of their households and communities rather than burdens.

SOCIAL CASH TRANSFER

IPC (2007) defined Social cash transfers as a form of social protection which deals with
regular non-contributory payments of money provided by government or non-governmental
organisations to individuals or households, with the objective of decreasing chronic or shock
induced poverty, addressing social risk and reducing economic vulnerability.

POVERTY REDUCTION

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The term poverty reduction which is interchangeably called poverty alleviation refers to a set
of measures both economic and humanitarian that are intended to permanently lift people to
enable them meet some of their basic needs if not all.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Easton (1953) contained that systems theory relies on information theory concepts such as
input, output, and feedback. It considers the policy process, variables and patterns in the public
policy-making system as well as what goes on within the 'black box' of conversion of demands
into public policy. Public policy is viewed as the response of the political system to forces
brought to bear on it from the outside environment. The environment surrounds the political
system. In this model, "environment" means physical: natural resources, climate, topography;
demographic: population size, age, and distribution, and location; political: ideology, culture,
social structure, economy, and technology. Forces enter the political system from the
environment either as demands or as support. Demands are brought to it by persons or groups
in response to real or perceived environmental conditions, for government action. Support is
given wherever citizens obey laws, vote, pay taxes among others and conform to public policies

The political system is a group of interrelated structures and processes that can authoritatively
allocate resources for a society. The actors are the legislature, the executive, the administrative
agencies, the courts, interest groups, political parties, and citizens. Outputs are decisions,
actions and public policy. The political system is an identifiable system of institutions and
processes that transform inputs into outputs for the whole society. The elements with the system
are interrelated and it can respond to forces in the environment, and it seeks to preserve itself
in balance with the environment. The system preserves itself by producing reasonably
satisfactory outputs (compromises are arranged, enacted and enforced). It relies on deep rooted
support for the system itself and its use, or threat of use, of force (Ibid).

Systems theory consists of macro-level and micro-level policies of which macro-level policies
are those that concern the whole system, and are influenced by officials and unofficial groups
such as the media. It may center on the proper role of Congress or the President, or the
relationships of government and business or citizens and businesses. Subsystem policies
involve legislators, administrators, and lobbyists and researchers who focus on particular
problem areas; also called sub-governments, policy clusters, coalitions, or iron triangles. For
instance, civil aviation, harbors, agricultural subsidies, grazing lands and so on. Micro-level

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policies are efforts by individuals, companies, or communities to secure some favorable
legislation for themselves which are typically presented to a legislator as a request from the
area they represent. The incentive to engage in micro-politics increases as the extent of
government benefits, programs and regulations increases (Opcit).

According to Cardoso and Souza (2003), programs can be promoted and directed in a manner
in which evidence is brought to bear as needed in the process of decision-making. Therefore,
social cash transfer is a social protection program which emanate from the environment (made
of people with various status). Different pressure groups and civil society organizations present
the evidential demands with support for the vulnerable (disabled, chronically ill, elderly among
others) to the political system as input in which the elite processes and converts the inputs into
the output in form of public policy, actions or intervention among others as a way of addressing
the identified problem in the environment. The affected people provide feedback about the
intervention either positively or negatively which makes the political system to maintain or
make appropriate adjustments to attain the positive policy performance.

LITERATURE REVIEW

According Arruda and Dubois (2018) in a book titled brief history of Zambia’s Social Cash
Transfer Programme argued that poverty is one of the major challenges facing developing
countries where large proportions of the population live in vulnerable conditions. Social cash
transfers (SCTs) are the main social assistance interventions used in developing countries
because they are viewed as key to social solidarity, development and reduction in inequality.
They protect and promote livelihoods of people suffering from critical levels of poverty and
enable them to still possess purchasing power. Impact can be assessed against the costs of
making an in-kind transfer compared with that of making cash available to purchase the same
amount in the local market.

American Institute for Research (2016) stated that the Zambian government considers social
protection as a key strategy to support inclusive economic growth, to achieve poverty and
vulnerability reduction, and promote equity and fulfilment of human rights. Between 2011 and
2013, The Multiple Categorical Targeting Grant (MCTG) transferred 60 Kwacha per month to
recipient households with the amount increasing to 70 Kwacha in 2014. The amount for

8
recipient households is the same regardless of household size. The average recipient household
has five members; thus, the transfer corresponds to 12 Kwacha per person per month. This was
done to enable each recipient household one meal a day to each member in the average
household. The findings also reveal that beneficiaries improved their daily living conditions by
purchasing torches or candles to light their home instead of using an open fire. There are
indications that SCT increased household income and food security. This impact has evidence
from findings of Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT) based on interviews of over 5,500
households in five districts. RCTs have shown that small-scale cash transfers to poor rural
households can not only alleviate poverty but also stimulate economic and productive activity.

Davis and Handa (2015) point out that one key characteristic of the majority of the transfer
programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is that they are unconditional. And that the cash
transfer programmes themselves are generally part of broader national social protection
strategies, although in some cases the launch of cash transfers programmes preceded formal
social protection policies. Thus many of the programmes originated from a concern about
vulnerable populations, often in the context of food insecurity and HIV/AIDS. This has driven
the emergence of home-grown design models where objectives emphasize ultra-poor, labour
constrained households, and/or households caring for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC).
Since the context in which these programmes have emerged is different from other parts of the
world where some of the details have also differed.

Vincent and Cull (2009) argued that Social cash transfers form a part of social protection
programmes, and many have been piloted and/or introduced around southern Africa. There is
empirical evidence for the impacts of cash transfers in southern Africa, based on an extensive
literature review and primary evidence assessing 20 social transfer programmes in Lesotho,
Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, which was gathered between 2005-
2008 under the Regional Evidence Building Agenda of the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability
Programme.

Tsoka, and Reichert (2011) averred that an RCT study of the pilot implementation of the
Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme (SCTS) in 2007, found that the benefits allowed treated
households to increase food consumption and improve the diversity of diet. Although the
transfer is delivered irregularly, the knowledge that it will be paid eventually and be paid in
full is sufficient to allow beneficiaries to leverage small amounts of credit for household
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consumption or asset accumulation, or to borrow money from family or friends. This was seen
as an important and effective coping strategy even though the absolute value of the transfer is
very low.

Davies and Handa (2015) in a research project titled Transfer Size in Selected National Cash
Transfer Programmes in Africa revealed that predictable transfers of cash to vulnerable groups
are raising increasing interest amongst donors, NGOs and national governments in southern
Africa, with a number of pilot projects and national programmes having been implemented.
Providing recipients with regular and predictable transfers of cash gives them the flexibility to
plan their expenditure to meet immediate basic consumption needs as well as providing the
opportunity for investment in productive activities. There is now a growing body of evidence
to show that cash transfers are effective in ameliorating vulnerability, chronic poverty and have
wider positive impacts within recipient households and communities.

