This report is a complement study to the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Programme Baseline Evaluation Report, released by the Carolina Population Centre at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Handa et al., 2014). Along with information on the conceptual framework and the design of the impact evaluation, the report has documented various indicators in the baseline, notably across treatment and control groups. These indicators span dimensions of household welfare, including anthropometrics, food security and health status. The report found randomization of households into treatment and control groups to be successful on the basis of high similarity between the two groups across the documented indicators. The targeting performance is well within the range found internationally, although there is certainly room for improvement. It was also concluded that the data were of good quality, with almost perfect response rates and key indicators matching up well with those from other data collection exercises. In this report we focus on documenting the baseline characteristics of households benefiting from the programme in relation to the control and ineligible households. In doing so, we will try to address two broader questions, among others: firstly, did the design of the evaluation generate a credible counterfactual group for analysing the productive impact of the programme? And secondly, was the targeting of the households performed effectively? This report also serves as a baseline for the productive impact of the Malawi SCT, which we will analyse once follow-up data are available. This will include use of fertilizer and other inputs, overall crop production levels and composition, sales from crop production, access to and use of extension services, ownership of small tools and other assets including livestock, and changes in the labour supply of household members.