Household-based cash transfer targeting strategies in Zimbabwe: Are we reaching the most vulnerable children?

Laura Robertson,Phyllis Mushati,Jeffrey W Eaton,Lorraine Sherr,Jeremiah C Makoni,Morten Skovdal,Tom Crea,Gideon Mavise,Lovemore Dumba,Christina Schumacher,Shungu Munyati,Constance Nyamukapa,Simon Gregson

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.09.031

Abstract

Census data, collected in July 2009, from 27,672 children were used to compare the effectiveness, coverage and efficacy of three household-based methods for targeting cash transfers to vulnerable children in eastern Zimbabwe: targeting the poorest households using a wealth index; targeting HIV-affected households using socio-demographic information (households caring for orphans, chronically-ill or disabled members; child-headed households); and targeting labour-constrained households using dependency ratios. All three methods failed to identify large numbers of children with poor social and educational outcomes. The wealth index approach was the most efficient at reaching children with poor outcomes whilst socio-demographic targeting reached more vulnerable children but was less efficient.

Highlights

Cash transfer programmes have become popular social welfare interventions in low- and middle-income countries (Shibuya, 2008) due to their success at improving child health and education outcomes (Adato & Bassett, 2009)
The number of children aged 6e12 years with poor school attendance that were reached per child targeted fell slightly as the targeting criteria were expanded to include households caring for orphans and childheaded households but remained constant when households caring for chronically-ill and disabled members were included
The proportion of children aged 13e17 years as a whole and the proportion of children with poor school attendance that were reached increased as the number of targeting methods increased, with the steepest increase again occurring when targeting the poorest households was combined with targeting households caring for orphans and child-headed households

Summary

Introduction

Cash transfer programmes have become popular social welfare interventions in low- and middle-income countries (Shibuya, 2008) due to their success at improving child health and education outcomes (Adato & Bassett, 2009). We use data from the baseline census conducted for a community-randomised controlled trial of a cash transfer programme in Manicaland, eastern Zimbabwe to compare the effectiveness, coverage and efficiency, with respect to reaching children with poor outcomes, of three alternative household-based

Results

Conclusion