Miller, Tsoka and Reichert (2011) conducted a study in Malawi on the impact of the social cash
transfer scheme on food security and averred that at household level, there is plentiful evidence
to show that cash transfers improve food security and nutrition. ESCAP (2009) established that
a large proportion of a cash transfer is spent on food: the evaluation of Malawi’s Food and
Cash Transfers (FACT) showed that 75.5% of the transfer was typically spent on groceries. In
Lesotho the number of old age pensioners reporting that they never went hungry increased
from 19% before the pension to 48% after it was introduced.

The studies have not shown how the beneficiaries use social cash transfer to improve food
security, therefore, this research will be conducted to establish how beneficiaries use social
cash transfer to improve levels of food consumption.

García-Parra et al. (2016) in a journal titled, ‘are there changes in the nutritional status of
children of Oportunidades families in rural Chiapas’ stated that conditional cash transfers are
benefits granted to poor and vulnerable households subject to fulfilment of specific conditions.
These schemes can be targeted or universal and in addition to the general eligibility criteria,
behavioural conditions are defined. The underlying intention of these schemes is to alleviate
poverty while simultaneously enhancing human capital development. One of the first programs
of this type was introduced in Mexico in 1997, called “PROGRESA” at the time.

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A comparison between the two alternative measures suggests that, in some OECD countries, a
very significant part of the redistribution measured by the more redistribution than in the past
(although this may partly reflect greater market income inequality), while others like Finland,
Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Canada and the United States are now less redistributive, and others
show very little change. In some countries such as the Netherlands, an unchanged level of
redistribution has gone in hand with lower inequality in the distribution of disposable income
reflecting large declines in market income inequality (by close to 6 percentage points). When
looking separately at changes in the two levers of government redistribution (bottom panel),
the redistributive impact of household taxes appears to have declined in Japan and Norway,
and increased in Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The redistributive
impact of public cash transfers fell in Finland and Ireland, while the opposite occurred in
Germany and Italy (Ibid).

According to Davies and Handa (2015) it was argued that changes in poverty risks by
household type over time have been small and mainly limited to single persons. On average,
and in most OECD countries, the poverty risk of couples without children is around half that
of the total population, while that of couples with children is slightly below average.
Conversely, lone parents have a probability of falling into poverty that is around three times
higher than average, with little change in the past decade. The situation for single persons
without children (including both working-age and retirement-age adults) improved over the
past decade.

Aizer et al. (2014) in his research titled the long-term impact of cash transfers to poor families
established that across the OECD area, around 9% of people of working age had a household
disposable income below the 50% threshold in the mid-2000s, a share that has increased by 0.6
point in the past decade. Poverty rates have decreased recently only in seven OECD countries,
and then only slightly. While poverty rates among people belonging to this group depend on
range of factors, the most important is whether household members have a paid job. Despite
the importance of paid work for reducing poverty, many households with workers have income
below the 50% poverty line. On average, people living in households with workers account for
around 60% of the income poor, with this share ranging from around 25% in Australia and
Norway to 80% or more in Japan, Greece, Luxembourg, Turkey, Iceland and Mexico.

In the Latin America, Peru has the program called Juntos was established in 2005. García-
Parra, et al. (2016) state that the targeting is based on three steps: the first consists of a

11
geographical selection of districts that are considered the most vulnerable; the second consists
of a proxy means test subsequently validated by the community members; finally, the
household must have children aged below 15 years, pregnant women, or older adults. The
eligible family receives a bimonthly CT of 200 Peruvian soles (approximately US$74). In order
to receive Juntos, children must have an 85% attendance rate and women and young children
must regularly visit a doctor. The compliance is supposed to be monitored by the educational
and health canters every month and by the program itself, every 2 months

Similarly, Tembo and Davis (2018) argued that Chilean CT system called solidarito consists
of several individual social benefits under the supervision of the government’s Ministry of
Social Development. The system was created in 2002 by the name of Chile Solidario and
subsequently expanded in 2011 introducing a new subsystem, first within and then co-existing
with Chile Solidario, called Ingreso Ético Familiar (later renamed as Subsistema Seguridades
Oprortunidades). In 2013, beneficiaries from both subsystems received similar benefits,
consisting of a basic CT (Bono de Proteccion Familiar) and benefits bounded to child school
assistance, child health control, and youth and women labour participation. Households are
selected through a means test. Each household can receive numerous monetary transfers. The
Bono de Proteccion Familiar is given monthly to each beneficiary household and amounts to
14,400 Chilean pesos (around US$30) decreasingly depending on the years participating in the
program. Further, when transfers are conditional on children’s school attendance, it is likely
(and intended) to reduce and curb the scourge of child labour supply which is against labour
laws and child rights. Studies have shown that child labour is closely related to the impact on
education.

Aizer et al. (2014) states that looking at the Progresa scheme in Mexico, found that the program
functioned as a barrier in the decision to use child labour as a coping mechanism in the case of
a shock. The study covered children aged eight years and older and the strongest effect was
found for children aged 12-14 in 1997; reduction of 23 per cent in the occurrence of child
labour. International Labour Organisation (2006) in a study titled Social Protection for all Men
and Women claimed that Cash transfer programs such as the MCTG are often criticized for
being a hand-out, leading to dependency and inducing perverse incentives such as reducing
work and increasing the consumption of alcohol and tobacco. However, the MCTG also
managed to deliver large increases in primary school enrolment like those reported from well-
established conditional programs such as Colombia’s Familias en Accion and Mexico’s

12
Progresa (now called Prospera) which gives the recipients an equal fighting chance out of
chronic poverty. Moreover, in no survey round did the evaluation find an increase in alcohol
or tobacco consumption as a result of the program. Most of the consumption effect of the
MCTG goes to school and food, and in fact allows households to increase their diet diversity
by adding more protein to it.

International Labour Organization carried out a similar study in Chile and they revealed that
transfers for scholar exceptional achievements are given to children in the top 15% grades of
each schooling year in high school and reach 50,000 Chilean pesos (around US$106). Women
who work can receive a monetary transfer that complements their wage until reaching a
minimum level. Water is subsidized, with households receiving 40,000 Chilean pesos
(approximately US$85) every March; households also receive monthly subsidy in water
consumption. The program varies with regard to the requirements beneficiaries must comply
with in order to receive the subsidies. The Bono de Protección Familiar is the first CT given
after a family has gone through the phase of psychosocial support. Other monetary transfers,
such as the ones related to schooling, health care, and work, have clear requirements (Ibid).

