Graduate School of Development Studies
Cash Transfers and Human Development
Outcomes:
Tackling Child Poverty in Zimbabwe
A Research Paper presented by:
Hilton NYAMUKAPA
(Zimbabwe)
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for obtaining the degree of
MASTERS OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Specialization:
Children and Youth Studies
(CYS)
Members of the examining committee:
Dr Auma OKWANY
Dr Loes KEYSERS
The Hague, The Netherlands
November, 2011.
Disclaimer:
This document represents part of the author’s study programme while at the
Institute of Social Studies. The views stated therein are those of the author and
not necessarily those of the Institute.
Research papers are not made available for circulation outside of the Institute.
Inquiries:
Postal address:
Institute of Social Studies
P.O. Box 29776
2502 LT The Hague
The Netherlands
Location:
Kortenaerkade 12
2518 AX The Hague
The Netherlands
Telephone:
+31 70 426 0460
Fax:
+31 70 426 0799
ii
Acknowledgements
I would like to extend my appreciation to the Netherlands Fellowship
Programme for the generous funding support that made this research study a
reality. Furthermore, this research paper would not have been a success
without the timely and professional academic guidance of Dr Auma Okwany
and Dr Loes Keysers. To all my fellow students I would like to thank you for
your constructive comments from the proposal stage up to the presentation of
the paper.
Special recognition goes to the Department of Social Services through
the office of the National Coordinator of NAP for OVC, and the Catholic
Relief Services for giving me access to their programming documents and field
information. My Zimbabwean professional colleagues you are not forgotten
but your technical and academic support was very much appreciated. Lastly, I
would like to thank my wife and the greater family for their overwhelming
emotional support during my absence.
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Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Pictures
List of Appendices
List of Acronyms
Abstract
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Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research Objectives and Questions
1.2 The Importance of focusing on Children Human Development
1.3 Research Methods and Data Collection
Document Review
Semi-structured Interviews
Data Analysis
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2
3
4
4
5
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Chapter 2 Conceptualising CT and Child Poverty
2.1 Cash Transfer: Understanding the Concept
2.2 Understanding Child Poverty
2.3 Household Dynamics: Transforming Income into Living Standards
2.4 Human Development status of Zimbabwean Children
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Chapter 3 Tackling Child Poverty in Zimbabwe: The Case of Cash
Transfers
3.1 National Action Plan for Orphans & Vulnerable Children
3.2 The NAP 2 and CRS-BRTI Cash Transfer Programmes
3.3 Programme Implementation
3.4 Programmatic Implications
Targeting Precision
‘Trickle down’ Effect
Full Employment
Dependency Load
The Nature of Poverty
Perfect Supply
3.5 Programme Evaluation Results
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Chapter 4 The ‘Story’ Behind Zimbabwe CT and Analysis of
Outcomes
4.1 The Stories of Most Significant Change
The Story of Caregivers
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The Story of Children
4.2 CT and Children Human Development Outcomes
Access to food
Access to education
Promotion of Child Health
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Chapter 5
References
Appendices
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Conclusion
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List of Tables
Table 1: Definitions of Child Deprivation.
Table 2: HDI and its Components
Table 3: Nutritional Status Zimbabwe 2009
Table 4: Health Status Zimbabwe 2009
Table 5: Education Status Zimbabwe 2009
Table 6: Cost Breakdown for NAP 2 Programme
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List of Figures
Figure 1: Elements of Poverty
Figure 2: The Ecological Systems Theory
Figure 3: NAP 2 Targeting
Figure 4: Most Significant Change Stories (caregivers)
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List of Pictures
Most Significant Change Approach
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List of Appendices
Appendix A: HDI Dimensions and Indicators
Appendix B: Zimbabwe Monthly Inflation year 2009 and 2010
Appendix C: Response Matrix Caregivers
Appendix D: Response Matrix Children
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List of Acronyms
ADB
African Development Bank
AIDS
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
BEAM
Basic Education Assistance Module
BRTI
Biomedical Research and Training Institute
CHIP
Child Poverty Research and Policy Centre
CPRC
Chronic Poverty Research Centre
CRS
Catholic Relief Services
CT
Cash Transfer
FACT
Family Aids Caring Trust
FBO
Faith Based Organisation
GoZ
Government of Zimbabwe
HDI
Human Development Index
HDR
Human Development Report
IILS
International Institute of Labour Studies
ILO
International Labour Organisation
HIV
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
MoHCW
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare
MoPSLSW
Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare
MSC
Most Significant Change
NAP
National Action Plan
NDHS
National Demographic Health Survey
NGO
Non-Governmental Organisation
OAU
Organisation of African Union
OVC
Orphans and Vulnerable Children
UNDP
United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO
United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural
Organisation
UNFPA
United Nations Population Fund
UNICEF
United Nations Children’s Fund
USD
United States Dollar
WFP
World Food Programme
WHO
World Health Organisation
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Abstract
Child poverty is a phenomenon of concern in Zimbabwe. Exacerbated by an
escalating population of orphans and other vulnerable children, child poverty
has been a major blow to the development of children. Its effect manifests in
deprivation of basic necessities among children. There are several efforts being
made by the government and other independent civil bodies to improve the
general welfare and development of children countrywide. Among the recent
programmes to alleviate child poverty are the household income support
interventions in form of Cash Transfers. This research paper is an inquiry into
the effectiveness of cash transfers in improving children human development
outcomes in the context of fighting child poverty in Zimbabwe. Access to
food, health and education services is the dimensions of analysis. Two cash
pilot projects are being focused on: the NAP 2 and the Manicaland OVC Pilot
Cash Transfer Programmes.
An analysis of the Information drawn from the programmes
formulation and implementation documents together with semi- structured
interviews from children and caregiver beneficiaries suggests the potential for
income support to be instrumental in child poverty alleviation. However, there
are inherent design and practical limitations to the approach. Coupled by
socio-economic household resource allocation challenges, the amount of
disbursements were generally smaller to cater for the often gendered and aged
based requirements of children. This makes cash transfers inadequate to be
used as a stand-alone intervention to improving the general welfare of children.
A more comprehensive approach focusing more on the ends and flexible to
use several means is required in order to have an impact on the development
of children.
Keywords
Child Poverty, Cash Transfer, Human Development.
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Chapter 1
Introduction
Tackling poverty associated with childhood in Zimbabwe has been on the
national agenda since colonial independence in 1980. Children are recognised
as a special population in Zimbabwe which requires specialised attention. The
population of children across the county do have varying degrees of exposure
to poverty and deprivation of essential commodities required for their
development. Orphans (mainly HIV/AIDS related) and other vulnerable
children living in poor households is the most common targeting criteria. The
term ‘Orphans and Vulnerable Children’ (OVC) has therefore become the
widely used targeting context in Zimbabwe. Several other combinations of
strategies are employed by several government and non- government
organisations who engage in child poverty interventions. There are quite a
number of national policy instruments for child protection in Zimbabwe such
as the Orphan Care Policy, and the Children’s Act.
Zimbabwe is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of Children
(United Nations 1989) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of
Children (OAU 1999). As such, it is expected to take steps towards ensuring
that minimum rights of children are met through both local and international
resources at its disposal. Even though to date there are no legislative articles in
the Zimbabwean constitution that hold the government accountable for nonfulfillment of children’s rights, social protection for children is embraced in the
national objectives. Apart from efforts to protect children, child poverty is still
considered very high in the country (UNDP 2010).
Currently the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) through the Ministry of
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare (MoPSLSW) is implementing the
National Action Plan for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Phase Two (NAP
2) (MoPSLSW 2010) . This intervention focuses on providing income support
to households in which children live in anticipation of improvement of
children human development. Other non-governmental civil organizations are
also complementing government’s effort through similar programmes. Notable
1
organizations are the Catholic Relief Services, Help Age Zimbabwe and
UNFPA. Most programmes are still in their pilot phase. At the moment the
major question being asked in the local development circles is whether this
approach will have positive effects on the development of children.
In this paper, the search for the answer to the question starts from closely
looking at the two concepts: ‘Child Poverty’ and ‘Cash Transfer’. A theoretical
understanding of child poverty and cash transfer is sought followed by an
understanding of the concepts’ relationship to the socio-economic mechanisms
of the household and beyond. The approach taken in this study goes beyond
the boundaries of the household to look at the totality of the environment
surrounding it. This is because a household is not an isolated entity but it
constantly interact and transact both socially and economically with other
institutions such as schools, health centres and markets. Based on the
understanding of household mechanisms and the wider institutional
framework, and with children at the core, the potential for children human
development within the households receiving Cash income support is
discussed against some evidence gathered from implementing agencies and
beneficiaries. This research study is based on the National Action Plan for
OVC 2 and the CRS-BRTI Manicaland non- conditional Cash Transfer Pilots
Projects carried out in Mashonaland East Province and Manicaland Province
respectively.
1.1 Research Objectives and Questions
This research study seeks to establish the extent to which children human
development needs are being addressed in the era of household cash income
support as ascertained by access to food, health and education services. The
focus is on the impact (effectiveness) and design and technical issues
(efficiency) surrounding the cash transfer programming. The efficiency of the
programmes, in terms of how the processes, as reflected in programme design
and implementation of converting the inputs (cash) into outputs (improved
children human development) are relevant and adequate towards the realisation
of child poverty alleviation as an ultimate goal. The study therefore seeks to
answer the following specific question and sub questions:
1. To what extent has the Cash Transfer Programmes addressed the
issue of children’s access to food, health and education?

How efficient has been the Cash Transfer Programmes in
terms of their design and implementation?

What outstanding impacts have been made by the Cash
Transfer Programmes from the perspective of the
caregivers and children?
Two non- conditional pilot cash transfer programmes; the NAP Pilot Cash
Transfer Programme in Goromonzi District (implemented by MoPSLSW in
February 2011) and the Manicaland Pilot Cash Transfer Programme carried
out by CRS between the period December 2009 and February 2011 are looked
at.
2
A higher order term, Child Poverty, is used here to encompass the need
to enhance the survival and development of children outside the boundaries of
targeting strategies used by development agencies such as ‘OVC’. Thus,
involving all children in a holistic approach without necessarily discriminating
through categorisation.
1.2 The Importance of focusing on Children Human
Development
The concept of Human Development was brought to the fore since the
publication of the first Human Development Report (HDR) in 1990 (UNDP
1990). In this report Human Development was defined as:
[…] a process of enlarging people’s choices. The most critical ones are
to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated and to enjoy a decent
standard of living. Additional choices include political freedom,
guaranteed human rights and self-respect (UNDP 1990: 10).
This definition has three elements, Human Development as a process, with
some dimensions constituting the process, and presented as outcomes. The
outcomes are given as an index and the revised dimensions as per the HDR of
2010 are shown in Appendix A. Human Development is a broad concept and
share some similar characteristics and objectives with concepts such as Poverty
and Citizenship to be discussed in Chapter 2 and 3. Human Capital
Development is a concept usually related to the education part of human
development. It is basically associated with equipping one with education, skills
and competencies necessary for productive purposes.
