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Mchinji Pilot Social Cash Transfer Scheme
01 January 2006
Country coordinator: Duncan Samikwa
The government of Malawi, with funding from UNICEF, began the pilot of a social cash transfer scheme in July 2006. The pilot scheme will be implemented in four Traditional Authority (TA) areas in Mchinji district in the central region of Malawi. The four TAs have a population of about 100,000 people in 25,000 households.
The scheme focuses on households headed by the elderly and caring for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and aims to increase school enrolment and attendance of children living in target group households. It also aims to generate information on the feasibility, costs and benefits, and impact of a social cash transfer scheme as a component of a national social protection programme.
The targeting criteria include:
- Ultra poor: In the lowest expenditure quintile and under the ultra poverty line (only one meal per day; not able to purchase essential non-food items like soap, clothing, school utensils; begging; no valuable assets)
- Labour constrained: A dependency ratio of more than three (no household member aged 19 to 65 fit to work, or more than three dependents for every household member fit to work). This criterion is used to focus on households unable to access or to benefit sufficiently from labour-based interventions like public works or ganyu (casual labour).
A multi-stage participatory targeting process was used. In the first stage, a village-level Community Social Protection Committee (CSPC) lists, visits and interviews all households appearing to meet the criteria. The CSPC then ranks the households according to neediness. The CSPC presents the selected households and the ranking to a community meeting to ensure that all households meeting the criteria are included, that those not meeting the criteria are removed from the list, and that consensus on the ranking is achieved. The community meeting facilitates transparency of the scheme and the targeting process. Extension workers then assist a district-level Social Protection Sub-Committee (SPSC) – part of the District Executive Committee (DEC) – to check fairness and transparency and to verify that the results are correct. The SPSC then approves the 10% neediest households, based on the assumption that, on average, less than 10% of the households meet both criteria.
The scheme has three transfer options depending on household size. All options include an education bonus to encourage school enrolment and attendance and to discourage child labour and premature drop outs. Which category one falls in depends on the following:
- Each adult is given MK600* per month (up to 4 adults).
- Each school going child (primary school) is entitled to MK200 per month (up to 3 children)
- Each school going child (secondary school) is entitled to MK400 per month (up to 3 children).
*(US$1=MWK140)
Depending on the family size, and household composition, a beneficiary could fall for any of the three broad categories. In the selected TAs, approximately 2,500 households meet the criteria.
For more information contact Harry Mwamlima at the Department of Poverty and Disaster Management Affairs, email: or tel +26 58 85 9013.
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