Réduction de la pauvreté rurale

Local Economy-wide Impact Evaluation (LEWIE) of Malawi`s Social Cash Transfer (SCT) Programme

Published:
Reports: Impact Evaluation Report

The Government of Malawi’s (GoM’s) Social Cash Transfer (SCT) Programme is an unconditional cash transfer programme targeted to ultra-poor, labor constrained households. The objectives of the programme include reducing poverty and hunger in vulnerable households and increasing school enrolment. The programme began as a pilot in Mchinji district in 2006. Since 2009, the programme has expanded to reach an additional eight districts (Chitipa, Likoma, Machinga, Mangochi, Phalombe, Salima, Thyolo and Balaka) out of 28 total districts in Malawi. The programme has gone to full scale in Mchinji, Chitipa and Likoma and by 2012, had reached nearly 30,000 households and approximately 103 000 individuals. The SCT provides a significant infusion of cash into Malawi’s rural economy. When beneficiaries spend the cash transfer, they transmit the impact to others inside and outside the local economy, creating benefits for non-recipient households as well, who often provide the goods and services purchased by beneficiary households. The impact on the local economy was simulated using a LEWIE (Local Economy Wide Impact Evaluation) model. This study finds that the Malawi SCT generates a total income multiplier of 1.25 in nominal terms. Each Mk of transfer generates an additional Mk 0.25 of total income gain within the programme area.