Do Unconditional Social Cash Transfer Schemes Have Productive Impacts in Malawi?

Abstract

In 2006, the Government of Malawi initiated the Social Cash Transfer (SCT) programme as part of a poverty reduction strategy that targeted ultra-poor, labour-constrained households. The SCT programme is an unconditional cash transfer designed to reduce poverty, hunger and starvation, and improve school enrolment and attendance and the health and nutrition of children among the poorest 10 per cent of households in Malawi. The programme currently reaches over 28,000 households and is expected to serve 300,000 households with 910,000 children by 2015. The value of the transfer ranges from US$4 per month for a household with one eligible member to US$13 per month for households with four or more eligible members. In addition, the programme offers a schooling attendance bonus ranging from US$1.30 per month for primary-school-age children to US$2.60 per month for secondary-school-age children. On average, the transfer represents just under 30 per cent of beneficiary households’ per capita income. (…)