This brief describes the broad array of impacts arising from a cash transfer programme that was piloted in the Tigray region of Ethiopia from 2011 to 2014. About 80 percent of Tigray’s population of 4.3 million live in rural areas and depend on rain-fed subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods. Farm families in Tigray tend to have small land holdings and limited productive inputs such as labour, oxen, seeds and fertilizers. Severe drought has repeatedly struck the northern Tigray region and has had a major effect on agricultural productivity. In 2011, BOLSA launched the Social Cash Transfer Pilot Programme (SCTPP) in Tigray with support from UNICEF. The programme particularly aimed to improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children, the elderly and disabled people.