Understanding the need for households to provide opportunities for
human development; that is, ensuring that children have access to basic needs
(food, education and health) during the formative years is essential for their
well-being and as potentially productive adults. This understanding is
entrenched and made a pillar of the United Nations Convention on Child
Rights of 1989 (United Nations 1989). Accordingly, every member state
including Zimbabwe should ensure attainment of such through its policies and
legislation. Focus on childhood poverty is not to overshadow experiences of
poverty of other vulnerable people within households but an observation that
children represents a special niche that is itself worth of consideration in the
policy making processes. This will go a long way in informing policy on child
welfare in Zimbabwe and help generate some new perspectives on the
relationship between cash transfers and the development of children.
In previous years interventions meant to promote children human
development were mainly in form of supplying the children with commodities
such as food (e.g. infant supplementary and school feeding schemes), uniforms
and stationary. A shift in policy and programming objectives in Zimbabwe
towards income support represents a major issue of concern to the
development of children. First, there is growing evidence that poverty is itself
exacerbated by a number of intersecting variables which are not all linked to
income (e.g. Sen 1999); even though there is no consensus on how to measure
them. For example, only one out of the five poverty traps in the Chronic
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Poverty Report of 2008 is income related (CPRC 2008). Others were insecurity
(war and violence), limited citizenship, spatial disadvantage (related to one’s
location) and social discrimination. Cash transfers as a demand side
intervention alone cannot end problems of access because supply factors are
also at play. For example, clinics may not be accessible because of distance.
Secondly, the experience of poverty is felt differently by status such as age,
gender, location etc. (Holmes and Jones 2009). Under such situations, children
living in extremely poor household are much more likely to carry the burden
(costs) of poverty and become vulnerable to deprivation in terms of access to
health, education and nutrition than adults. This is exacerbated by their
structural powerlessness. The position of children cannot therefore be
completely rationalized at family levels. Anticipating that children will always
benefit from family wide interventions might not necessarily suit every
situation in which children are found in.
Addressing child poverty is a long term measure in breaking the
intergenerational transmission of poverty in developing countries. Efforts
towards human capital development such as the provision of adequate food
health, education and living standards ensure that children grow into adulthood
with the capacity for economic productivity. The incidence of poverty as
measured by the HDI suggests that a growth in GDP, associated growth in
income per capita leads to a high HDI and a general reduction in poverty
levels. Apart from improvements in Gross National Income per Capita,
tackling child poverty also has the effect of improving other indicators of
HDI: life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling and expected years of
school (ADB 2010: 10, 15).
1.3 Research Methods and Data Collection
This study is a retrospective approach to gathering past and present
information on Cash Transfer Programming and Child Poverty alleviation. It
combines a programme document review and semi-structured interviews with
beneficiaries. A retrospective approach was used because of the unavailability
of specific knowledge or any documented baseline information on each
household that took part in the research. As a result, the research process was
meant in a way to generate information about the situation that prevailed
before and after the intervention. Two forms of data were collected;
programming information of the 2 pilot projects (mainly Project Proposals and
Implementation and Evaluation Reports) and stories of most significant
changes from project beneficiaries.
Document Review
The programming and implementation information was mainly gathered from
Project Proposals and Implementation and Evaluation Reports. These
documents were obtained from both published and unpublished sources
including the internet with full citation. Data concerning the NAP 2 cash
transfer pilot project was mainly gathered from the Social Services Department
and the NAP for OVC website and also from websites of its partners (e.g.
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UNICEF Zimbabwe). Data on the Manicaland Province (Makoni District)
Pilot Cash Transfer Programme was mainly obtained from CRS. An analysis of
the two Pilot Programme documents and relevant reports was made to
establish the motivation behind their formulation, to describe the programme’s
design and implementation, and to determine the presence and or absence of
adequate measures that ensure changes and impacts on households and
children in particular. Some references were sought from the preceding
programmes like the NAP 1, and other projects that were carried out by
independent NGOs who shared the similar vision of Child poverty alleviation.
Some informal interviews and communication was continually made with
program officials from both the MoPSLSW and CRS to seek clarifications and
further information on the pilot cash projects during the entire research period.
Secondary data was gathered from textbooks, journal articles, government
publications, and newspaper sources. Other relevant sources such as reports
published by development bodies such as the World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP,
and local newspapers were used among others. The purpose was mainly a
review of relevant literature on the interventions on child poverty in the era of
cash based social protection.
Semi-structured Interviews
Semi-structured interviews were carried out with systematically selected
samples of households in each of the districts. Seven households in
Goromonzi District of Mashonaland East Province and eight in Makoni
District of Manicaland Province were selected at systematic interval from the
sampling frame (list of beneficiaries) obtained from the implementing agencies.
Due to time and cost constraints, only one administrative ward (relatively
smaller in terms of geographical coverage) in each district was considered for
sampling. The two samples were only a smaller percentage of the total number
of beneficiaries and this may limit generalisation of findings; but basically,
emphasis was more on collecting dependable and transparent data that give an
insight into the cash transfer programming and its contribution towards
tackling child poverty in Zimbabwe. The semi-structured interviews with
beneficiaries of the cash transfer programme were aimed at gathering
information on the impact of the cash income projects from the beneficiary’s
viewpoint.
The ‘Most significant Change’ approach was employed as a tool for
gathering data during the interviews. Most significant changes are the
outstanding changes that happen or are realized by the beneficiaries as a result
of an intervention (Davis and Dart 2005). The motive behind the approach
was that any intervention is done to bring particular positive impacts to the
target population. It is therefore reasonable to assess or evaluate a project in
terms of the changes reported by the beneficiaries themselves rather than only
focusing on whether the project objectives have been met or not by using
indicators only, which they may also fail to understand.
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MSC Approach
Source: MSC Manual (Davis and Dart 2005: i)
Obviously Indicators are important in quantifying the reported changes
but may limit the focus in project evaluation within preconceived boundaries,
failing to capture unintended benefits and shortcomings. Although this
approach cannot be used alone, it provides quick indications of trends
especially in projects that tend to have relatively long periods to show actual
changes such as escaping from poverty. Its use in this research has a lot of
potential to help improve the analytical power and quality of results obtained
through other methods that were used in the evaluation done by the
programme implementers. Significant changes reported are also essential
because sometimes the complexity of the development environment in terms
of intersecting benefits from several donor agencies affect the quality of
attribution made to any one project. Under such circumstances, beneficiaries
are likely to be in a better position to establish and differentiate boundaries of
several other interventions in which they are also beneficiaries. Equally
important is also the fact that giving the evaluation function to beneficiaries is
probably suitable in programmes that have several expected outcomes. For
example, in this case children’s welfare is not the only or explicit objective but
falls within the overall sphere of interest of the project, that include
strengthening of the household economy.
On the other hand, the perceptive nature of poverty as a concept makes a
qualitative approach more suitable. Poverty is a subjective concept, often
perceived differently in different localities and over time. This calls for an
approach that actively engage beneficiaries in evaluating projects such as cash
transfers (Adatto 2008). In summary, the qualitative nature of this research
gave the caregivers and children the opportunity to participate through giving
their opinion, expressing their attitude and feeling towards the intervention as
well as a chance to be heard. Involving beneficiaries to express their opinion
on the impacts they feel are most significant provide much informative
feedback for policy and future planning.
Semi-structured interviews were done to collect the most significant
change stories. Beneficiaries were asked to give an account of the most
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significant changes that have occurred to their livelihood and standard of living
as a result of the cash income intervention without given any particular domain
of change to talk about. Afterwards, some follow-up and probing questions
relating to children access to health, education and food were then asked. This
helped in capturing the most important effects of cash transfers to families and
an indication of how children have benefited. The interviews also gathered
stories of most significant change that have resulted from the intervention
from a gendered perspective, and also recognition was given to the differences
in needs according to the age of the children. A total of 22 beneficiaries from
15 households were interviewed. They include 9 beneficiaries of the NAP 2
cash transfer pilot project from 7 households (Goromonzi District): 2 male
caregivers, 3 female caregivers, 3 boys (1 in primary and 2 in secondary school)
and 1 girl (a primary scholar). Another set of interviews was carried out with 13
beneficiaries from 8 households of the CRS-BRTI beneficiaries in Makoni
District: 3 male caregivers, 3 female caregivers, 4 boys (2 primary and 2
secondary) and 3 girls (1 in primary and 2 in secondary school).
It was made clear to participants that the research and the researcher
are not part of the Monitoring and Evaluation process of neither the NAP 2
Programme nor the CRS-BRTI Programme, but the research outcome aims to
provide information that may guide the development and design of future cash
transfer programmes. All the beneficiaries were recipients of non- conditional
transfers whose households had at least one child. This preference was made in
recognition of the household approach in targeting children as opposed to
explicit targeting of children within households which is often the case in
conditional cash transfers.
Due ethical considerations were observed throughout the research
process. After a full introduction of the researcher, the purpose of the research
was made clear, willingness to participate was sought while emphasizing on the
respondents’ right to withdraw from participation at any point during the
interview should he or she feels so. For child interviewees, consent from both
the child and the parent/guardian was obtained. However, obtaining consent
form either the children themselves or their parents or guardians was
problematic especially for primary school going and female children. This
resulted in fewer female children taking part in the research. In all cases,
protection of privacy was guaranteed, that is, the information collected from
the research participants can only be used for purposes mutually agreed with
the researcher.
Data Analysis
Several literature do agree that human development is the foundation to ending
poverty and is associated with adequate access to proper nutrition, education
and health (e.g. World Bank 1990 and UNDP 1996 ). Three domains of
change: access to health, education and nutrition form the basis of analysis of
the interviews. In other words, categories if significant changes reported by the
respondents were defined and grouped as food, health or education related.
The magnitude of change reported and other demographical data are
summarised in Appendices C and D. The operational definitions of
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deprivation as described in the Bristol Deprivation Approach (Table 1) were
used as guidelines to ascertain the level of deprivation before and after the cash
interventions. However, the understanding of the beneficiaries’ changes in
levels of access and deprivation was largely taken into account. For example,
mild food deprivation was considered to be ‘at least having something to eat’
rather than determining the nutritional value of the food. Similarly, severe food
deprivation was taken to be cases were daily routine are affected by hunger, for
example, when children miss school because of unavailability of food. Though
sometimes the definitions of change cited by the beneficiaries could not be
easily interpolated into a before and after category, the level of impact and/ or
non- impact could be explained form the stories collected from the
beneficiaries. Stories of significant change from caregivers and children were in
each case categorised in to seven groups. These groups were exhaustive of the
responses given; the final grouping was for those data that cannot be classified
because no significant change could be reported. Translation of the research
questions into the local language and translation of the answers into English
was done with the help of colleagues with academic teaching experience and
also reviewed by peers in the development sector. The next chapters in this
paper are an elaborate account of the research experience.
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Chapter 2
Conceptualising CT and Child Poverty
There are quite a number of research activities that were carried in Zimbabwe
concerning Cash Transfers and poverty alleviation (e.g. Mushunje and Mafico
2010, WFP and Concern Worldwide 2010) that have made several different
recommendations towards the approach. At the same time, some reported
cases of success of cash transfers in child poverty alleviation in other countries
cannot be dismissed as an influence to the adoption of the approach in
Zimbabwe. The meeting point of how cash transfers are theoretically and
practically understood and how child poverty is conceptualised in the
Zimbabwean context is important in providing a prognosis of the effects of
the income support intervention. This chapter begins by separately examining
the two concepts: Cash Transfer and Child Poverty then bring them together
in an analysis of their relationship and compatibility within the context of the
household (as the household is a point of focus in child poverty alleviation in
Zimbabwe); followed by a presentation of the human development status of
the Zimbabwean children.
