Assessing the benefits of unified transfers to multiple categories of
individuals through targeting the household: Zimbabwe’s
Harmonized Social Cash Transfers
Leon Muwoni, UNICEF Zimbabwe
The Zimbabwean Context
• Low income country – recently emerged from an
economic crises (2000 -2008).
• hyperinflation, de-industrialization, high
unemployment, large scale emigration and
associated loss of skills, deteriorating balance of
payments, and a decline in domestic food
production
• 1.9m households left poor, 500 000 of them below
the food poverty line
• Weakening of a well established social protection
system and erosion of investments in basic services
eg Education and Health
200 000 HH require urgent social
assistance
High levels of Poverty
Harmonized Social Cash Transfers
• Unconditional transfers harmonizing benefits across various
categories of individuals implemented complimentary to a
child protection programme
• Introduced in 2011 to increase income and consumption
for the households below the food poverty line, while at
the same time without labour capacity
• 20 out of 65 districts now covered with 55 000 households
receiving cash benefits prorated to household size, ($10-25)
• Targeting through modified proxy means test with a strong
community verification component
• Beneficiary registration through a central MIS with
capabilities of providing data for other non HSCT
programmes
• Implementation by government with private sector
partnerships in delivery and end user monitoring
Implementation modalities
• Targeting through modified proxy means test with a strong
community verification component
• Beneficiary registration through a central MIS with
capabilities of providing data for other non HSCT
programmes
• Implementation by government with private sector
partnerships in delivery and end user monitoring
• Community volunteers key in delivery – get a standard
support package
• CIT delivery method with a mobile payment solution
underway
Profile of beneficiary households
Table 2: Profile of recipient household members in 20 Districts
Total
Childre
n
(0 - 18)
Orphans
Female
Male
Elderly
Adults
Adults (19 (60+)
(19 to 59) to 59)
Disabled or
Chronically
ill adult
Total
247,645
154,008
49,028
32,247
16,299
45,091
46,166
Perce
nt
100%
62%
20%
13%
7%
18%
19%
Table 1. Profile of beneficiary households in 20 districts
Total
Surveyed
Total
Beneficiary
Households
Female
Headed
Elderly
headed
(60+)
Child
Headed
Households
with
Children
Total
539,057
55,509
34,068
33,647
1,417
45,047
Percen
t
100%
10%
61%
61%
3%
81%
HSCT Impact Evaluation: American
Institute of Research
• two year, mixed methods, longitudinal, nonexperimental design study starting with a baseline
comparing cash transfer recipient households from
Phase 2 districts to eligible households in Phase 4
districts.
• Includes targeting evaluation that concluded that the
programme targets households below food poverty line
(70%), most of them orphaned children, women
(widows), people with disabilities and mostly high
dependency ratio households
• Focus on baseline and targeting results
Reaching the most vulnerable: Analysis
of targeting sample
Parameters
Households headed by women
Source
HSCT households
Rural
64%
Urban
49%
Total
64%
DHS 2010-11
44.1%
45.3%
44.6%
HSCT households
19%
15%
18%
DHS 2010-11
8%
4%
6.5%
Percentage of children 0 - 18
HSCT Households
64%
61%
64%
Percentage of children 0 - 19
DHS 2010-11
56%
45%
53%
Orphans in percent of all children
HSCT Households
36%
35%
36%
DHS 2010-11
22%
18%
21%
Household members
Percentage of elderly (60+)
Poverty in HSCT HH
• % of HSCT beneficiaries living below both the
poverty line and the food poverty line
significantly higher at 97% and 81%
respectively compared to the average for the
rural population as a whole at 84.3% and 30%
respectively.
• HSCT baseline mean consumption 63% below
the poverty line, compared with 43% among the
rural poor.
Demographic Structure of HH
High rates of morbidity and chronic illness
Indicator
Individual Level:
Chronically ill
Those whose normal activity has stoppped due to chronic
illness
Chronically ill people receiving Home Based Care
Chronically ill people receiving some kind of care (sought any
care if chronically ill)
People with disability
Disabled population receiving care
Morbidity (if sick/injured in last 30 days)
Sick/injured people who sought curative care
Sick/injured people who spent $ for treatment
Children 0 - 5 years of age who have had
diarrhea/fever/cough in last two weeks
Children 0 - 5 years of age who soughtcare care for
diarrhea/fever/cough
Children 0 - 5 years of age who have healthcard
Mean
9.9%
41.2%
3.1%
75.3%
6.0%
39.7%
25.7%
72.4%
28.8%
48.9%
58.4%
85.8%
Disability
• 36.6% of households had at least one disabled
member and that disabled people, made up 6% of
the eligible population, split up evenly between
men and women.
• 2012 census show disability prevalence of 7%
• Disability survey 2014 – only 3.5% people with
disabilities access pension or grants.
• HSCT baseline – 40% of people with disabilities
are primary recipients of the cash, 15% are a
spouse and 20% are biological children
More Orphans
Orphan Status of Children Ages 0–17
Status
Both parents alive (%)
Single orphan: mother dead
(%)
Single orphan: father
dead(%)
Both parents dead (%)
1
HSCT
ZDHS1
61.4
73.1
7.5
3.1
21.1
16.8
9.4
7.0
ZDHS sample is poorest wealth quintile from rural
regions only. There are 8,438 children ages 0–17 in
HSCT and 4,938 in the ZDHS sample used in this table.
Child Protection and Education
• Half children ages 13–20 living in beneficiary
households reported having suffered physical
violence in the previous 12 months. Identical
to 2012 VAC study
• High primary school enrolment (90%), lower
for secondary (70%)
• Lower attendance rate for both primary and
secondary
Local Economy
Cost benefit
• Calculations show that it costs 0.5% to GDP –
coverage of all 200 000 LC and FP households
• Reduces food poverty gap by 78%
• At current transfer levels, 40% HH are lifted
above the food poverty line and 60% have a
reduced gap
• Potential to reduce national food poverty rate
by 3% points from 16% to 13% (national
coverage)
Policy Implications
• Can be a building block towards building a floor
of protection, considering benefits to older
persons, children and high dependency
households headed working age population
• Phased approach to national scale to allow
learning and adjustments
• On budget support important –fiscal space and
investment in SP
• Volume of transfers – adjustments to lift HH out
of extreme poverty …. But supported by other
interventions to allow possible graduation
Conclusion
• HSCT streamlines, replaces and harmonizes most of the
government social assistance programs currently
implemented in Zimbabwe
• HSCT will reach all children (32 percent being orphans),
elderly, disabled and chronically sick persons in
Zimbabwe that live in labor constrained food poor
households unable to care for their vulnerable
members
• HSCT provides significant gender benefits as 61 percent
of beneficiary households are headed by women,
predominantly elderly women and widows
• These benefits will be generated at annual costs of USD
60 million representing 0.51 percent of GDP.
• HSCT contributes to