1. Presented by Dr. Esmie Tamanda Kainja

2.  About the MSCTP  Objectives of the paper  Methodology  Findings  Conclusions  Policy implications  Recommendations

3.  Population: 13 million (NSO, 2008)  80% live in rural areas and rely on agriculture  50.7% live below poverty line (USD1.25/day)  22.5% ultra poor  10% ultra poor and labour constrained (The targeted group for SCTP)

4.  To contribute to national efforts to reduce poverty and hunger among ultra poor and labor constrained households.  To increase school enrolment and attendance of children living in target group households  To improve health, nutrition, protection and well-being of vulnerable children in target group households.

5. The SCTP targeted households comprise of the following groups of people:  Elderly  Orphaned and vulnerable children  Child-headed households  Chronically ill and or HIV-infected persons  People with disabilities

6. District Households Household members BALAKA 8,27237,205 CHITIPA 3,72215,514 LIKOMA 2261,175 MACHINGA 7,65641,435 MANGOCHI 12,15660,901 MCHINJI 10,47645,570 MZIMBA NORTH 3541,474 NENO 4411,770 PHALOMBE 3,81516,506 SALIMA 3,24216,678 THYOLO 6,46724,833 Total 56,827263,061

8. To explore the roles of Local Government Structures in the delivery of the Social Cash Transfer To conduct a swot analysis of the design, operations and delivery structures of Social Cash Transfer To identify strategies for improving the operations and delivery of Social Cash Transfer for future policy direction

9.  Process Evaluation Qualitative Method using multi-level and multiple tools  Data collection methods:  Document Review: Policy, Program, Monitoring reports, training manuals and guidelines  Consultation meetings using FGDs in 3 districts  Interviews with members of National Secretariat, District Executive members and Community Extension Workers  Authors experience and field observations  Data analysis method: Content analysis

10. 1. Success depended on high level technical support o The involvement of the Chief Secretary as Chair (NSC) o High profile multi-sector NTC – Govt, CSOs and private sector o Attracted funding from DPs but little from government

11. 2. MSCTP district structures have been responsive o There is coordination at district level in implementation in training of community volunteers, targeting and payment and monitoring of beneficiaries o All activities of district structures involved in the programme funded from although members come from different sectors 3. There is variation of success depending on capacity of districts o Success drivers: managerial skills and interest of DC of DPD, capacity of district secretariat

12. 4. The quality of the MSCTP rests with the quality of volunteers elected into the Community Social Support Committees (CSSC) o Competence and bias of CSSC members determine the outcome of the targeting exercise o They identify eligible households based on the knowledge gained after training and their own judgment, which may lead to inclusion and exclusion errors

13. 5. The quality of the targeting improves with number of training days and increased involvement of extension workers as ‘validators’ o With increased number of training days from 2 to 3, there has been increased targeting efficiency o With the involvement of extension workers to validate data the list of potential beneficiaries, some inclusion errors have been identified

14. 6. The impact of the cash transfer in limited due to little attention paid to linkages o There is minimal linkage of beneficiaries to other services due to delayed linkage strategy development 7. Some inclusion and exclusions errors in SP initiatives are partly due to uncoordinated targeting systems  Each SP initiative uses its methodology on the same population  Some poor households participate in all while others are not identified at all

15. Decentralized structures can work for the poor Volunteers are vital for the delivery of cost effective SP Programmes The disconnect between technical and political commitment is one key impediment for the MSCTP development in Malawi Many DPs without government leadership may result in a disjointed programme

16. Given that it has been demonstrated that social cash transfers can be delivered by decentralised structures  There is need to standardize the decentralized structures by providing requisite bodies and capacity building for those bodies after district capacity assessment  This implies drastic increase in government allocation of financial resources at district level at secretariat and district levels

17.  Given that hitherto volunteers who drive the programme are not remunerated there is need for government and stakeholders to develop some standard incentives that would go some way in compensating for their time 

18. 1. Produce a single registry of poor households that may require SP depending on the depth of their poverty or breadth of their vulnerability  Combine census and robust proxy means test to produce  Categorise households by type of SP initiative that suits its level of poverty or vulnerability 2. Finance MSCTP activities using basket funding to harmonise funding and reporting procedures  Government has proposed the use of a Social Support Fund

19.  Thanks for your kind attention!!!!!