Woolard (2003) in his research titled Impact of government programmes using administrative
data sets stated that this effect is even greater in the ‘‘social democratic welfare States’’, such
as Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, where a wide range of health, educational and care
services, as well as generous social protection benefits and transfers, are provided universally
as an important redistribution function. Welfare state spending and taxation have no
behavioural impact on the distribution of market incomes. In particular, in countries with
generous public pensions, the standard approach implies that middle-class individuals are
plunged into market-income poverty on retirement simply because it is the government, rather
than the market, that provides their pensions: generous earnings-related public pensions are
then measured as being very effective at reducing inequality, in part because they restore
middle-income retirees to their pre-retirement ranking

American Institute for Research (2016) disclosed that in 1997, Mexico created Progresa (now
Oportunidades), a program that gives cash to female heads of poor families every two months
in exchange for sending their children to school, improving their diets, keeping up with their
vaccination schedules and attending health clinics. The idea behind a conditioned cash transfer
is to mitigates current poverty (through the income supplement) while preventing future
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poverty (by creating incentives for families to invest in human capital). Oportunidades provides
cash to five million families, a quarter of the population; children are said to be growing taller,
healthier and staying more in school, with larger declines in dropout rates and increases in
transition rates from primary to secondary school among girls due to the program’s graduated-
transfer schedule According to ESCAP (2009) in the article titled Social Cash Transfer
Programme discussed that in Bangladesh, Child benefits and school assistance packages
improve school attendance. Family allowances, social pensions and other cash transfers not
only improve school attendance and reduce child labour, they also have positive gender effects.
The school stipend programme in Bangladesh has helped achieve gender parity in primary
education.

Further, the success of Oportunidades has spawned emulation. Familias en Acción operates in
Colombia since 2001, targeting mothers from the 20% poorest households with a food subsidy
and monthly transfers. In a short time, total household consumption has improved noticeably,
with most spending going to protein-rich food and children’s clothes, and attendance is up at
schools and health posts (Ibid).

These studies have not given any information in relation to the number of children who have
passed through secondary and have graduated from tertiary schools, therefore, this study will
find out the number of children who have made up to tertiary school through Social Cash
Transfer.

UNICEF (2015) observed that there is also evidence to show that receiving a cash transfer
improves access to healthcare. Whilst improved nutritional status directly promotes improved
health status of household members, cash transferred to households allows recipients to afford
treatment. MCDSW and AIR (2016) also revealed that in Zambia, incidence of illnesses
reduced from 42.8% to 35%; and incidence of partial sightedness reduced from 7.2% to 3.3%,
potentially due to the fact that beneficiary households could afford minor eye surgery. It
improves the general welfare of the district of implementation which fosters national
development.

American Institute for Research (2012) established in their study of Zambia’s Multiple
Category Cash Transfer Program and that the reduction in the poverty gap for MCTG recipients
implies that more of the MCTG households are now closer to leaving extreme poverty.

14
Additionally, the programme had greater effects on poverty reduction for those farther below
the extreme poverty line. Possibly the quintessential goal of most cash transfer programmes is
to reduce poverty and the poverty gap and increase the capacity of individuals to endure shocks.
Besides the obvious implications to stable countries, cash transfers are also being seen as a
viable alternative to conflict or disaster affected areas. Over the last decades, dozens of impact
evaluation studies were conducted in all continents to assess if Conditional Cash Transfers
and/or Unconditional Cash Transfers produced the effects they promised.

UNICEF and ZIPAR (2016) also maintained that the World Bank, using their ASPIRE
database, simulated the impact of social safety net interventions in 105 countries, and found an
average decrease of 8 per cent on poverty headcount, and an average reduction of 15 per cent
in the poverty gap. In general, richer countries showed larger results than poorer countries, but
wide variation was found between countries.

García-Parra, et al. (2016) in a journal titled, are there changes in the nutritional status of
children of Oportunidades families in rural Chiapas, Mexico posited that by transferring
resources directly to the poor, cash transfers allow households increase the consumption
essential goods, such as food. However, how beneficiaries spend the money can vary widely,
and no improvements on the nutritional status can occur. The Brazilian “Bolsa Familia” has
several components related to children`s health, and a detailed study on the impacts of the
programme on child nutrition found strong positive evidence. Children under the age of five
in beneficiary families had 26 per cent higher probability to have normal height and weight for
their age. However, when disaggregated by age, no impact was observed on children less than
one-year-old.

McCord (2009) in his article titled Cash transfers argued that health is one of the factors often
directly targeted by conditional cash transfer usually aiming to guarantee that children and
mothers receive proper care during pregnancy, on birth and after. He also conducted an early
study on conditional transfers and health where he assessed three schemes in the United States
in order to find out whether proven incentives for parents led to an improved health of their
children. The indicator used for children’s health was birth weight and no correlation between
participation of mothers and children’s health could be identified. The authors argue that an
alternative indicator may have yielded more interesting outcomes.

15
Aizer et al. (2014) discovered that Uruguay’s conditional Cash Transfer is called Asignaciones
Familiares, consisting of two components: the first dates back to 1943 and is a monthly
monetary transfer to formal workers with children in the households attached to their wage; the
second is a non-contributory one, established in the early 2000s in order to reach the more
vulnerable families. This latter program’s beneficiary are households with children aged below
18 years or people with disabilities whose eligibility is determined through a means test
approach. The transfer is given monthly and the amount depends on the number of children,
the level of education they are enrolled in, and the number of people with disabilities in the
household. Thus, the transfer families can receive ranges from 1,010 to 6,950 Uruguayan pesos
(US$50–350). The requirements on receiving the non-contributory component of Asignaciones
Familiares include school assistance and regular medical check-ups.

Arruda and Dubois (2018) explained that cash transfers improve access to education. The
impact appears to be strongly positive. It is important to note that research on this matter
extends to the question whether the evident effects of increased school attendance relate to an
efficient enhancement of learning. The counterargument is that parents may send children to
school since they depend on the benefit but that children may not be motivated or physically
capable (due to malnutrition, time for homework and so on) to gain in terms of learning.

According to ESCAP (2009) in the article titled Social Cash Transfer Programme discussed
that in Bangladesh, cash transfers have interacted with direct health interventions to bring a
number of benefits which include extending immunization, increasing consumption of
micronutrients and boosting attendance for ante- and post-natal care. In Cambodia, cash
transfers have also shown promise in helping mothers and children affected by HIV and AIDS.

From this literature, it has been noticed that most of the important healthcare services that are
rendered to beneficiaries in other countries are vague in Zambia, therefore, this study will find
out the most prominent healthcare services that are offered to Social Cash Transfer
beneficiaries in Zambia using Chisamba as a case study.

UNICEF (2015) revealed from their study on Zambia’s Social Cash Transfers Spark, a Broad
Range of Impact that Social Cash Transfers (SCTs) programme plays a vital role in reducing
debt and allowing households to make critical investments, making resilience a key impact. In
particular, during the harvest season, a cash transfer, with more food available, families used
16
the cash transfers to invest in chickens, goats, mosquito nets (to protect against malaria) and
farm tools. Recipient households also invested in improved housing conditions, building
latrines and cement floors, which all have positive health implications

Vincent and Cull (2009) proclaimed that the micro-level, cash transfers promote self-esteem,
status and empowerment amongst vulnerable people, enabling them to be active members of
their households and communities, rather than burdens. The recipients of such transfers are
typically vulnerable groups of the population who are dependent, in various ways, on other
members of their household for their wellbeing. These include elderly, children, the disabled
and women. Women are also often recipients of transfers, which helps to promote gender
equality, and there is a rich literature to suggest that women are more likely to spend money
for the benefit of the whole household, rather than just for an individual. A Lesotho pensioner
described that before he was included on SCT that he was being treated as if he was dead but
after that people respected him. Similarly, a male disability grant recipient in Langa, South
Africa explained that disability grant is very helpful because he is able to buy food and
medicines if necessary and became a decent person who has insurance and accounts.

