Involving Communities in the Targeting of Cash Transfer Programs for Vulnerable Children: Opportunities and Challenges

Laura Robertson

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.09.002

Abstract

SummaryWe used baseline data, collected in July–September 2009, from a randomized controlled trial of a cash transfer program for vulnerable children in eastern Zimbabwe to investigate the effectiveness, coverage, and efficiency of census- and community-based targeting methods for reaching vulnerable children. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with beneficiaries and other stakeholders were used to explore community perspectives on targeting. Community members reported that their participation improved ownership and reduced conflict and jealousy. However, all the methods failed to target a large proportion of vulnerable children and there was poor agreement between the community- and census-based methods.

Highlights

There is a growing policy emphasis in the field of international public health and development on the need for community involvement in health and development programs (Campbell, Nair, Maimane, & Gibbs, 2009; Wouters, Van Damme, Van Loon, van Rensburg, & Meulemans, 2009)
We used these data to compare the effectiveness and efficiency—with respect to reaching children with poor health, education, and social outcomes—of targeting the poorest households identified by the Participatory wealth ranking (PWR) procedure and the poorest 20% of households based on the asset-based wealth index
A similar result was found when comparing PWR data with survey data collected in rural South Africa (Hargreaves, Morison, Gear, Kim, et al, 2007)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

There is a growing policy emphasis in the field of international public health and development on the need for community involvement in health and development programs (Campbell, Nair, Maimane, & Gibbs, 2009; Wouters, Van Damme, Van Loon, van Rensburg, & Meulemans, 2009). These data were used to rank households based on their level of destitution and community committees discussed and verified the list and identified the 10% most incapacitated households This method was designed to be simple and to target economically vulnerable households and/or those suffering from the demographic consequences of the HIV epidemic (i.e., the illness and death of working-age adults). A study from Malawi found that targeted households were more likely to be caring for orphaned children or someone sick with HIV or TB (Miller et al, 2008) It remains to be established whether census-based or INVOLVING COMMUNITIES IN THE TARGETING OF CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMS FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN 327 community-based participatory methods perform better with respect to reaching the most vulnerable children. In light of these findings, we use qualitative data to explore community perspectives on the benefits and challenges of involving community members in the selection of cash transfer beneficiaries

METHODS

RESULTS

DISCUSSION