2.1 Cash Transfer: Understanding the Concept
Cash transfers are a non-contributory (social assistance) grant such as child
grants, foster care grants and scholarships (OXFAM 2003). This form of
income based support is currently a popular strategy in poverty reduction.
Originally introduced in the humanitarian sector as an intervention strategy
under famine and emergency conditions, cash transfers have now been applied
as a broad spectrum instrument in poverty reduction including children’s
welfare. The intervention is basically aimed at stimulating demand for services
through distributing cash to poor households.
Amartya Sens’ Entitlement Approach is considered the basis of the
theoretical underpinning of cash transfers in the development sector (ibid). Sen
(1981) used the Entitlement Approach to explain the famine that occurred in
Bengal in 1943. According to Sen (ibid), people did not die because of lack
food but “lacked the ability [...] to command food through the legal means
available in the society” (ibid: 167), referred to as Entitlement failure. Two types
of entitlement failure were described, ‘pull’ and ‘response’ failures. Pull failures
represents inability to demand, for example through wage loss in
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unemployment. Response failures represent inability to supply to meet
demand, i.e. the unavailability of food on the market. The cash transfer
approach is basically a demand -side intervention aimed at mitigating the pull
failures. In other words, the approach assumes that children needs are not
being met because necessary commodities cannot be adequately demanded due
to lack of the means of exchange, the Entitlement. The entitlement approach
consists of three related concepts; the Endowment set, Entitlement mapping,
and the Entitlement set.
The Endowment set is defined as resources owned by a person (legal) both
tangible and intangible for example land, knowledge/skill and labour power. It
is these resources that either through exchange or production enables a person
to obtain other commodities needed for survival through means that are
considered legal by the society in which one is part of. Entitlement mapping refers
to the process of converting ones endowment into means possible to obtain
commodities bundles of one’s choice. Thus, labourers’ sale their labour to
obtain wages for buying commodities while farmers sells their produce to get
cash for exchange with other commodities. Social insurance and social
assistance falls within this process. Entitlement set (or commodity bundle), refers
to the actual commodities which people chose to have for satisfying their
needs. The entitlement set also includes goods and services obtained through
public provisioning such as free education ((Osmani 1993: 3).
Several literatures discuss and argue for the potential of cash transfers in
improving children’s access to education, health and nutrition (e.g. Chapman
2006, Bassett and Adatto 2009). To date, a variety of Cash transfer strategies
have been used in children human development through promoting access to
health, nutrition and formal education. Conditional cash transfer based
programmes such as The Red de Protección Social Programme in Nicaragua
was reported to have resulted in an average increase of 18 percentage points in
enrolment and 23 percentage points in attendance (against a baseline of 70%
enrolment in the target population) between 2000 and 2003 (Maluccio 2005).
The Bolsa Familia Programme in Brazil to reduce child labour by increasing
the income of households has shown a decrease in school dropout and an
increase in enrolment even though the amount of the cash transfer was less
than that realised from child labour (Cardoso and Souza 2003). Access to food
improved and absenteeism declined by 16% during the first 9 months in
Kalomo district Zambia where unconditional cash transfer was implemented
(Wietler 2007). However, the need to consider adopting the income support
strategy to child poverty alleviation at a more local level remains important.
The socio-economic and political situation in Zimbabwe is different from that
of the countries where the programme was a success; chances are that these
countries have different challenges in terms of demand and supply factors
related to children human development.
The entitlement approach is a plausible conceptualisation of poverty and
fits suitably well with how child poverty is viewed in Zimbabwe as reflected in
government and other donor funded programmes to overcome it. Logically,
disbursement of cash to provide or augment family income will translate to the
ability of a household to command more commodities in the entitlement set,
probably more for children. There are also logistical reasons for the widespread
10
use of cash transfers in social protection. They include reduced response time,
flexibility and expanded choices for beneficiaries and cost effectiveness in term
of absence of procurement costs as noted by OXFAM (2003).
Another variation of cash resource support which is more of a sectorial
approach is to improve access through wavering of fees and subsidies. Instead
of distributing cash to households, several programmes are carried out to make
sure that service providers are ready to deliver through capacitation. For
example, since independence the government of Zimbabwe through the
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare’s Maternal Child Health Care
Programme has been offering free medical services to children under the age
of five who abides by the mandatory monthly child development and growth
monitoring ( ‘Maternal and Child Health’, MoHCW 2011). The rest of the
citizens including older children can have assisted access to health care under
the Welfare Assistance Act. However, health care hasn’t been at zero cost at
the point of delivery. Hospitals and clinics often have shortages of drugs and
essential medicines which patients need to purchase on the market. In the
Zimbabwean education sector, education is not free but tuition fees in
government schools are subsidised, strategically lower and affordable than in
private schools. However, other additional levies charged are out of reach for
the majority of caregivers. The situation has been made worse by the collapse
of the Zimbabwe education system due to inadequate government funding;
which has led to a de facto privatisation scenario in the education system.
2.2 Understanding Child Poverty
Child poverty is itself a concept that emerged out of social and scientific
discourses on poverty. There are several definitions of poverty in use
depending mainly on the motive of the users. The UN Programme of Action
of the World Summit for Social Development summarily considered poverty
as:
[…] lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure
sustainable livelihoods; hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or
lack of access to education and other basic services; increased
morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate
housing; unsafe environments; and social discrimination and exclusion.
It is also characterized by lack of participation in decision making and
in civil, social and cultural life (UN 2005: paragraph 19).
Definitions of poverty are largely subjective; people living in different localities
usually have their own conceptions and definitions of poverty which are
relative to their way of living (relative definitions of poverty). This complicates
the understanding of poverty and makes its measure more diverse, resulting in
widely diversified policies to eradicate it. Several approaches to measuring
poverty are in use today. They range from more absolute measures defined by
the Poverty Datum Line to multi-dimensional archetypes (Boyden 2006).
Several dimensions of human life (economic, social, environmental etc.) are
used to ascertain how poor people are, and several combinations of these
dimensions can be used to summarize poverty levels. The Human
11
Development Index is typical of such and it combines life expectancy,
education and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Figure 1 below depicts the
multi-dimensionality of poverty and provides a graphical summary of the
elements of poverty as reflected in several definitions.
Figure 1: Elements of Poverty
Elements
of Poverty
Restrictions in
opportunities
Physical /
geographic
exclusion
Social
Exclusion
Vulnerability to
shocks
Economic
Structural
exclusion
exclusion
Discrimination
Legal
Political
exclusion
Cultural
exclusion
Source: Understanding Multidimensional Child Poverty (John 2011: 23)
Put simply, child poverty refers to poverty experienced by children. It
differs from adult poverty in terms of causes and effects; in which the impact
of the effects during childhood are more permanent (CHIP 2002). Apart from
mainstream definitions of poverty, child poverty is also considered to be a
form of multi-dimensional deprivation of basic necessities among children.
This is probably because children are considered as lacking the capacity to
accumulate resources necessary to avoid poverty on their own. But such
orientation may risk undermining the resilience within children living in
poverty. A working definition presented by UNICEF in 2005 is in line with
multi dimensionality of child poverty: poor children are considered to be
“[those who] experience deprivation of the material, spiritual and emotional
resources needed to survive, develop and thrive, leaving them unable to enjoy
their rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members
of the society” (UNICEF 2005). This is a quite broad definition which
recognises the development and functionality of children in the society on
condition of the availability of an appropriate environment. A need based
Bristol Deprivation approach is one of the popular assessment instruments for
child poverty and it recognizes the multidimensionality of child poverty and
builds upon the CRC’s basic needs that children require to survive and develop
(Gordon et al. 2003a). The basic needs are: food, safe drinking water,
sanitation facilities, healthcare facilities, shelter, education and information.
12
Deprivation of the basic needs is rated on a continuum with a condition of no
deprivation at one end through mild, moderate, and severe to extreme
deprivation (definitions in Table 1 below).
Table 1: Definitions of Child Deprivation.
Deprivation
Mild
Moderate
Severe
Extreme
Food
Bland diet of poor
nutritional value
Going hungry
on occasion
Malnutrition
Starvation
Education
Inadequate
teaching / learning
due to lack of
resources
Unable to
attend
secondary but
can attend
primary
education
Child is 7 or
older and has
received no
primary or
secondary
education.
No
immunisation
against diseases.
Only limited
nonprofessional
medical care
available when
sick
Prevented from
learning due to
persecution and
prejudice
Health
Occasional lack of
access to
professional
medical care due to
lack of money.
Inadequate
medical care
No medical
care
Source: The Distribution of Child Poverty in the Developing World (Gordon et. al. 2003b: 8).
The multi-dimensionality of child poverty is not only in the form of
deprivation as postulated by the Deprivation Approach. The sources of the
poverty itself are multi-dimensional. Child poverty is propagated by several
factors found in the environment in which children live. As such, a closer
understanding of the whole environment surrounding children is also
important in understanding their experience of poverty and possible
intervention strategies. In 1974 Brofenbrenner theorized the ecological setting
or framework under which human development happens; the Ecological
Systems theory (Brofenbrenner 1979, 1989). Structures influencing the
development of a person are arranged from the most immediate, the
microsystem which includes the family and school, through the mesosystem
which interconnect the structures of the microsystem; the exosystem which
includes the community and communally owned family resources. The
macrosystem comprises of laws, cultural values and norms that govern the
relationships of actors within the ecological system. For example, some cultural
values may direct the way in which parents view and provide for their children.
The choronosystem is the influence of time on the development of children,
their needs are not static and their relationship with the ecological system is
somehow time bound, for example the aging of their parents. Figure 2 below is
a graphic summary of the Ecological System Theory.
13
Figure 2: The Ecological Systems Theory
Source: The Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner 1989).
Cash Transfer programming mainly targets the households in which
children live. Such an ecological model of intervention embeds the welfare of
children into the welfare of the household, which is outwardly moulded by the
community structures and national policy frameworks. Such an overlapping
relationship may complicate the relation between income and access to services
essential for the development of children. For example, access can be governed
by:
 Access to user fees
 Distance of households from service centres
 Availability of quality services and
 Conducive environment e.g. regulations.
Targeting households through income support has the potential to make user
fees available but fall short on addressing the other three. This means that
addressing children’s access to basic commodities requires a multi-pronged
approach, not necessarily income based alone. The other 3 factors may be
tackled at a higher level, usually through the local or national government
commitment. Overall efforts to promote child poverty alleviation should
14
therefore focus also on policies and undertakings that generally create a
favourable environment for the development of children (Waddington 2004).
Economic commitment for child development is seen in public finance
policies of governments, for example, by sufficient budgetary allocation to
improve availability and access to education and primary health care as well as
investments in improving the infrastructure of such.
