Interrupting the intergenerational cycle of poverty with the Malawi Social Cash Transfer

Abstract

Cash transfer programs throughout the world were designed within a Social Protection framework to alleviate poverty in the short term and to interrupt the long-term intergenerational cycle of poverty. In this study, we examine the potential of the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme (SCTS) to interrupt the intergenerational cycle of poverty in ultra-poor and labor-constrained households in Malawi. Using qualitative data from 16 focus groups with 163 children, we map the voices of children to various dimensions in a framework of intergenerational poverty. The framework identifies financial, material, environmental, human, social, cultural and political capital as important inputs for older generations to transfer to younger ones in order to avoid lifelong poverty. We found that focus-group participants reported dramatic and widespread changes in their lives resulting from the cash transfer in nearly all of the framework's dimensions. Participants reported that the cash allowed them to gain access to goods and materials, including food, healthcare, school supplies, clothing, blankets, housing and livestock. Respondents described changes in their lives, such as providing less labor for the household, allocating more time to schooling, enjoying adequate and high-quality foods, accessing healthcare and purchasing medicine. They also described better mental health, with new hopes and dreams for the future. These changes have the potential to interrupt the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Nevertheless, despite these widespread and positive benefits to children, whether the SCTS will become part of the national policy, and the scheme's long-term sustainability, is still uncertain.