Social Cash Transfers Programme (SCTP) - Lot 1
The Social Cash Transfers Programme (SCTP) began as a pilot in one district in 2006 and is now active across all 28 districts of Malawi. It provides bi-monthly unconditional cash transfers to recipients who qualify as ultra-poor and labour constrained to reduce poverty and hunger, and aims to increase school enrolment. CGA leads a consortium providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare (MoGCDSW) to manage the operational and financial activities of the SCTP in the 14 KfW- and EU-funded Districts.
| Country/Region: | Malawi |
| Dates/Duration: | 2020 - 2024 |
| Funded by: | [German Governement and EU] through KfW |
| Clients: | Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare |
The Social Cash Transfers Programme (SCTP) is known locally as Mtukula Pakhomo, which translates to “lifting up households”. The SCTP is a social protection and cash transfers project which provides bi-monthly unconditional cash transfers of around 9,000 MWK ($11USD) to ultra-poor and labour-constrained households in all 28 districts of Malawi. The project aims to address the most acute lifecycle and poverty vulnerabilities by providing a shock-resistant social protection system. The SCTP began as a pilot in 2006 in one district and is now present in all 28 districts.
Working with the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare (MoGCDSW), CGA is leading a consortium providing technical assistance to manage the operational and financial activities of the SCTP in the 14 KfW- and EU-funded Districts. CGA has been involved in the project since July 2020.
The SCTP is a result of 15+ years of social protection work in Malawi and is perhaps the most comprehensive national social safety net in Africa, relative to country income.
The SCTP has sustained service delivery throughout COVID-19 and currently has 300,000+ households enrolled on the programme with over 1.3m people indirectly benefiting.
In addition to this work, CGA Technologies is also rebuilding the SCTP Management Information System (MIS).
Outputs and Resources
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Building Resilience through Social Protection: Evidence from Malawi
By Frank Otchere & Sudhanshu Handa, May 2022
Read the paper
Research conducted in 2020 to evaluate the Government of Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Program (SCTP) found that unconditional cash transfers increased the resilience of beneficiaries by 30 per cent. Results imply that small, regular, predictable cash transfer payments to ultra-poor households not only protect current consumption but can also build resilience and protect against future shocks. -
More evidence on the impact of government social protection in sub-Saharan Africa: Ghana, Malawi, and Zimbabwe
By Handa et al., 2021
Read the paper
The SCTP was one of three programmes researched to evidence the impact of government social protection.
"All three programmes have strong effects on their primary objective—food security or food consumption, as well as on secondary objectives that include livelihood strengthening and children’s well-being. The largest and most consistent impacts occur in Malawi, where transfer values are in line with international best practice and payments were made regularly during the study period. All programmes show a positive income multiplier, with the multiplier largest in Malawi at 2.94."
Team
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Shalisa Veira-Mzungu
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Desiree Schulz
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Terry Roopnaraine
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Chikhwengo Chigwe Mchira
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Angel Msukwa
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Lucy Ifould