Child poverty and deprivation can be define at a more locally at the
level of gender and age. Research has found some significant influence of
gender and age of children towards the access to food, education and health
services (DFID 2005a). These occurrences are usually driven by cultural and
social beliefs. Cultural beliefs and values may have a bearing on how household
income is spent to meet the needs of individuals within it. In patriarchal
societies for example, it is often the case that women and girl children are of
lower status than boys and man. In such cases investment in girls in terms of
health (including maternal health) and education might not be sufficient
enough to lift them out of poverty. For example, Zimbabwe is a patriarchal
society were male children are often considered as assets in a family because of
their potential to become future breadwinners, unlike girls who will leave their
family upon wedlock. As such, in a situation of limited resources boys are
more likely to be given first priority. Still on the issue of gender, there are some
needs that are based on physiological make-up. Unlike boys, girls have
reproductive related needs such as sanitary ware. Girls might also need
nutritional support to guard them against iron-deficiency anaemia that is
exacerbated by menstruation (Sridhar 2008:2). Another interesting gendered
dimension important in designing cash transfer projects was reported by Slater
and Mphale (2008). In their research on gendered aspects on cash income
support (ibid.), they found that cash transfers disbursed to female caregivers
were seen to be more likely to yield benefits that improve the development of
children (especially girls) as compared to those handled by their male
counterparts.
The age of children is also significant variable in determining their
development needs. Children of different age groups have different education,
information, nutritional and medical needs. For example, infants require
immunisation and more regular medical check-ups than adolescents. The
needs-timeline relationship therefore means that the needs of children are not
static, but are constantly changing as they move from one age group to
another. It is therefore important for any intervention which aims to alleviate
child poverty to seriously consider the gender and aged based factors in order
to come up with effective programmes.
The effects of non-income factors to child poverty do potentially have
varying degrees in relation to the level of distributable income available. While
it may seem obvious that households above the poverty threshold affords to
meet the needs of children, occurrences of deprivation in such cases cannot be
ruled out. On the other hand, poor households with very limited resources
have a lot to consider in terms of choices, exacerbating the influence of nonincome factors to take precedence in coming up with decisions on how
resources are spent. Most children live in households and households are an
important institution in providing children with primary needs and access to
15
basic rights. However, a household is not an unproblematic unit; several
processes shape the household-child relationship, an important factor in
children human development.
2.3 Household Dynamics: Transforming Income into Living
Standards
Holding other factors constant and assuming a perfect supply side, there are
several economic and socio-cultural factors that affect the efficiency of
households in converting income into living standards. Thus, a trickle-down
effect of household income into the benefit of children is not always obvious.
Cash transfers are a way of giving households capacity to demand services.
Households make choices or ‘map’ on the services depending on their needs.
The process of entitlement mapping at the household level determines whether
children’s needs are considered to be part of the entitlement set. What is
important is how resources or income is appropriated within the household,
that is, who gets what and when and how.
Traditional micro-economic models assume that households consist of
individuals who are utility maximising (Thomas 1993, Cornia and Steward
1995). The Unitary Model holds that households make collective decisions and
income is allocated in the best way to meet the needs of every individual within
the household. A household is only limited by the total budget at its disposal
under this model (Vermeulen 2002). Under the unitary model, even if the cash
is disbursed to a household without any specific targeting, every member is
assured of a fair share from the collective appropriation process. However, in
reality individuals within the household naturally have different preferences or
at least differ in priorities. Samuelson (1956) made an attempt to explain the
inevitability of individual preferences and suggest that at least household
members argue for their own personal preferences and reach a consensus to
aggregate their utilities. Becker (1974) unlike Samuelson, suggest the existence
of a benevolent household head through which collective utility is achieved.
On the other hand, the bargaining model assumes a bargaining process among
the household members. The ultimate allocation of resources depends on the
bargaining power of each individual or groups within the household (Cornia
and steward 1995). In the Bargaining Model, children are expected to bargain
for resources in order to meet their needs such as education and health. These
primary household models are an important step in understanding household
economic behaviour and the politics of resource allocation, how income is
transformed into living standards, and how children resource requirements
stand a chance to be addressed at household level. In reality, household
resource allocation is a complicated system.
There are other several socio-cultural, legal, and tempo-spacial
mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion that affects resource allocation to
children within the ecological system. These are propagated by a combination
of influences from the household itself and the community at large. For
example, the relationship between the household in which children live and the
school or a health centre is made possible by the availability of user fees and
16
the distance between the two. In this case cash transfers have a possibility to
contribute towards user fees but little to do with distance especially in areas
without road networks. On 20 April 2011 UNICEF featured a story of a
beneficiary of the Zimbabwe Expanded Immunisation Programme who had to
walk 15 kilometres to the nearest immunisation point, the journey he (the
beneficiary) reported to afford once a year and which his wife could not take
because of ill health (UNICEF 2011).
Having discussed the complexities involved in understanding and
addressing child poverty through cash transfers within the context of a
household, the following section highlights the current condition of child
poverty based on food availability, access to health and education services.
2.4
Human Development status of Zimbabwean Children
Literature surrounding child poverty in Zimbabwe shows a continued
downward trend on opportunities for human development among children.
The Human Development Report of 2010 shows a more recent comparative
position of Zimbabwe in terms of Human Development Index and its
indicators (see Appendix A). Zimbabwe is the least ranked among United
Nations countries (UNDP 2010: 146). This position has been maintained since
2009 (UNDP 2009: 146). Table 2 below show a summary of Zimbabwe HDI
status as reported by the UNDP.
Table 2: HDI and its Components
Rank
Country
HDI
Life expectancy at birth
Mean years
of schooling
Non income
HDI
1
Norway
0.938
81.0
12.6
0.954
168
DR Congo
0.239
48.0
3.8
0.390
169
Zimbabwe
0.140
47.0
7.2
0.472
Source: Human Development Report (UNDP 2010: 143)
Other countries have been included in the table for a quick comparative
glance. Norway is ranked first and its HDI status can be considered much
closer to the ideal situation. DRC falls within almost the same progressive
ranking category with Zimbabwe. However, it can be noted that the HDI as a
summary can be representing a skewed balance of the individual factors that
forms its components. For example the HDI for Zimbabwe is lower than that
of DR Congo but looking at the mean years in schooling, Zimbabwe is far
much ahead, and much closer to the number one ranked Norway. This trend
suggests that deprivation of human development factors might not be
necessarily equal in all dimensions and easily predictable. Thus, it is possible
17
for children living in households surviving above the poverty line to be
deprived in terms of health services, food or education.
The statistics based on survey data produced by UNICEF (2009) on the
status of Zimbabwe’s children’s nutrition, health and education are shown in
Tables 3, 4 and 5 below. This information was a more reliable status of
children during the formulation phase of the NAP 2 and Manicaland Cash
Transfer Pilot Programmes. There are other several sources of varying levels of
credibility who publish similar reports but they often rely on trend data
interpolated from other secondary sources.
Table 3: Nutritional Status Zimbabwe 2009
Basic Indicators
Percentage
% of under-fives suffering from moderate to severe underweight (WHO)
12
% of under-fives suffering from moderate to severe underweight (NDHS- WHO)
16
% infant with low birth weight
11
Source: Country Statistics (UNICEF Zimbabwe 2009).
Underweight in children is largely a result of food shortage and malnutrition
and is associated with a weak immune system which makes victims susceptible
to diseases and ailments. This is a huge threat to early childhood development.
The percentage of underweight children represents potential or already existing
health (both physical and mental) deficiencies. Children born to
undernourished mothers are also likely to be underweight themselves. This
trend may justify the targeting of households with food relief efforts rather
focusing on children only.
Table 4 below show the health status of children in Zimbabwe.
Table 4: Health Status Zimbabwe 2009
Basic Indicators
Percentage
% of under-fives with suspected pneumonia taken to an appropriate health care
provider
25
% of under-fives with suspected pneumonia receiving antibiotics
16
% of under-fives with Diarrhoea receiving oral rehydration and continued feeding
35
Source: Country Statistics (UNICEF Zimbabwe 2009).
18
A considerable percentage of children under the age of five are failing to get
professional medical attention. Most of physical and motor skills development
as well as neurological maturation happen under the age of five. Therefore,
poor nutrition coupled with untreated illnesses is likely to negatively impact on
the children’s human development. Despite infant mortality, children who do
not receive proper medical attention are most likely to grow up with
underdeveloped and retarded physio-motor and intellectual abilities.
In Table 5 below, a discrepancy in enrolment versus attendance ratio for
both primary and secondary school going children can be noted.
Table 5: Education Status Zimbabwe 2009
Basic Indicators
Percentage
Male
Female
Primary school enrolment ratio
89
91
Primary school attendance ratio
90
92
Secondary school enrolment ratio
39
39
Secondary school attendance ratio
46
43
Source: Country Statistics (UNICEF Zimbabwe 2009).
Unlike situations were children are totally out of school, this gap represents
potential factors that affect access to education even in cases where there is a
desire to be educated. Access to education is very low in secondary education.
Factors leading to these phenomena might be an area that requires further
research as these are crucial factors that need not be ignored in designing
interventions to fight child poverty.
The basic requirements for human development (food, health and
education services) are not totally independent of each other but are
interdependent to a greater extent. Some empirical evidence shows a
correlation between availability of food (nutrient supply) and human
development in terms of physical and cognitive maturation. Children with a
history of malnutrition were seen to have a low IQ and scored less in other
cognitive competence tests as compared to matched groups although it is
believed that the social environment in which the under nutrition has occurred
also contributes to the condition (Pollitt 1990). More recent studies also
suggests that Poorly nourished children and or those who are often sick are
likely to have their learning capabilities affected, resulting in poor grades in
school (Gani and Prasad 2007). Even children who are well nourished but
have missed vaccinations are also prone to diseases like polio, measles and
Tuberculosis which may make them miss school or lead to drop-outs in
extreme circumstances. A study done by Miguel and Kremer (2004) in Kenya
19
revealed that deworming of children increased school attendance by a
significant percentage.
Other elements postulated to be essential on human development
outcomes such as the availability of portable water and proper sanitation
facilities at home and in schools also go a long way in preventing children from
diseases. Communicable diseases like cholera are a major threat to children’s
education especially in urban areas in Zimbabwe. Thus tackling deprivation
cannot be an effort directed to a single or particular factor but an approach
that fulfils the backward and forward linkage relationships among adequate
nutrition, access to health services and education. It may also require different
targeting combinations that include households and general public
provisioning.
This chapter has shed more light on the concept of cash transfer and child
poverty and how these concepts relate to each other in the context of a
household, followed by the current status of childhood poverty in Zimbabwe.
In summary, the ecological approach to child poverty recognises that child
poverty is embedded within the structures of a household, thus, efforts to
alleviate child poverty should target the household. However several issues
have been discussed to highlight problems associated with this kind of
conceptualisation, which range from the multi-dimensionality of forms of child
poverty to the multi-dimensionality of the sources of child poverty. The next
chapter presents, examines and discusses the formulation and design of the
two pilot OVC cash transfer programmes in Zimbabwe in light of the
accumulated understanding of cash transfers and child poverty.