American Institutes for Research (2016) evaluated the impact of the SCT programme for the
multiple-category targeting grant in two districts of Zambia, Serenje and Luwingu, and found
that for every Kwacha transferred, beneficiary households generated an additional 68 Ngwee
through productive impacts. The evaluation revealed that the cash transfers did not create
dependency but rather empowered households and strengthened their resilience to withstand
shocks. Three years into implementation, it was found that the programme had had a strong
impact on extreme poverty, which had reduced by 9 percentage points, and on the poverty gap,
which had reduced by 12 percentage points amongst direct beneficiaries. The evaluation also
revealed that the cash transfers had helped households to be more food secure throughout the
year while also increasing the number of children who had all their material needs met. The
study also found that children aged 11–14 and 15–17 who lived in a beneficiary household
were more likely to be enrolled in school and less likely to drop out than their peers in control
households. In recent years the Government of Zambia has made a strong commitment to
scaling up the SCT programme.

According to (Croome and Nyanguru 2007) in a journal titled the Impact of the Old Age
Pension on Hunger and Vulnerability in a Mountain Area of Lesotho discussed that receipt of
social cash transfers also allows physically fit and productive adults to actively seek work. In

17
South Africa, households receiving the Old Age Pension have labour force participation rates
11-12% higher than households that do not receive the grant, and employment rates 8-15%
higher. In the same way, American Institutes for Research (2012) established that the impact
evaluations in Zambia have measured significant improvements in beneficiaries’ motivation:
they perceive themselves as considered less poor by the community, and assess the future more
positively, which is a crucial prerequisite for leaving the vicious cycle of poverty. With the
Social Cash Transfer programme, 12% of people are reported seeing the future positively, with
23% more having plans for the future at the time of the evaluation from the baseline.

According to Asian Development Bank (2005) in the article titled Social Protection on policies
and strategies stated that Asia and the Pacific has nearly a billion poor people whose livelihoods
rest on a fragile economic and social foundation. These are people with low and uncertain
incomes, few assets, limited social networks and no access to political processes. Their lives
are onerous even under normal circumstances, let alone against the kinds of shock and stress
visited upon them in recent years. These people are discriminated against on the basis of caste,
ethnicity, gender, geography, political or religious affiliations, and migrant identity. To change
their social situation and life chances, social protection must move from interventions that
address the symptoms of vulnerability to systemic transformations that remove the underlying
causes of persistent poverty and inequality. This can release them from structural traps locking
them into inequality and give them the voices and rights to claim their just share of the fruits
of development.

Further the article revealed that Asia and Pacific has been the world’s fastest-growing region
for some years. The benefits have not always been evenly distributed however, and in much of
the region income inequality has persisted despite high levels of economic growth.
Nevertheless, millions of people have been able to escape from poverty. Between 1990 and
2008, Asia and the Pacific reduced the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day from
1.5 billion to 947 million. Even if its varied at the country level, the Asia -Pacific region had
made significant progress in a number of indicators for the Millennium Development Goals,
though much more needs to be achieved. The region must set its sights higher, looking beyond
the SDGs and aiming to shield its people better from many of the risks of daily life of ill health
and disability, unemployment and of falling into poverty in old age by building comprehensive
systems of social protection. Davis and Handa (2015) revealed from research titled Transfer
Project Research Brief 2009–15 that in Zambia, particularly the 80 districts as of 2015
recipients of the transfers, engaged in trade either as buyers or sellers thereby impacting on the

18
local economy. It is therefore, argued by social cash transfer proponents that social cash
transfers stimulate the local economy in this manner thereby contributing to the national
economy as a whole.

The study carried out in Monze district as a pilot presented main findings of its impact
evaluation which included improvements in terms of livestock ownership, access to fertilisers
and a greater amount of cash crops. There have also been positive impacts such as increased
enrolment and on-time school entry. Beneficiaries were also found to experience positive
impacts on their expectations of quality of life and willingness to delay gratification. Three
years into implementation, the programme obtained strong impacts on extreme poverty (a
reduction of 9 percentage points) and on the poverty gap (a 12-percentage point reduction),
ultimately decreasing the depth of poverty by bringing households closer to the poverty line
(Ibid).

Schubert and Goldberg (2004) argued that lack of knowledge about the functioning of the
programme, of where the money comes from and the rights and duties of all actors involved
means that programme’s accountability to beneficiaries is low. The majority of the
beneficiaries were clear that the money was provided by the government but were not aware
of context in which this money is provided, that is as part of the government commitment to
provide assistance to extremely vulnerable people unable to work. Beneficiaries and non-
beneficiaries were not aware of government policy in regard to social assistance or the origins
of the funds used to pay the transfer and therefore do not have any sense of entitlement to
receive the transfer.

Selvester, Fidalgo and Taimo (2012) suggested that the key to effective cash transfer
programmes is the predictability of the transfer in terms of periodicity and amount of money
received. They further disclosed that currently in Mozambique, social cash transfer program
fails on both these counts. The payment schedules for the PSSB are erratic with payments
generally made in arrears and occasionally paid in advance, usually accumulating more than
one month transfer in a payment round. As there is no written explanation provided about the
payment schedules or the amount to be received during a payment round, it is difficult for
beneficiaries to decipher the real amount they should be receiving. This, coupled with the lack
of receipts provided by INAS as proof of payment, meant that some beneficiaries were unhappy
with the payment system. Even though there was some discontent with the irregularity of the
payments, the majority of beneficiaries did not formally complain about this or the amounts

19
received as they perceived the transfer to be a ‘gift’ from the Government rather than as their
right to a state benefit.

According to Harvey, Slater and Farrington (2005) in a book titled Cash Transfers – Mere
‘Gadaffi Syndrome’ postulated that although there was a general understanding of the
programme targeting the poorest people in the community, there was little understanding of
the eligibility criteria for selection processes. One community member stated that, the majority
of people who receive the cash transfer in her neighbourhood were the poor. There are no
conflicts between those who receive and those who do not receive. There are just lamentations
from those that do not benefit. Beneficiaries were not aware of all of the criteria used to make
the assessment. Most beneficiaries stated that there were no clear criteria for people generally
referred to poverty and/or disability for benefiting from the social program. The only specific
criterion that people mentioned frequently was linked to the condition of the home of the
potential beneficiary, which the majority did not agree with because they felt it did not reflect
current poverty level.

Miller (2010) also reports how through their increased production and income, beneficiaries
were also sabler to hire-in workers to work on their land (half of the beneficiaries were hiring-
in labor). This effect corroborates findings in Zambia (Schubert, 2005). In addition, in one
village group, the study followed the gifts and loans from SCT beneficiaries to non-SCT
household and also independently asked recipients about their receipts of transfers from SCT
beneficiaries. The study also listed all local businesses in the village group and surveyed a
sample of the different types to assess the impact of the cash transfer on their operations.
Beneficiaries spend on average 5 percent of their transfers on non-SCT family members who
do not live in the household, through gifts, loans and hiring of labor. Most recipients would be
SCT eligible if it were not for the 10 percent cut-off point for the program. In addition,
beneficiaries seem less likely to resort to begging and theft than control households.

