This brief presents a summary of the key discussions following a regional workshop on the role of cash transfers in tackling chronic poverty and hunger in southern Africa. It also highlights some of the issues on which there was a broad sense of agreement namely that cash transfers have a positive potential to reduce vulnerability in southern Africa, that donor and NGO efforts need to build support to implement these programmes and that adequate evidence already exists to support key advocacy messages.

The brief also offers some suggestions on the steps that can be taken to carry the discussion forward, both by workshop participants and by RHVP. The workshop was cohosted by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN), Oxfam GB and the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP) and was held in Johannesburg on the 9th and 10th October 2006.