20
Chapter 3
Tackling Child Poverty in Zimbabwe:
The Case of Cash Transfers
Cash transfers based social protection for children is not a new concept in
Zimbabwe. During the colonial period, some form of social protection in form
of social assistance and occupational pensions were in place even though they
were much limited to the minority European population (Kaseke 1988). After
the country got its independence in 1980, issues to do with general protection
of children have received recognition by the legislature but enforcement has
always been a problem. To date, efforts to promote children’s access to basic
rights are not constitutionalised and have been largely implemented as part of
national policy objectives. This means that the government has no budgetary
obligation for the promotion of children’s rights but can do so if funds permit.
The government through the MoPSLSW manages social insurance and provide
social assistance to citizens but shortage of funds has made the programmes
inadequate, with social assistance (mainly cash transfers) almost non-existent.
Interventions and policy around child poverty in Zimbabwe seems to
Centre on two main viewpoints or varying combinations of both. The first is
that children are poor because they live in income poor families (Income
approach), and secondly, children are poor because of unavailability or scarcity
of resources required for their survival and development both within and
outside the family or household (Deprivation approach). Hence, Schubert
(2010) argued that a child sensitive social protection approach in Zimbabwe
does not have to ignore the needs of other categories of people in the
household such as the elderly and the unemployed. As such, using Orphans
and Vulnerable Children as the main targeting priority ignores the importance
of the role of caregivers as essential, and blocks a comprehensive social
security program. Such kind of an orientation point to the fact that poverty of
the household has some direct impact on the well-being of children, and that
efforts to tackle child poverty should be directed towards the household.
Under the two approaches, it means that children are not directly engaged
as independent agents but rather indirectly considered through their
membership to households. Contrary to this, contemporary social theory
advocates for the recognition of children’s citizenship in development. Janoski
(1998: 9) defined citizenship as “passive and active membership of individuals
in a nation state with certain universalistic rights and obligations at a specified
level of equality”. This definition recognises agency, personhood (as opposed
21
to belonging) and equality of persons within a state. Universal rights involves
the realisation of civil (legal), political (associated with political participation
such having influence on policy), and social rights (welfare and security
provided through schools and health, social services) (Marshal 1950). Recent
positive developments include the recognition of limited citizenship as one of
the five major poverty traps in the Chronic Poverty Report of 2008 (CRCP
2008). Earlier in 2005 the UN Programme of Action of the World Summit for
Social development included an aspect of limited citizenship in its
Characteristics of poverty as “[…] lack of participation in decision making and
in civil, social and cultural life” (UN 2005: paragraph 19). Going back to the
definition of Human Development in Chapter One, the concept of citizenship
is therefore closely tied to the political freedoms and human rights necessary
for the attainment of human development.
Considering children’s rights as not paternalistically conferred, but
realising children’s passive and active citizenship is another lens for
conceptualising child poverty and deprivation and visualisation of an
alternative approach to interventions. From this view, there is need for the
fulfilment of children’s rights (including the right to food, education and health
services) on the part of the state regardless of household economic status, but
by virtue of passive membership to a nation. Even though children have
limited active participation in politics (lack voting rights), there are various
ways in which they can be consulted on issues of policies affecting them, and
the concept of Junior Parliaments is one. Efforts should also be made to
address all forms of political, social, and economic resource inequalities that
inevitably affect citizenship.
3.1 National Action Plan for Orphans & Vulnerable Children
One of the major nationally coordinated interventions on disadvantaged
children of the 21st Century in Zimbabwe was the National Action Plan for
Orphans and Vulnerable Children (NAP for OVC). In 2005 the NAP for
OVC was tabled (MoPSLSW 2005). Its core activity areas were: Coordination
of effort, Child Participation, Birth Registration, Formal Education, Social
Services, Extra Curricular Education and Livelihoods and Child Protection.
The first phase took off in 2008 and ended in 2010 under the Ministry of
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, National Aids Council, and
UNICEF. Implementation was basically strengthening the supply side through
non-cash resource transfers and executed through a network of civil society
organisations countrywide. The second phase ( NAP 2) led by the GoZ and
mainly funded by UNICEF, and governments of The Netherlands, United
Kingdom, Sweden and the European Commission was launched in 2011 and is
expected to run up to the year 2015. It is basically focusing on strengthening
the household economy, child protection, access to basic services, and
programme coordination and management (MoPSLSW 2010).
In May 2010, a study on Child Protection and Development
commissioned by UNICEF made recommendations to move from the supply
side (NAP 1) to demand side interventions towards addressing child poverty
22
(NAP 2). Cash transfers are a growing social protection strategy as several
governments and the donor community moves from the traditional supply side
and charity based interventions. The report of the study entitled “ChildSensitive Social Protection in Zimbabwe” by Schubert (2010: 6) pointed out
that 55% of Zimbabweans live in extreme poverty and half of them are
children, who are living under extreme deprivation. The first proposed action
was redirecting the Program of Support for the NAP 1 from directly targeting
OVC towards targeting approximately 1 250 000 food poor households and
lifting them from extreme poverty through cash transfers, while also
preventing those vulnerable from falling into extreme poverty. There are two
pilot programmes carried out to date: The NAP 2 under the GoZ through the
MoPSLSW and the Manicaland OVC Cash Transfer Pilot Programme carried
out by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) an independent faith based organisation
together with the Biomedical Research Technical Institute (BRTI). This study
is drawing conclusions from the information gathered on these two
programmes.
3.2 The NAP 2 and CRS-BRTI Cash Transfer Programmes
The NAP 2 Programme main objectives are to improve household incomes
and access to nutrition, health and education for orphans and vulnerable
children. The programme also aims to create a protective environment for
children whilst coordinating all efforts directed at promoting children’s wellbeing nationally. This is translated into four strategic pillars (and key result
areas) namely:
 Strengthening of the household economy
 Child protection
 Access to basic services
 Programme coordination and management.
The key result areas of the second phase of the NAP are very broad and are
expected to be staggered between the periods from 2011 to 2015. Table 6
below shows the estimated cost breakdown of the NAP 2 Programme.
Table 6: Cost Breakdown for NAP 2 Programme
Strategic Pillar
Share in
Total
Cost, USD
Strengthening the household economy
30%
101,520,000
Child protection
17%
58,570,000
Access to basic services
48%
162,500,000
Programme coordination and
management
4%
13,750,000
Total Budget
100%
336,340,000
SOURCE: NAP 2 Programme Document (MoPSLSW 2010: VIII)
23
Strengthening of the household’s economy is meant to make households
more resilient and respond positively to meet the needs of children within
them. This is expected to be achieved through disbursement of cash income
beginning with approximately 250 000 poor families and expected to spread
across all the poor households countrywide. Access to services for children will
also be further strengthened through Assisted Medical Treatment and the Basic
Education Assistance Module (BEAM). These strategies are used separately or
in combination depending on the situation befalling the households and or
children. The results of this study shows that it is possible for a single
household to benefit from both income support and assisted access or from
only one of them, with different impacts on the welfare of children.
The targeting categories of the NAP 2 are shown in Figure 3 below. They
are intersecting between the level of household poverty and the availability of
economically active people within the household.
Figure 3: NAP 2 Targeting
Consumption per
person
Absolute poverty line 78%
400 000 Households
100 000 Households
Food poverty line 55%
1 250 000 Households
250 000 Households
Eligible for cash transfer
Low dependence ratio
High dependency ratio
(Households with labour)
(Households without labour)
dependence
ratio
Source: Request for Proposals, Child Protection Fund for NAP 2 (MoPSLSW and UNICEF 2011:
12).
It is estimated that about 55 per cent of Zimbabwean households live below
the food poverty line of which about three million are children (MoPSLSW
2010). Assuming a dependency ratio of 3, this suggests a figure of about 3
million severely food and services deprived children living in between 1 200
000 and 1 250 000 households. About one fifth of the households are labour
constrained and qualifies for income support (ibid.).
24
The cash transfer programme undertaken by CRS-BRTI had similar
objectives and it also aimed at adding knowledge to cash transfer programming
in tackling child poverty prior to the launch of a nation-wide programme. Its
specific objectives were to:
 Improve personal identity and access to services, that is facilitating
birth registration for the under 5 from 38% to 63%,
 Reduce infant mortality through scaling up immunisation/vaccination
from 54% to 84%,
 To increase school attendance of children aged from 6 to 12 from
about 72% to 89% (CRS 2009).
The objectives were going to be attained by cash transfers to 2 846
households (reaching 5 771 OVC) and distribution of agricultural inputs to
1423 households housing 2 886 children. The cash income and food
production support had different beneficiaries in order to capture differences
in the outcomes. This study focused only on the cash transfer programme. The
targeting (beneficiary selection) criteria of the Manicaland Cash Transfer
Programme showed some great resemblance to the NAP 2 strategy. It was
based on household demographic and wealth index data produced from a
baseline census conducted by CRS in 2009 and reflects some preference of
labour constrained households. Those who qualified met the following criteria:
 The poorest households falling within the last 20% at baseline (Wealth
Index)
 Households with at least one orphan
 Households whose head is above age 60
 Child headed household at project inception
 Household headed by a chronically ill person, and
 Household with a disabled member.
The selected beneficiaries are households with very low endowment in terms
of productive resources. A prior household economic survey used to select the
beneficiaries of the Manicaland Programme revealed that these households
lacked capital assets such as labour, livestock and a reliable and stable income
for their upkeep. This condition justified the need for social assistance in the
form of income support directed to these households.
3.3 Programme Implementation
The NAP 2 pilot programme was implemented in a single ward in the
Goromonzi District of Mashonaland East Province. It began in February 2011
and was expected to run for six months until July of the same year but
abandoned before the planned end date due to undisclosed reasons. Efforts to
get official information about the implementation plans and evaluation reports
through the MoPSLSW were fruitless. A formal application to access the
documents was turned down. A field visit revealed that only a single transfer
was made even though the beneficiaries had a lot to say about the project.
25
The Manicaland Cash Transfer Pilot Programme was implemented from
December 2009 to February 2011and managed to assist 12 155 OVC from
4 083 households in three districts of Manicaland province: Nyanga, Makoni
and Mutasa (CRS 2011). The disbursement per household was between USD
22 (a fixed amount of USD 18 plus USD 4 per child) and USD 30 (a maximum
of 3 children based on the dependency ratio of 2.26 children) made after every
two months. The amount of money given was uniform irrespective of whether
the child is in primary or in secondary school or whether he or she is disabled
or not. It was not mentioned in the Programmes whether the amount of
monthly disbursement was indexed on general prices of commodities at
current rate of inflation or not. According to government statistics, the annual
rate of inflation (consumer prices) for the year 2010 has been 4.2 on average
(Reserve bank of Zimbabwe 2011: 22). Inflation has been generally stable since
the adoption of the USD as the official currency. Month to month inflation
rates for the year 2009 and 2010 are shown in Appendix B (Reserve bank of
Zimbabwe 2010 and 2011).
Apart from the cash support project, there were other forms of
assistance already going on in the areas of study (Mutasa District). The BEAM
programme being the one with national coverage. In a survey carried out in
May 2010 by the Manicaland HIV/AIDS Prevention Project, it was revealed
that there were nine NGOs, 4 community based FBOs and one United
Nations agency providing HIV/AIDS related services only in Mutasa District
(Manicaland HIV/AIDS Prevention Project 2010).