Selvester, Fidalgo and Taimo (2012) established that in Kenya, participation in agriculture
wage employment and self-employment decrease while transfer income increases, although
private transfers (specifically gifts but not remittances) become less frequent. The number of
days worked in casual agricultural labor (ganyu) decreased, though the magnitude is smaller
than the decrease between baseline and the rainy season. The share of adults working outside
the home has also decreased, perhaps conveying a preference for home-based activities, which
would be consistent with the minor investments observed in agricultural tools (hoes, axes,

20
sickles) that took place mostly between baseline and the first round and hold up in the second
round. In addition, beneficiaries are to buy small animals such as chickens and goats.

The researcher also established that in Kenya, male-headed households are able to acquire
farming land but are less likely to acquire radio or mosquito nets. They also spend less on
health than female-headed households. On the other hand, teenagers paid work increases
among female-headed households even if those children are also more likely to go to school.
In Malawi, female-headed households seem more vulnerable as they depend more on casual
agricultural labor and include more ill or disabled members. Male-headed households seem to
acquire more tools, bicycles and chickens than female-headed ones while female-headed
household acquire more goats and spend more on consumption. However, the differences are
not significant. In both cases, asset preferences seem to differ according to the gender of the
head. It would be interesting to understand why women are less likely to buy tools in Malawi
since they seem more involved in agricultural activities overall.

Business reported steadier sales even during the rainy/hungry season and growth in profits.
Payment days have become market days and business stock in expectation of heightened sales
during those days. Business owners were also more willing to lend to SCT beneficiaries, on
the grounds that the transfers provided regular income. However, program implementation
issues may jeopardize this strategy (when payments get delayed). Overall, the program
therefore seems to generate significant economic impacts on beneficiary households.

Selvester, Fidalgo and Taimo (2012) stated in an article titled beneficiary and community
perspectives on the Basic Social Subsidy Programme in Mozambique that, for potential
beneficiaries, the imperfect knowledge about selection criteria meant that they did not actively
seek registration but would wait for local leaders or permanentes to propose them as candidates.
None of the community members interviewed has to propose themselves as candidates. In
addition, many of the beneficiaries interviewed were not receiving the correct transfer amount
as they were unaware of it. People with disabilities who are unable to work and who live in
households with no labour capacity are eligible for the program, however, in the absence of
effective targeting and a lack of specific well-defined criteria, this group is under-represented
as beneficiaries. This lack of a specific targeting mechanisms for becoming a candidate due to
disability has led to low coverage of this target group. Findings from certain studies indicated
that all respondents with disabilities felt that the neighbourhood secretaries were not qualified

21
to assess their level of disability and they did not know how they could apply through the health
system.

McCord (2009) revealed that in least developed countries (LDC), there are many hindrances
in accessing social cash transfers. This is because many of the larger programmes are donor-
funded and respond to different donor priorities. Certain places and people picked to be in the
scheme are usually as a result of interest of the funders. At the same time, there may be a large
number of small-scale schemes operated by a wide range of NGOs. Adding to the proliferation
of such schemes is their vulnerability to shifts in the political climate. Budgets are usually the
result of extensive political negotiations and may be withdrawn following a change of
government.

Miller, Tsoka and Reichert (2011) conducted a research son the impact of the social cash
transfer scheme on food security in Malawi through in-depth discussions with beneficiaries
(and some non-beneficiaries). It was clearly discovered that there is no understanding why
some of the extremely poor elderly or disabled people are not able to be registered. The
respondents in the study felt that it was necessary to have some ‘help’ to get into the system,
even if they were a deserving case and that the only way to get to enrol in the programme is by
gaining favour with the local leaders. This in turn leads to reluctance to complain about
irregularities once the household is in the system for fear of reprisal actions.

According to Vincent and Cull (2009) it was argued that due to the lack of rigour in the
application of the selection criteria, and political pressure from local officials, non-eligible
households are admitted into the programme. An example of effects of corruption is that of the
case of Zambia where the major funders; Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency (SIDA), Finland, Great Britain and Ireland in 2018 froze cash transfer funds due to
suspicion of misuse of resources by the implementers. This was after a proportion of the funds
was not disbursed but was given for the period of 2016-2018 (Lusaka Times, 2018).
Subsequent discussion during the interview revealed that one candidate, a primary school
teacher had left teaching after a cardio vascular problem had left her paralysed, she continued
to receive her teacher’s pension but correct targeting criteria indicate that beneficiaries must
not have another form of income.

Asian Development Bank (2005) argued that effective and transparent governance is critical if
social protection is to work, irrespective of whether the system is targeted or universal. China,

22
for example, has at times offered social protection through an estimated 17 different
government agencies, each competing for programmes and resources. Indonesia, too, has had
complex, overlapping systems for example, operating four different social insurance funds for
civil servants, and military and private sector employees. Vietnam has a rather fragmented
information system that has been difficult to manage both for the institutions involved and the
beneficiaries. As a result, policy makers find it difficult to keep track of those who are covered
and what the impact of policy has been.

Similarly, in Pakistan, Asian Development Bank disclosed that about 50 per cent of social
protection expenditure has gone to social security for formal workers, meaning that certain
groups, such as women who are poorly represented in the formal sector, lose out. Only about
7 per cent of expenditure on social protection is for social assistance and 6 per cent for child-
related interventions. As a result, less than a quarter of the poor receive benefits, which were
mostly in the form of microfinance.

The literature has disclosed a lot of positive impact in times Social Cash Transfer was still a
pilot project but from the time it was rolled out, the impact towards improving income status
is not clearly known therefore, the study will be conducted to determine the impact of Social
Cash Transfer in improving income status in beneficiary households.

Summary
This chapter presented depth analysis or review of literature relevant to the study based on
global, African and Zambian perspective. In view of the studies conducted in both developed
and developing nations, the researcher gained massive insight to the information surrounding
on what cash transfers are, what they ought to do, whom they affect and how they are
implemented. However, there has been limited studies investigated impact of social cash
transfer on poverty reduction among the beneficiaries. It is therefore, necessary to conduct this
study and bring out the impact of social cash transfer on poverty reduction among the
beneficiaries. This study will use case study of Chisamba District.
CHAPTER TWO

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presented the methodology that was used in the study. The components included
research type, scope of research and study area, research design, sources of data, study

23
population and sample size, sampling methods, methods of data collection and analysis,
research ethics and references. All this, was in order to acquire answers to the research
questions.

