Does Community-Based Targeting Really Work in Cash Transfer Programmes in Africa?

Abstract

Social transfers are increasingly seen as a key tool in Eastern and Southern Africa to combat the triple threat of chronic poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS. Targeting effectiveness in defining which groups are eligible and how these groups are identified is fundamental to the impact of these programmes. There is a key distinction between the targeted cash transfer programmes in Latin America and those in Africa, which use ‘community-based’ targeting (CBT), thereby incorporating a more substantial role of the community in the overall selection of beneficiaries, albeit following or based on other targeting criteria (geographic, demographic and proxymeans testing). To help better understand some of the different targeting approaches in Eastern and Southern Africa and their effectiveness, Handa et al. (2012) examine cash transfer programmes in Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique which are very different in other aspects but all use some level of CBT. (…)