3.4 Programmatic Implications
The design and implementation specifications of the two cash transfer
programmes have got both implicit and explicit assumptions which have a
bearing on the efficiency of the programmes. These assumptions are an
important factor in the success or failure of the project in terms of the impact
on the development of children. Explicit assumptions among others are that
the programmes will obtain the budgeted funding in time and that suitable
personnel are available. If these assumptions hold true, then the project will be
on the road to success. However, looking at the intervention framework and
targeting criteria of the two programmes, there are other implicit (hidden or
made operational by adopting other options) assumptions that are also
important for the success of the programmes. This section will look at the
targeting assumptions looking at their major likely positive and negative
implications on programming and subsequent impact on children and
households.
Targeting Precision
The major advantage of a Proxy-means testing (using household
characteristics which are indicative of poverty such as productive assets) and
Categorical (e.g. based on physical status and age) targeting criteria have a
higher likelihood of identifying the poor and deserving. Holding other factors
constant, the household survey data used in both programmes coupled with
26
community participation in identifying the beneficiaries used in the Manicaland
Cash Transfer Project is mostly likely to have resulted in the selection of needy
beneficiaries. These approaches are more transparent and are likely to receive
public support. However, the selective versus universal targeting strategies
debate is an on-going one, especially in situations where the prevalence of
those falling in the eligible group is high. The major debate mainly centres on
the cost of targeting (associated with identifying the eligible beneficiaries and
monitoring), the risk of improper inclusion or exclusion in either case, and the
prevalence of the considered factor in the target population (Kakwani, Soares
and Son 2005: 34). In this case, considering that more than 78% of the
Zimbabwean live below the absolute poverty line (MoPSLSW and UNICEF
2011: 12), there is a greater likelihood that most children are surviving under
deprivation. Under high poverty prevalence the proxy indicators becomes
weaker. The general observation by experienced practitioners is however that
targeting errors of inclusion and exclusion are inevitable in development
interventions, but effort should be made to keep them minimal (Taylor and
Seaman 2004).
‘Trickle down’ Effect
The most important and open assumption is the trickle-down effect of the
household income towards improving the welfare and development of
children. In the previous chapter it was highlighted that there are several sociopolitical and economic complexities in the entire ecological system in
determining the benefits derived by children from household income. This
makes such a prognosis to be not always obvious. Apart from factors within
the household, the targeting criteria/strategy of NAP 2 (Figure 3) is also a
potential source of exclusion. While this type of proxy-means testing targeting
is very good in identifying the poor, the multi-dimensionality of poverty is
relatively compromised. In other words, concentrating on economic indicators
alone leaves a host of socio-political factors that influence household resources
allocation.
Full Employment
Children living in households with economically active unemployed
breadwinners are likely to be left out as beneficiaries, whilst they may be
equally deprived as those in labour constrained households. The targeting
approach assumes that the economically active population are able to engage
themselves in productive wage employment or informal income generating
activities. This assumes the availability of jobs and income opportunities and
unemployment is basically seen as voluntary. However, the availability of
formal or informal employment opportunities or other income generating
activities is limited especially in the rural areas where most of the population
live. The formal unemployment rate in Zimbabwe is estimated to be above 80
per cent (IILS 2008: 121). With increasing informal unemployment often
characterised by low wages and lack of social insurance, even households that
are not labour constrained are finding it difficult to have enough income to
sustain their requirements. While extending assistance to the economically
27
active population may potentially create a dependency syndrome, the economic
standing of Zimbabwe cannot guarantee employment to those who qualify to
be employed. This situation therefore means that the cash transfers might not
actually be a supplement but may be all the income that a household get: a fact
not compatible with the CRS’s line of reasoning which states that the cash
extended to beneficiaries should be limited enough so that no dependency is
created, and should be treated as a supplement (CRS 2009:11).
Dependency Load
Another potential source of exclusion is the assumption of a uniform
dependency across the target population. In cases where all children (including
beyond number 2.29) in a household are likely to be equally deprived, limiting
the number of children who can benefit within a household greatly affects the
effectiveness of the intervention because of exclusion. Some households who
took part in the research exercise had up to 5 children. The overall effect is
most likely to be a decline in the per capita benefit of the children because the
income will be spread among several children beyond the limit set in the
programmes. This will result in a diluted impact of the intervention.
The Nature of Poverty
Another factor that cans potential propagates exclusion and subsequent threats
to programme efficiency is the inconsistent and cyclical nature of being poor
and poverty. Households and children may become poor at any moment, for
example, due to the loss of a breadwinner or unemployment. On the other
hand, household economic status also evolves over unpredicted time periods,
which can also be characterised by alternating bouts of extreme to mild
poverty. For example, poverty can be seasonal in the sense that farming
communities may only have enough food during the harvesting periods but
suffer greatly off-season. Considering that assessment surveys and beneficiary
selection committee meetings (made up of implementers and villagers) are
occasional events, households and children who fell into poverty in between
these events are excluded from the assistance sometimes with grave
consequences. Recognising children’s citizenship in a rights based approach for
example, will to a large extent ensure that children will continue to go to
school and seek medical treatment irrespective of the economic status of their
households. Despite all the efficiency factors discussed so far in this section,
let’s assume that income is available in households that are not labour
constrained and that cash transfer are disbursed to labour constrained
households with fair distribution among members; the important questions to
ask whether there are sufficient and suitable commodities on the market to
meet the human development needs of children.
Perfect Supply
The Second Phase of the NAP focuses on improving access to commodities
for children through stimulating the demand side. Household income support,
medical and education assistance enables households to demand more services
28
for their children. This approach however, works well where there is a
corresponding supply side capable of handling the level of increased demand.
The beneficiaries of the Cash Transfer programmes who were interviewed
during the research indicated that sometimes services centres could not be
accessible due to bad road networks and expensive transport fares. Shortage of
medicines and understaffed schools are also a characteristic of the health and
education service delivery in Zimbabwe. A Zimbabwe daily newspaper
reported that the Zimbabwe Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture
officials have confirmed that there are 15 000 vacant teaching posts in
government schools countrywide. Of the 111 000 teaching posts filled, 96 000
are occupied by qualified teachers while the remainder manned by unqualified
personnel, in worst case by people who do not even have the minimum five
ordinary level passes. The shortage of teachers was said to be worse in rural
areas (The Herald 2011). This brings in the issue of quality and adequacy of
services. Such response failures (in Sen’s terms) suggest some potential threats
to the efficiency and effectiveness of the demand based cash transfer
programming aimed at promoting children human development.
3.5 Programme Evaluation Results
In the face of a number of programming issues discussed above, the
Evaluation report of the CRS reported some success of the Pilot Cash Transfer
Project. The following are some of the major outcomes that were observed:
 Children from benefiting households were likely to have a birth
certificate (from 46% to 85% of 0-4 aged children), been vaccinated
(from 64% to 94% had taken required doses), regularly attend school,
and have school uniforms;
 Some households managed to buy small livestock such as pigs and
chicken (CRS 2011: 9)
The report concluded that cash transfers are “…a practical and effective
strategy for improving child well-being and development in a holistic manner
amongst OVC in Zimbabwe.” (ibid: 10).
Despite the convincing prima facie evidence of success in this programme
and those carried out in other countries, there is need to gather more evidence
on the advantages and disadvantages as well as cost effectiveness of cash
transfers over the conventional supply side strategies like food distribution.
The use of conditional versus unconditional cash transfer also remain
controversial as some evidence suggest that despite conditions, general
improvement in human development factors are visible under the free reign
approach (Schubert and Slater 2006). Other evidence gaps include the impact
of the cash transfer approach on the local and national markets and the overall
economic related growth; and how such support can be mainstreamed into
social protection mechanisms of developing states such as Zimbabwe. The
next chapter presents and discusses the findings gathered from the
beneficiaries (caregivers and children) of the cash transfer pilot projects.
29
Chapter 4
The ‘Story’ Behind Zimbabwe CT and Analysis
of Outcomes
This chapter presents the beneficiary’s account of the two cash transfer
programmes. These are stories of most significant changes that resulted from
the income support from the perspectives of the caregivers and children. It
provides a critical analysis and discussion aimed at establishing the impact of
the cash transfer programmes on households, and the extent to which they
have gone towards children human development through improving children’s
access to education, health and nutrition.
4.1 The Stories of Most Significant Change
The Story of Caregivers
The most significant change stories reported by the caregivers are presented in
seven categories as shown in Figure 4 below. The age range of respondents is
25 to 60 years and each had between one and five children under their custody.
The response and demographic data of the caregiver households is given in
Appendix C.
The cash pay-outs of an average of USD26 were made after every two
months in Manicaland translating to about USD13 per month for a household
with an average of 4 people including children. A single payment of a similar
amount was disbursed in Goromonzi District. The significant stories (probably
tangible or distinct benefits of the income) show mainly a use of resources
towards commodities of a collective benefit to the household such as food,
repaying debts, and blankets. This suggests an economic household model that
cannot be truly unitary, where all individual need receive a fair share or
bargaining, where each individual bargain for a share to meet his or her needs.
This poses some challenges on the trickle-down assumption in which needs of
children will be met at an individual level under the cash programme.
Three out of eleven caregivers specifically mentioned the ability to
purchase foodstuffs as their story of most significant change, while the
remainder also mentioned varying degrees of improvement in food availability.
In other words, all the caregivers who took part in the research reported that
they were able to buy foodstuffs in some way with the money they received,
especially those foodstuffs that are not available in their gardens (mainly
groceries). The groceries included maize meal, cooking oil, laundry soap, salt,
30
and wheat flour. As one elderly woman in his early 60s put it, “putting food
before the children is the only way from keeping them away from staring at
you”.
Figure 4: Most Significant Change Stories (caregivers)
hire labour, 1
medical
attention, 1
blankets, 1
food/ groceries
,3
debt servicing,
1
non, 3
expanded
choices, 1
While the caregivers reported that the money enabled them get
commodities they could not necessarily afford before, the majority (7 out of
11) indicated that the money is insufficient to meet the basic household
requirements between disbursement periods. This figure includes 3 who could
not specifically zoom in to what they can call significant changes but do
appreciate that the money they receive from the programme as better than
nothing. The insufficiency of money disbursed under cash transfer
programmes was also reported in Kenya’s pilot cash transfer program that
commenced in three districts in December 2004 ( Bryant 2009: 68). Under this
program households were given an equivalent of USD6.5 per month (ibid.).
Some households showed some preference for spending the money in
productive activities rather than only on consumption. Maize is the staple food
in Zimbabwe and most families targeted by the income support programme
dot not often have the capacity to produce enough to meet their needs. They
often lack inputs such as seed and fertilizer. In as much they want to buy
school equipment for the children with the money they got, they still feel that
there is need to invest in food production rather than relying on buying from
the market. One family reported that it was able to hire labour for weeding a
maize field. “[…] we always rely on what we harvest (maize) for our livelihood,
it’s better to exchange maize for other food products because monetary prices
are always changing” said a 60 year old grandmother who looks after two
grandchildren and her husband. This shows beneficiaries concern on building
their own sustainable endowment in order to strengthen their livelihood. It
therefore seems equally important to consider an intervention that also
31
improves the productive assets of poor households such as arable land and
farming inputs. Such an intervention is potentially effective in the long run as
households may be able to handle economic risks such as inflation because the
produce can serve as a store of value as suggest by a women interviewee
quoted in a few sentences above. Prioritising and investing in food production
was also the case observed in an independent evaluation of an emergency cash
transfer programme of Kalomo District in Zambia (Harvey and Marongwe
2006: 28). Apart from buying food, beneficiaries in Kalomo used some of the
transferred money for land clearing and cultivation and labour costs for
harvesting. Investments in other productive assets such as goats for breeding
were also reported as a positive impact in Kalomo District (DFID 2005b: 18).