2.1 TYPE OF RESEARCH

Grinnel (1995) defines research as a structured inquiry that utilizes acceptable scientific
methodologies to solve problems and create new knowledge that is generally acceptable.
According to De Vos (1998) an evaluative research is a type of applied research that analyses
the impact, performance, effectiveness and efforts of a particular policy or program on a
particular social problem under consideration. Evaluative research analyses the impact of social
interventions to produce real-world effects such as new treatment methods, innovations in
services and a host of others. An evaluative research helped the study to assess the effects of
how well the program met the objectives and goals, how the program had been benefiting the
community and provided evidence on the effectiveness. In addition, this research type further
helped this study gain insight into the program of social cash transfer and its operation, to
determine where it was going and where it was coming from and lastly to find out what worked
in the intervention and what did not.

2.2 SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH OR STUDY SITE

The study was conducted in Chisamba district which is 60km away from Lusaka city. The area
is known for its agricultural activities with over 32000 small scale farming families and 256
commercial farmers. It shares boarders with Lusaka, Chongwe, Chibombo, Kabwe, Kapiri-
Mposhi and Luano districts.

The research was based in Chisamba district as a case study, this was because the district had
about 5,705 people who benefited from the social cash transfer program. Beneficiaries included
child-headed homes, those aged above 65 years and certified people living with disabilities
who were about 511 within the district.

2.3 RESEARCH APPROACH

This study adopted a quantitative approach and partly qualitative following the previous studies
in the field of Social Cash Transfer; it was systematic and incorporated measurements of
objective facts and numerical data. The quantitative approach used quantifiable data whereas
qualitative used qualitative data that was obtained through interviews. De Vos and Strydom

24
(2013) established that, it is information counted and expressed numerically and amenable to
statistical manipulation.

Some of the advantages of using a quantitative approach in this study was to avoid biasness.
The quantitative approach helped in gathering numerical data and helped to objectively
generalize findings across groups of people or to explain a particular phenomenon whereas
qualitative approach enabled us to describe and understand how social cash transfer had helped
in the reduction of poverty among beneficiaries. In this study, statistical techniques that were
used are the statistical charts, and graphs.

2.4 RESEARCH DESIGN

Kerlinger (1986) states that, a research design is a plan, structure and strategy of investigation
so conceived as to obtain answers to research questions or problems. This research used non-
experimental study design in that no any intervention induced to manipulate the outcome
instead it depended on interaction with the sample. Reio (2016) defined non-experimental
design as a design in which a researcher cannot control, manipulate or alter the predicator
variable but instead relies on interpretation, observation or interaction. Typically, this means
that the non-experimental researchers rely on surveys or case studies. A case study helps to
provide an opportunity for an intensive analysis of specific details that might have been
overlooked by other methods if they were to be used. Therefore, a case study in this research
was used to investigate the impact of social cash transfer on poverty reduction among the
beneficiaries in Chisamba district.

2.5 SOURCES OF DATA

The study used both primary and secondary data. It used primary data in the sense that
questionnaires were administered to the respondents that provided first-hand information. The
study also used an interview guide where key informants were interviewed to give relevant
information on social cash transfer scheme concerning beneficiaries in the district. Secondary
data was collected from both published and unpublished sources such as books, reports,
journals, newspapers, articles, periodicals among others. This helped us to come up with
information that was useful to our study.

2.6 STUDY POPULATION AND SAMPLE SIZE

The population from which the sample was selected was Chisamba district. The district is
located in the central part of Zambia and covers a total surface area of 5526sq.km. The district

25
is one of the recently created districts with a population of about 103,983 of which 51,955 are
females while 52,028 are males.

The sample size involved picking any available beneficiaries specifically within Chisamba
district and other relevant stakeholders that were involved in social cash transfer. These
stakeholders were the community leaders, officers from department of social welfare under
ministry Community Development and Social Services and. 50 household beneficiaries were
used as the sample size due to the fact that most of the beneficiaries were situated around the
township of Chisamba district hence, made it easy to sample.

2.7 SAMPLING METHOD

Babbie (2016) defined sampling as a process of selecting a few (a sample) from a bigger group
(the sampling population) to become the basis for estimating or predicting the prevalence of an
unknown piece of information, situation or outcome regarding a bigger group. A sample is the
subgroup of a population you are interested in. Sampling can mean any procedure for selecting
units of observation and can be in form of probability or non-probability. In this study,
sampling design was non-probability to be exact, convenience sampling was used. This design
enabled us to easily access beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders who participated in this
research.

2.8 METHODS FOR DATA COLLECTION

Qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used to collect the data. In this study,
quantitative data collection method was administered through the use of a questionnaire where
closed ended and some few open ended questions were structured. The questionnaires were
distributed to the beneficiaries that were collected after having them filled in. The qualitative
data collection method was also administered by using an interview guide where a list of open
ended questions to ask key informants were structured.

2.9 DATA ANALYSIS

The quantitative data was analysed continuously using excel and manual compilation.
Percentages were used to describe distributions of variables through the use bar charts and pie
charts. This enabled the researchers to analyse and interpret data that was collected from the
sample. Qualitative data was analysed by Content analysis and thematic expression from open
ended information that was collected from the interviews.

26
3.0 RESEARCH ETHICS

This research ensured that ethical issues were taken into consideration during the course of data
collection. In this research, participants were not forced to participate without their consent
unless those willing were encouraged to do so. The researchers of this study also ensured total
anonymity by protecting the identities of the beneficiaries and stakeholders who took part in
the interviews and questionnaire answering.

CHAPTER THREE

27
3.1 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The research reviewed that they were no respondents aged 1-19 years, 18 aged between 20 and
49, 14 aged between 50 and 69, 16 aged between 70 and 89 and lastly 2 aged between 90 and
109. Further it was found that most of the respondents were female scoring 44 and male scoring
6 and an illustration is given below using a pie chart.

Column1

18
16

14

0-19 20-49 50-69 70-89 90-109

Figure 1

The research revealed that most of the respondents were between the age of 20 and 49 years.
In this range of age, it was disclosed that these households were led by widows, chronically
ill and others had disabled children as alluded to.

3.1.1 Food security among beneficiaries.

The research found that the household size between 1 and 4 was 17 (34%), between 5 and 8
was 24 (48%), between 9 and 12 was 7 (14%) and 12 and above was 2 (4%). This gives a
picture that most household sizes were in the range of 5 to 8. It further revealed that the number
of meals the households were having in a day before introduction of social cash transfer was
as follows; one meal 12 (24%), two meals 22 (44%), three meals 14 (28%) and no response 2
(4%) and after they started receiving social cash transfer were as follows; one meal 8 (18%),

28
two meals 22 (44%), three meals 18 (36%) and no response 2 (4%). This data is presented in
the graphs below.

BEFORE RECEIVING SOCIAL CASH TRANFER

25
20
15
10
5
0

One meal Two meals three meals No response

Figure 2

25
AFTER RECEIVING SOCIAL CASH TRANSFER
20

15

10

One meal Two meals Three meals No resonse

Figure 3

These findings show that most household size are in the range of five (5) to eight (8) and as
such they can only afford two meals a day because the money received is not enough to cater
for all the meals in a day. Youth Association member, Taiz (2013) is in agreement that, the
amount is not enough and it does not cover beneficiary needs for a family of six members. This
is in line the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection analysis on basic need basket that in every
household of five members, the cost of living mounts up to K5000 in a month. This is what has
led to people depend on this support and could not move on to improve their income since the
amount perceived is very low.

