IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v36y2011i2p230-238.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of the Social Cash Transfer Scheme on food security in Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Miller, Candace M.
  • Tsoka, Maxton
  • Reichert, Kathryn

Abstract

The Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme (SCTS) was launched in 2006 to improve food security by directly providing cash transfers to the country's most destitute households. Although government-implemented cash transfer schemes have gained popularity throughout Latin America, these schemes are just emerging in Africa. While where there is evidence of the beneficial impact of cash transfers on food security from Latin American countries, there is a dearth of evidence from resource poor countries in Africa. In order to fill this gap, we conducted a longitudinal, randomized community control study of the pilot SCTS in Mchinji, Malawi from March 2007 to April 2008. In this study, we describe the impact of approximately US$14 per month on food security among recipient households compared to control households using indicators of food consumption and expenditures and dietary diversity. We present compelling evidence, whereby each of the tested outcomes yields large effect sizes that are highly statistically significant, demonstrating a sizeable impact of cash transfers on food security and food diversity in rural Malawi. The SCTS appears to be an effective tool within the National Social Welfare Policy for improving food security in the country's destitute households.

Suggested Citation

  • Miller, Candace M. & Tsoka, Maxton & Reichert, Kathryn, 2011. "The impact of the Social Cash Transfer Scheme on food security in Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 230-238, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:36:y:2011:i:2:p:230-238
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-9192(10)00134-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Candace M. Miller & Maxton Tsoka & Kathryn Reichert, 2010. "Targeting Cash to Malawi's Ultra-Poor: A Mixed Methods Evaluation," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 28(4), pages 481-502, July.
    2. Barrett, Christopher B., 2002. "Food security and food assistance programs," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 40, pages 2103-2190, Elsevier.
    3. Ariel Fiszbein & Norbert Schady & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Margaret Grosh & Niall Keleher & Pedro Olinto & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2009. "Conditional Cash Transfers : Reducing Present and Future Poverty," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2597, December.
    4. Frikkie Booysen & Servaas Van Der Berg, 2005. "The Role Of Social Grants In Mitigating The Socio‐Economic Impact Of Hiv/Aids In Two Free State Communities1," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 73(s1), pages 545-563, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ryckembusch, David & Frega, Romeo & Silva, Marcio Guilherme & Gentilini, Ugo & Sanogo, Issa & Grede, Nils & Brown, Lynn, 2013. "Enhancing Nutrition: A New Tool for Ex-Ante Comparison of Commodity-based Vouchers and Food Transfers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 58-67.
    2. Kilburn, Kelly & Handa, Sudhanshu & Angeles, Gustavo & Mvula, Peter & Tsoka, Maxton, 2017. "Short-term impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program on child schooling: Experimental evidence from Malawi," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 63-80.
    3. Victoria Menil, 2015. "Missed Opportunities in Global Health: Identifying New Strategies to Improve Mental Health in LMICs," Working Papers id:7987, eSocialSciences.
    4. Scarlato, Margherita & D'Agostino, Giorgio, 2016. "The political economy of cash transfers: a comparative analysis of Latin American and sub-Saharan African experiences," IDOS Discussion Papers 6/2016, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    5. World Bank Group, 2016. "Cash Transfers in Humanitarian Contexts," World Bank Publications - Reports 24699, The World Bank Group.
    6. AfDB AfDB, 2011. "MDG Report 2011 - Full Report," MDG Report 334, African Development Bank.
    7. Tomas Artemio Marinozzi, 2021. "Allocation problems in child benefit programs using a microeconomic theory approach," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 775, Universidad del CEMA.
    8. Candace M. Miller, 2011. "Cash Transfers and Economic Growth: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Transfer Recipients and Business Owners in Malawi," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(3), pages 1-36, September.
    9. Oyvind Eggen, 2013. "Making and Shaping Poor Malawians: Citizenship Below the Poverty Line," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 31(6), pages 697-716, November.
    10. Chakona, Gamuchirai & Shackleton, Charlie M., 2019. "Food insecurity in South Africa: To what extent can social grants and consumption of wild foods eradicate hunger?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 87-94.
    11. d'Agostino, Giorgio & Pieroni, Luca & Scarlato, Margherita, 2013. "Social Protection and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Evaluation of Cash Transfer Programmes," MPRA Paper 49536, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. de Brauw, Alan & Gilligan, Daniel O. & Hoddinott, John & Roy, Shalini, 2014. "The Impact of Bolsa Família on Women’s Decision-Making Power," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 487-504.
    13. Mitra, Sophie, 2010. "Disability Cash Transfers in the Context of Poverty and Unemployment: The Case of South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 1692-1709, December.
    14. Oludele Akinloye Akinboade & Segun Adeyemi Adeyefa, 2018. "An Analysis of Variance of Food Security by its Main Determinants Among the Urban Poor in the City of Tshwane, South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 61-82, May.
    15. Verónica Amarante & Marco Manacorda & Edward Miguel & Andrea Vigorito, 2016. "Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Program, and Social Security Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 1-43, May.
    16. Margaret Triyana, 2016. "Do Health Care Providers Respond to Demand-Side Incentives? Evidence from Indonesia," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 255-288, November.
    17. Imen Turki Abdelhedi & Sonia Zouari Zouari, 2020. "Agriculture and Food Security in North Africa: a Theoretical and Empirical Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(1), pages 193-210, March.
    18. Jacobus de Hoop & Furio C. Rosati, 2014. "Cash Transfers and Child Labor," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 29(2), pages 202-234.
    19. Rae Lesser Blumberg & Kara Dewhurst & Soham G. Sen, 2013. "Gender-inclusive Nutrition Activities in South Asia : Volume 2. Lessons from Global Experiences," World Bank Publications - Reports 15980, The World Bank Group.
    20. Jacobus Hoop & Patrick Premand & Furio Rosati & Renos Vakis, 2018. "Women’s economic capacity and children’s human capital accumulation," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 453-481, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:36:y:2011:i:2:p:230-238. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.