The disbursements also significantly helped caregivers meet other
household requirements. As shown in Figure 4 above. A female beneficiary
pointed out that she was able to service her debts with the local schools and a
grocery shop while the other was able to buy blankets. One interviewee
pointed out that cash income has enabled her to choose among several
priorities because money is actually a medium of exchange for most of her
monthly household requirements; “[…] if I have cash I can keep it [or save it]
and use it for any need that arises in future”. In her narration the women said
that she always do piecework but paid in form of cash approximately 50 per
cent of the time. Another caregiver said that the cash transfer was useful for
seeking medical attention for his diabetic wife. The most significant changes
raised by the respondents might be in another perspective seen as burdens
which worries them; probably areas important for their survival which they
always strive to fulfil.
A probe for further information related to children’s human development
elements revealed that almost all caregivers (10 out of 11) manage to send
children in their custody to school even though some confirmed that their
children’s attendance is not consistent due to failure either to pay tuition fees
in time or afford other extra levies. In one of household a boy aged 16 who
was supposed to be in secondary school had dropped out to pursue some kind
of paid work. Five households in the research had some of their children on
BEAM while the remainder had to pay tuition fees for children on their own.
About half of the respondents did manage to buy some stationery for their
children; but this does not include textbooks which were reported to be
expensive and not always enough especially in secondary schools.
Only a few (about one third) of the caregivers have sought professional
medical attention for children under their custody during the span of the cash
transfer programmes. Visits to health centres were mainly for regular
vaccination and children monthly growth monitoring and health check-ups.
For those who had illness related consultations, some reported that they
couldn’t afford to buy the prescribed medicines. A grandfather said he could
not afford regular check-ups at the provincial hospital for his asthmatic
granddaughter. The majority of the caregivers (three quarters) have treated
their children at home. The children could have suffered some mild to
moderate ailments with some reported to be chronic such as asthma. The
major reason attributed to home treatment has been unavailability of transport
32
fares to referral hospitals as the local clinics could only provide limited services
and sometimes have insufficient or inappropriate drugs.
There were no major differences in the ideas of change and opinions
observed between responses from the two Districts studied except that the
programme in Goromonzi district made only one disbursement covering two
months compared to the Mutasa District programme which covered 14
months. As the period covered increases, the households were able to transact
on a bigger variety of commodities. A look at the response matrix suggest that
female caregivers in the research showed much concern on food security, for
example by buying or by hiring labour to work in the fields, while their male
counterparts also considered other needs such as blankets and medical
services. One female caregiver reported to have experienced some challenges
on how to use the money she got from the programme. The issue was mainly
on differences in food related priorities with other male adults in the
household. The cash transfers were not the only source of income for most of
the households.
Apart from piecework, it was noted that other sources of income for the
poor and labour constrained households include occasional remittances from
relatives and other members of the household who work elsewhere. There are
also occasional donations from other villagers and the church. Technically this
introduces a margin of error in the changes that can be attributed sorely to the
cash programme. Involving the beneficiaries in the study was part of measures
to minimise this error as respondents were asked to focus only on changes they
feel are related to the cash transfer programme. Generally, the cash transfer
programme has brought hope to the beneficiaries because of its reliability than
other sources. However, the beneficiaries are sceptical about the continuity of
the project. The income support project has also been generally welcomed by
the interviewees as an addition to other support packages (e.g. Home Based
Care for HIV/AIDS patients) offered by other donor agencies in the districts
studied.
The Story of Children
The children living in beneficiary households shared almost similar sentiments
as caregivers. The children interviewed largely measured the success of the
cash projects based on the availability of food and how the households have
been able to respond to their educational needs. Figure 5 below shows a
summary of the children’s stories of most significant change. The demographic
data and response matrix of the children is attached as Appendix D.
There were only seven major categories of the stories told by 11 children.
As seen in Figure 5 below, household food status was among the leading
concerns of children. Three children pointed improvement availably as their
most significant change story. Food availability has been reported in three
forms as shown in Appendix D. First, four of the children interviewed said
that they are getting enough food in the sense that food is not an issue of
immediate concern to them and their households. These children can be
described as mildly deprived and looked satisfied by the amount of food
available to them though it is difficult to objectively attribute the adequacy of
33
the food sorely to the cash intervention. A second sub-category concerning
food is comprised of 5 children who reported that food availability has
improved in the household since the inception of the cash transfers although
they have not yet achieved mild deprivation level but mostly fit into moderate
to severe deprivation. One 12 year old girl showed some appreciation in the
improvement of food availability in her story: “…on that day [one of the day
the household received the cash] my aunt bought peanut butter and dried
carpenter fish for us […] yes its better”. The third sub-category is composed of
three children who could not particularly comment on changes in the food
status within their household prior and after the income support programme.
Another considerably larger proportion of children failed to actually
pinpoint at least one significant change that has occurred in their lives as a
result of the cash income intervention. One interviewee, a secondary school
going boy aged 17 narrated his ordeal with a tone showing doubt and
hopelessness after failing to point any significant change he realised from the
program;
“…my life hasn’t been the same [since mother’s death two years ago] I got
assistance from other 2 organisations that come and go. The family don’t have
enough to eat, and clothes, sometimes we fail to go to school because we don’t
have soap to wash our clothes...”
Figure 5: Most significant change stories (children)
more than one,
1
clothes , 1
non, 3
stationary, 1
school uniform,
1
food
availability, 3
exam fess, 1
Out of the three cases that did not have a story of most significant change, two
were not aware of the programme and its aims. This suggests that there were
very few if not zero chances that they would have been consulted on how the
income was to be distributed. This limitation to children’s right to participation
in matters affecting them is often a result of their relatively low structural
power in households. Actively engaging children (through awareness and
34
participation in beneficiary selection) in the programme might improve their
position as bargaining partners in household resource allocation.
Of the 7 major categories of children’s stories of significant change, 3
were related to education. One primary school child reported to have a school
uniform purchased for her, a 17 year old secondary school pupil managed to
pay his exam fees while other managed to secure stationery. The school
stationery acquired was mainly exercise books, pens, and other accessories but
excluded text books. Of the total children interviewed only one was out of
school, and 4 of those in school were on BEAM. The other 4 had their school
fees paid by their parents/guardians. The majority of secondary school
children were not receiving any form of assistance from outside the household.
There were no significant differences in the stories of significant changes from
children between boys and girls, although secondary school going children
were much worried about getting school material such as textbooks and exam
fees than their primary school counterparts.
None of the most significant changes reported had anything to do with
the children’s health. However, a further probe revealed that although none of
the respondents had been hospitalised during the period of the programme
implementation, at least two had sought some professional medical assistance
and treatment while 3 (and in about 3 thirds of the caregiver households:
Appendix C) had been treated for minor to average ailments such headaches,
stomach pains and fever at home. The research showed that health concerns
are of a little worry to caregivers and children. What makes health look
unimportant is not clear but the low incidences of ill-health among the children
is a plausible factor to attribute such a trend. A scan of the available
information on the state of primary health care in Zimbabwe showed that
immunisation against diseases has increased by 11 per cent since 2005-6; with
at least 62.1 per cent of children aged between 12-23 months who lives in the
rural areas having received all major vaccines (Zimbabwe National Statistical
Agency 2011:14). The Demographic Health Survey (ibid: 16) also showed that
an average of 35.6 per cent (of the total cases covered in the survey) of
children of up to age 59 months sought treatment from a health facility for
diarrhoeal infections within two weeks prior to the survey. Despite
improvements in vaccination against diseases and low illness rates among
children of school going age, the prevalence (including an unknown number of
those infected but did not seek treatment) of diarrhoea in rural areas signifies
low sanitation standards and presence of health risks, a major threat to the
development of children.
The children showed concern for their individual wellness and their
current personal development opportunities as they believe it will translate
them to being productive adults. This suggests the children’s concern over
breaking the poverty cycle by growing up normally and being educated so as to
get well-paying jobs in their adult years. Children’s concern for human capital
development is also reflected in the findings of an earlier research (Figure 6
below) done in Zimbabwe in 2005 which was investigating the major worries
of OVC (FACT and UNICEF Zimbabwe 2005).
35
Figure 6: What worries OVC most?
Don’t know
3%
Heading a
household
1%
Poor shelter
5%
Food
21%
Growing up
without parents
24%
Abuse
4%
Ill health
6%
Not completing
education
21%
Poverty
15%
Source: Baseline Operation: Community Based Support to Orphans and other Vulnerable Children
(FACT 2005)
Generally being orphaned is a major concern to most children. Orphan
hood is a major threat to their access to food, education, shelter and health.
Children understand that this deprivation propagates poverty and affects their
present status while reducing their prospects to grow as productive adults. In
this research, the importance placed by the children on education and
educational accessories, food and clothes probably suggests that the absence or
lack of one of these variables is most likely to be interpreted among them as a
state of being poor and poverty.
4.2 CT and Children Human Development Outcomes
The information gathered in this study has shown that cash programmes are a
potentially viable strategy towards child poverty alleviation. Caregivers, who in
most cases are also household heads, show some concern on keeping the
households going in terms of making food available, making sure that children
are healthy and do attend school. Children on the other hand, were seen to be
concerned about getting enough food and attending school as well as school
accessories such as stationery and school uniforms.
This section revisits child poverty alleviation in the era of cash transfers
in light of the practical programming implications together with the viewpoint
of the beneficiaries in Zimbabwe. This tri-aspect analysis provides an insight
into the extent to which Cash Transfers have improved children’s access to
food, education and health services.
36
Access to Food
In this study both caregivers and children have reported food availability as the
most significant change that has occurred since the inception of the cash
transfer programmes. There were basically two ways that emerged from the
interviewees through which household food availability have improved; either
through investing in production, or buying the food from the market. At
national level programming, differences in soil types, amount of average annual
rainfall and other weather related factors among regions are crucial to food
production and need to be embraced in planning.
Food procurement seems to be among the top ranking household
priorities and tends to correlate positively with an increase in disposable
income. Despite the fact that the benefiting households were already
considered to be food poor, this trend suggests that food may be readily
available to children as the household income increases. Improvements in food
availability as measured by amount and number of meals per day among OVC
were also noted in Kenya and Zambia under cash transfer programmes carried
out in 2004 and 2005 respectively (DFID 2005b: 15, 18). While improvements
in quantity does not necessarily mean improvement in nutritional value of the
food, further research is needed to determine whether the children do get
enough combinations of nutrients and minerals that promote their physical
and mental growth.
The dependency ratio of 2.29 used in the programme design may not be a
true reflection of the composition of rural households. This is because in some
cases the income will be far much stretched by the size of household members
as shown in the demographic data in Appendices C and D. Some households
had more than 4 children, excluding adults. However as much as it looks
obvious that the size of the households affect food adequacy considering the
limited amount of food the disbursement can buy, caution is given on this
proposition as different methods on estimating consumption per person yields
different results (Lanjouw and Ravallion 1994). Looking back to some
nutritional statistics in Table 3, it might also be important to take into
cognisant the prevalence of underweight children in the target population.