29
3.1.2 Children accessing primary school education among beneficiary households

In finding out the impact of Social Cash Transfer on children accessing primary education
among beneficiary households. The study revealed that 21 (42%) beneficiary household never
used Cash Transfers to enrol their children to primary schools, 16 (32%) beneficiary
households managed to enrol one child with the help of cash Transfer, 6 (12%) beneficiary
households managed to enrol two children, 5 (10%) beneficiary households managed to enrol
three children and 2 (4%) beneficiary registered no response.

Children enrolled by SCT beneficiary households

45%
40% 0 1 2 3 No response
Percentage of households

35% 42% 32% 12% 10% 4%

30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
0 1 2 3 No response
Number of children enrolled in primary schools

Figure 4

In finding out how Social Cash Transfer help beneficiary households to provide basic school
requirement for their children, it revealed that 13 (26%) beneficiary households agreed, 25
(50%) beneficiary households strongly agreed, 1 (2%) beneficiary household disagreed, 9
(18%) beneficiary strongly disagreed and 2 (4%) beneficiary households registered no
response. The table below shows how Social Cash Transfer helped beneficiary households to
provide basic school requirements for the children.

30
 USE OF SCT IN PROVIDING BASIC SCHOOL
REQUIREMENT

50%

26%
18%
2% 4%

AGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE STRONGLY NO

AGREE DISAGREE RESPONSE

Figure 5

The study also sought to find out whether Social Cash Transfer help beneficiary households to
finance parent Teacher’s Association (PTA) programs and projects. The study revealed that 16
(32%) beneficiary households agreed, 13 (26%) beneficiary households strongly agreed, 5
(10%) beneficiary households disagreed, 8 (16%) beneficiary households strongly disagreed
and 8 (16%) beneficiary households registered no response

The study indicate that majority of beneficiary households never used Cash Transfer to enrol
their children to primary schools on the basis that the amount they received was minimal
coupled with untimely distribution of the Cash Transfers which then forced them to use their
own finances to enrol their children. However, households that used their own finances and
those that used Cash Transfers to enrol their own used Cash Transfer to provide school
requirement such as buying them books, pens, pencils, uniforms, shoes, bags among others.
Most beneficiary households also used Cash transfers to finance Parents Teacher’s Association
(PTA) programs and projects which prevented their children from being chased to attend
classes in their respective primary schools. This is in line with what the United Nations
University World Institute for Development Economics Research (2019) which stated that
children who lived in a beneficiary household were more likely to be enrolled and attend
primary education and less likely to drop out than their peers in households that are not Cash
Transfer. Miller (2010) established from the research conducted in Malawi that at the child
level, positive effects are observed on school enrolment. The outcome showed the net positive

31
effects of the cash transfer on child time use and the household preference for children to attend
school when cash transfers were available.

3.1.3 Accessing quality healthcare among beneficiary households

With regards to how social cash transfer has helped accessing better healthcare among
beneficiary households, the result of the study revealed that 22 (44%) households agreed,
12(24%) households strongly agreed, 3 (6%) households disagreed, 12(24%) household
strongly disagreed and 1 (2%) household recorded no response as shown in the table below.

Access to better healthcare

No response

strongly disagreed

disagreed

Strongly agreed

Agreed

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Figure 6

In finding out how social cash transfer helped households to improve their diet. The study revealed that
22(44%) households agreed, 12(24%) households strongly agreed, 8(16%) households disagreed, 6(12%)
households strongly disagreed and 2 (4%) households recorded no response. The study also sought to find
out whether money from social cash transfer helped in accessing services that require fee paying at the
clinic or hospital and the results revealed that, 28(56%) households agreed, 6(12%) households strongly
agreed, 6(12%) households disagreed,9(18%) households strongly disagreed and 1(2%) household
registered no response.

The study further found out how the social cash transfer helped the beneficiaries in maintaining good
hygiene and sanitation. And it was revealed that 21(42%) households agreed, 17(34%) households strongly
agreed, 3 (6%) households disagreed, 8(16%) households strongly disagreed and 1(2%) household

32
 recorded no response. The table below show how SCT has helped beneficiaries maintain hygienic and
sanitary conditions in their households.

Impact of SCT on hygiene and sanitation

50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
agreed strongly agreed disagreed strongly no response
disagreed
Figure 7

The study indicate that social cash transfer helps beneficiary households to live a health life as
they are able to acquire prescribed medication from chemistries in times when the public clinics
run out of medicines. It was also revealed that SCT has changed the eating pattern of
beneficiaries as they able buy food they consume at least twice than once before SCT was
introduced. The findings further revealed that beneficiary households are able to maintain good
hygienic and sanitary conditions through SCT because people are able to acquire sanitary
requirements such as soap, disinfectants, chlorine, washing detergents among others. Maluccio
(2005) showed that program beneficiaries were better able than non-beneficiaries to protect
their income and to not divest in human capital (maintaining access to basic health services).

3.1.4 Income status among the beneficiary households

From the question addressed to find out the type of employment the head of the household was
involved in, it was established that, from the sample of 50 beneficiaries, only 14% were
employed; 4% on full time employment and 10% on part-time basis. The remaining 86% were
unemployed as shown by figure 8 below.

33
 Head of Household employment status
Full time employent
4% Part time employment
10%
Unemployed
86%

Full time employent Part time employment Unemployed

Figure 8

The research further ascertained the question relating to the main source of income for the
households and results are shown by figure nine below. The research showed that those that
relied on wage from labour were 4%, from farming 6%, from petty trading or businesses were
64% and other 26% mentioned alternative sources which were depending on family members
which was 6% and those that had no defined source were 22%.

When asked to estimate how the head of the household earned in a month, the survey
established that 36% of the sample earned below k100 per month, 8% earned between k99 to
k200, 16% earned between k199 to k300, 26% managed to earn above 300 and the remaining
9% had no established estimate of monthly income. The survey went on to ask the beneficiaries
if money received from SCTs made a difference in living standards. And it was established that
58% of the respondents agreed, 30% strongly agreed, 6% disagreed and the other 6% strongly
disagreed to the question. Lastly, from those who agreed or strongly agreed, when told to list
two major things the money they received was used for, its established that of the two items
mentioned, food consumption was 100% and other item varied greatly from person to person;
school fees and requirements, credit payments, transport, health care services and medicines,
capital for businesses, buying luxuries like phones and cosmetics.

34
 SOURCES OF INCOME
0.7
0.6 0.64
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2 0.26

0.1
0.04 0.06
0
Wage labor Farming petty businesses/trade Others

Figure 9

The question to be addressed in this study relate to the importance of increased income status
towards poverty reduction. In order to find out the impact of Social Cash Transfer towards
improving income status among beneficiary households, the employment status of head of the
household was asked; either full time, part time or unemployed. The research established that
there was tremendous unemployment among the sample population; 86% of the population
was unemployed and only 14% employed and this was observed through the kind of thatched
houses most of beneficiaries lived in. This means that the households headed by those
unemployed had no definite source of income and their purchasing power was greatly reduced.
This implies that they could not actively participate in in the local economic activities hence
the national economy at large creating a multiplier effect that is recessionary in nature. In a
research conducted by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) (2016) titled The Multiple
Categorical Targeting Grant – A Comprehensive Summary of Impacts (2011-2014): Social
Cash Transfer Programme Impact Evaluation Series (Randomized Control Trial) agree to the
notion above alluding that social cash transfers stimulate the local economy, increases
household income and food security. The AIR research goes further to establish that
monetizing and aggregating both consumption and non-consumption impact spending of the
social transfers gives an estimated multiplier of 1.68. And that each kwacha transferred was
now providing an additional 0.68 kwacha or roughly 70% more in terms of net benefits to
households.

35
To really gain an in-depth in the research, households were asked to identify their main sources
of income. The choices were sources from wage labour, farming, petty trading/businesses and
an open ended question was provided to specify other sources not listed and the results are
shown in figure 9 above. From the survey conducted in Chisamba, it was established that 64%
of respondents engaged in petty businesses or trade as major source of income in contrast to
13.3% findings of Matandiko (2010) in a research titled Social Cash Transfers: How are they
contributing to Rural livelihoods: the case of Kalomo social cash transfer scheme. In an
interview with one elderly respondent, she stated that though the money was seemingly little,
she had managed to set up a charcoal business as she could not work because of her elderly age
and she did not want to be dependant. As can be seen, though the money was little, a little
increase in the income status of the beneficiaries stimulates investments and gives them
independence or self-reliance thereby increasing their self-esteem. In addition, it was revealed
that though involved in entrepreneurship, the type of businesses from cash transfer are not
viable as the little profit is used immediately for consumption. This is attributed to the fact that
it stimulated the same type of business that require low capital; charcoal selling and traditional
drink brewing popularly known as (Munkoyo and Kachasu). This creates perfect competition
making the prices really low hence reducing profits. Most of these beneficiaries engaged in
these trade in order to be sustained as they awaited the next bi-monthly transfer pay out.

As earlier stated income helps local economies creating a chain of events. From statistics, it
has shown that most of the respondents relied mostly on petty or small scale businesses. In
addition, it was discovered that most of the sample population salary scale was less than k100
per month. This was attributed to the fact that most of the beneficiaries are old, disabled and
unskilled. And because these attributes they are only hired in low paying jobs. Moreover, most
of the samples engaged in the same alternative form of employment that is brewing.

To add on, a number of studies have been conducted to evaluate the relationship between cash
transfers and change in living standards of the beneficiaries. The survey showed that 88 % of
the respondents agreed that social cash transfers improved their living standards with most of
them citing an increase in consumption pattern (for instance from one meal to two or three in
a day) as an example and out of the 88%, 30% strongly agreed to this notion. Apart from
stimulating economy and investment, cash transfer also showed that the program impacted not
only the direct beneficiaries but also the communities they live in. When beneficiaries spend
the money locally, the non-beneficiary households that supply goods and services also benefit
from the increased cash circulating in the community. Arruda and Dubois (2018) in their

36
research brief titled, ‘A brief history of Zambia’s Social Cash Transfer Program, attest to the
findings above by giving a general view of things that improved after beneficiaries started to
receive the SCTs which is extra income. They went on to say that the main findings of the
Kalomo impact evaluation (a comparison of beneficiaries’ conditions before and after the
intervention) included desirable improvements in terms of school enrolment, access to more
than one meal a day, more satisfaction with the meals eaten, access to a more varied diet, less
reported illness, a decrease in the number of households depending on external sources of
income (such as relatives and neighbors), a reduction in household debts and increased asset
ownership, investment and consumption.

From the study, it was discovered that though little, cash transfer had increased the standards
of living of the sample size. This was observed through different improved aspect of the
beneficiary’s lives; the ability to pay primary school fees, school requirements, increases
consumption, capital as well as credit to list a few. However, 12% of the population that
disagreed to this notion and 6% that strongly disagreed attributed to the fact that the money
was little and its value had depreciated over time but there had been no increase in the amount
they received. One respondent in Zimbabwe compound alluded that the money was too little
and did not really bring any change to her living standards. She further went on to say that she
could only pay the school fee of her grade nine child of which it fell short of a k20.

Most of these disagreements can be associated to the inefficiency of the system in that at the
time of the research, the beneficiaries had not been paid for the past four months due to the
lack of funds as stated by the administrative officer of Chisamba District social welfare.
Moreover, most of the monies goes directly into consumption and little or none is left for
tangible investments as revealed from the 100% response in which food was mentioned as one
of the major thing the money is used for.

With regards to selection criteria, the district social welfare officer revealed that the district has
District Welfare Assistance Committee (DWAC) and Community Welfare Assistance
Committee (CWAC) elected by community members themselves whose responsibility is to
select beneficiaries based on disability, agedness, chronic illness, female or male headed
households. The district social welfare officer also revealed that they encounter challenges in
terms of transportation coupled with the bad terrain in some places as well as poor network
systems which makes it hard to get in touch with stakeholders and beneficiaries when the need
arises.

37
 CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

4.1 CONCLUSION

4.1.1 It was concluded that most households could only afford two meals in a day before and
after receiving social cash transfer which is directly signalling that food insecurity for most
beneficiary households.

4.1.2 It was concluded that Social cash transfer has an impact among beneficiary households
to enable their children access primary school education because it helps them to provide basic
school requirements at primary level, some at secondary levels, financing school Parents
Teacher’s Association programs and projects which enable their children to acquire knowledge
without any interruptions.

4.1.3 It was concluded that social cash transfers have an impact on the beneficiary households
as it enables them to have better healthcare, such as improved diet, accessing services that
require fee paying at the clinic or hospital, maintaining good hygiene and sanitation in that they
are able buy hygienic requirements such as soap, chlorine, washing detergent, toilet
disinfectants among others which enable them to be productive in their life.

4.1.4 The study concluded that there was great unemployment amongst the beneficiaries,
social cash transfers did increase the beneficiaries’ purchasing power enabling them to
participate in the economy. And the study showed that most of the money received was used
immediately for food consumption making them prone to hunger when the money depleted.
The study further revealed that most of the beneficiaries relied on income from petty business
or trade to survive and the little money received, a small sample population invested in the
small business that sustained their livelihoods. Therefore, Cash transfers in themselves are not
a panacea for poverty reduction though they form an essential element for pro poor
development strategies.

4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

38
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:

4.2.1 The government should increase the Cash Transfer for the beneficiaries so as to
enable them improve their food security.

4.2.2 The government should be adjusting the amount paid out for inflation after a
considerable specified period of time.

4.2.3 The government through the ministry of social welfare and community development
should create a platform that can teach entrepreneurship skills for those who would want to
learn. And link the learners to cheap capital goods that they may want to purchase.

4.2.4 The amount given to the elderly should also be increased as to those who are disabled
as they are also need someone to take care of them. This is because most of them are weak and
prone to old age diseases.

39
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