With a national prevalence rate of 12-16 per cent, it is most likely that the
majority of underweight children are found within the programme’s target of
food poor households. Using a uniform dependency alone might lead to
exclusion of some underweight children form benefiting.
The general food security situation in participating households as
presented by the beneficiaries suggests a moderate deprivation. Food is
undoubtedly a major factor in the development of children as it is linked to
improved health, school attendance and learning abilities. Therefore, food
security should be given much priority in improving children human
development and poverty alleviation in general.
Access to Education
Education, probably the second human development concern after food
availability in households, can potentially be responsive to an increase in
37
income as revealed. But in this research study some children from benefiting
households were on BEAM. Their significant change stories were not directly
related to actual tuition fees which will allow them to enrol into school. The
situation can be expected to have different results if prior assistance was not
available. Nevertheless, the rate of school enrolment in both primary and
secondary level among the interviewees was impressive. Education is not only
viewed as a consumption good but also as an investment (future employment
prospects and better income) by both caregivers and children. However,
caregivers from households seem to be preoccupied much by making sure that
the household survives through the availability of food before turning to such
needs. Generally, the condition of deprivation in terms of education can be
considered to be minimally moderate as some children still fail to secure
schooling equipment such as stationery.
Educational needs of children are aged based as the research suggest. This
means that individual education needs are ever evolving. The interviews
established that the difference between household compositions of children in
terms of age has a bearing on the adequacy of the transfer amount. For
example, those households whose children are in secondary school require
more in terms of school resources (notably textbooks and exam fees) as
compared to those with children in primary school. On the other hand,
younger primary school going children may face difficulties in travelling long
distances to school. Thus, affordable, accessible, and better equipped schools
(e.g. where textbooks are available) are likely to sustain attendance and offer
better learning opportunities for children.
Acquiring education during childhood in poor households may depend on
how households arrange their labour according to information gathered from
the interviews. Labour is the major economic resource usually held by poor
families to be readily exchanged for an income in times of need. Children as
young as 15 years old may be active in casual employment to augment
household income. This may affect their development in terms of learning;
although some may still recognize the importance of education and by paying
for their education with income they get from employment. A female caregiver
admitted that children sometimes miss school not because she can’t pay for
their tuition fees but the children had to work to earn money for survival. A 17
year old boy doing his last year in secondary school said that the cash transfer
scheme has helped him add to what he had already earned to pay for his
examination fees as his most significant change. He however said that earning
money is seasonal as children always do jobs that are associated with the rainy
season such as herding cattle and weeding people’s fields. Some evidence from
the research also pointed out that children do not always look up to their
parents or guardians for their development needs but can also try to engage in
employment at their own will. In both cases, it can be seen that although child
labour defies the norms of the traditional models of childhood, it is prevalent
as a way of coping with poverty in low income households especially were
adult labour is limited. Thus, holding other ecological factors constant, an
injection of income up to a certain level into the households will see children
having more time to go to school than engaging in paid employment. This
triangular relationship of child labour, household income and education is
38
consistent with findings of researches carried out in Brazil in 2003 and in 2008
on the effects of household income on child labour and education (Cardoso
and Souza 2003, de Carvalho 2008). Brazil’s Bolsa Escola (now Bolsa Familiar)
Conditional Cash Transfer Programme was nationalised in 2000 aimed at
reducing child labour whilst increasing school attendance. Apart from some
positive results recorded, it was also noted that the amount of income forgone
by children was actually more than that received form the programme
(Gustafsson-Wright and Pyne 2002), suggesting that it is possible for
household income support to reduce child labour and make improvements in
school attendance even where no conditions exist.
Promotion of Child Health
The absence of disease and illness is undoubtedly a requirement for human
development. While the income under cash transfers went a long way in
augmenting household food availability, the study revealed that it has not
significantly improved access to health services, especially in terms of
affordability of drugs. There are also challenges of supply and adequacy of
medical services and medicines. The information drawn from the interviews
also suggests that service fees are not the only expenses incurred; exorbitant
transport fees charged by operators to the provincial hospital also hinders
access to health facilities. The majority of caregivers who took part in the
research reported to have treated their children at home for some minor to
average non-chronic ailments, while the minority remainder had sought
professional medical attention for their children during the period the
programme was being implemented from either a clinic or a hospital. As
shown in Figure 5 above, little mention was given to the health needs as most
significant changes by the children. The incidences of failure to access medical
treatment show that diseases and general illness are most likely to put children
at risk of malfunctioning. Children are likely to miss school or succumb to
treatable diseases, a major drawback in human development.
To conclude this chapter, lack of sufficient access to services such as
education, health care and other social services contributes to low children
human development outcomes in Zimbabwe. The overall observation is that in
a monetised economy, cash is the main driver of human livelihood and
development. Social assistance in form of income support is essential to
households who are labour constrained including those who cannot earn up to
the minimum living standard. This study has shown that both caregivers and
children are much concerned about children human development. However, in
spite of the cash intervention, their demand capability and access to food,
education, and medical services is still inadequate on average.
39
Chapter 5
Conclusion
The Zimbabwe’s second phase of the NAP for OVC dubbed ‘Child Sensitive
Programming’ puts the family at the core of tackling child poverty and
vulnerability. Income and economic strengthening of households through Cash
Transfers to the households where OVC are found is one of the major
interventions in the programme. As such, this research aimed at examining
human development outcomes by specifically looking at the extent to which
the design and implementation of the National Cash Transfer Progammes has
addressed issues of children’s access to food, education, health services. Other
aspects included an efficiency analysis, which is the programmes potential to
achieve intended goals by looking at its overall design, as well as examining the
overall impacts on the livelihoods of households. This study draws conclusions
from two pilot cash transfer programmes carried out between December 2009
and February 2011: the NAP 2 Pilot Cash transfer Programme and the CRS
Manicaland Pilot Cash Transfer Programme.
The programme information as well beneficiary’s views in this research
suggests that the cash transfers had some mild to moderate impact on children
access to food, health and education services. Improving the demand capability
of households living in poverty is a promising sustainable strategy towards
addressing deprivation of essential needs of children in Zimbabwe especially
the availability of food within the benefiting households. In most cases, food
availability is often prioritised over other household requirements. Therefore, it
is reasonably evident that food requirements of children can be met with
increased income more than their education and health requirements. Similar
outcomes were also evident in African countries like Kenya (Bryant 2009) and
Zambia (Wietler 2007). However, there is also evidence to suggest that cash
transfers alone are not sufficient or comprehensive in addressing child poverty.
According to the households who took part in this research, the amounts of
disbursements are not enough to cover the monthly food requirements or
other non-food expenses such as education and health especially towards
children. The account of the beneficiaries showed that not all children
deserving professional medical attention received it. Among those who manage
to seek professional medical assistance, a considerable percentage is failing to
afford or procure prescribed medication.
40
Access to education is significantly high among the benefiting
households. However, attributing this status to cash transfers is largely
problematic due to the presence of the BEAM programme in which several
households were also beneficiaries. Even though, most parents and other
caregivers are still failing to provide other educational accessories such as
uniforms, text books and exam fees especially for secondary school children.
Thus, disbursements based on realistic food, health and education
requirements at prevailing costs will tangibly improve the human development
of children. As with the availability of food and health services, the quality of
education is what really matters in human development. A further inquiry to
determine the quality of services available is essential.
Economic hardships always forces caregivers to put household survival
as first priority before attending to children individual needs. This does not
however mean that income is the only good measure of household’s ability to
achieve minimum human development formation. The findings here suggest
that in most cases food security receives priority over the education and health
of children. Literally translating to the fact that besides other ecological factors,
households (considering their size) are more likely to escape the scourges of
poverty and be able to meet the children human development needs when they
attain a certain level of economic endowment and disposable income. In such
scenarios children may also afford to forgo work to attend school. Income
support programming should therefore adopt a more discretionary approach to
determining the size of disbursements made to households.
Wealth Index based and a participatory approach targeting used has
great potential in identifying the poor. However, there are some negative
applied technicalities that pose efficiency threats. These factors are mainly
assumptions embedded in programme’s design strategies or challenges
imposed on these strategies by the local political and socio-economic
environment. The potential for the success of income support as revealed
suggest that sometimes it is not that inputs are not capable of producing the
desired outputs but it may be the flaws in the process of converting those
inputs into outputs or outcomes: a problem of programme efficiency.
Fore mostly, while labour is an asset abundant among the poor, its
effectiveness relies heavily on the opportunities provided by the greater
community to exchange it for income. With unemployment level as high as 80
plus percent, there are high chances that there are deprived children living in
non labour constrained households who were excluded from the support.
Another clear threat to success is the use of a standard dependency ratio of
2.29. Imposing a ceiling to support given to households is not practically
effective. It has been seen in this research that some households far much
surpass the dependency limit. The situation in those families is not likely to
improve considering the amount of the cash allocation and number of people
it caters for. Therefore, it is reasonable to base the disbursement on the actual
number of children per household.
Child poverty is multi-dimensional, it occurs in a broad environment. It
is not only the way the target households are characterised economically but
also how their interaction is regulated by complex inter-linkages of the
prevailing norms, culture, age and gender only to mention but a few; a fact that
41
need consideration in designing an intervention. These are some important
aspects that potentially affect household resource distribution. For example,
information gathered in the research revealed a difference in human
development requirements based on age. In a nutshell, the caregivers and
children indicated some concern especially for failing to afford educational
material (text books) and fees for secondary than for primary education. There
are also differences in health requirements; immunisation and medical
consultation (including treatment when available) for children under five is free
of charge while health services for those beyond is expensive. It is evident
therefore that future cash transfers for OVC should minimally take into
account the age of the children within the households eligible for support.
Apart from the demographic characteristics and relationships of members
within a household, the other important factor is the availability of
opportunities for furthering the development of children from other structures
and institutions outside the household.
Cash transfers are in nature biased towards improving the household
demand for services. However, this approach works well when the services can
be legally and adequately available and accessible. Focus should not be only on
improving demand but also an equal amount of effort is needed to make sure
that services of reasonable quality are made available. This implies an
investment in essential services such as food security, health and education
delivery system. The beneficiaries of the cash transfer programme (caregivers
and children) cited shortages of medicines in local clinics, textbooks in schools
and exorbitant transport fees. This scenario obviously stretches the household
income available. There should be improvements in doctor-patient ratios and
availability of medicine, proper and well equipped schools as well as a good
road infrastructure linking the communities with the service centres to mitigate
these response failures. Such large scale developments often require
coordination at a higher level (sectorial or ministerial level) than the
community level. It is therefore practical not to view cash transfers as a
panacea to child poverty but focus should be more on how cash transfers can
be effectively implemented alongside other development interventions. Hence,
‘Child Sensitive Programming’ should be not only confined to the microeconomics of the households but should be also reflected in national sociopolitical and macro-economic policies.
A rights based approach to child poverty as opposed to a need based
approach seems to be comprehensive in terms of dealing with issues of
accessibility. Such an approach will ensure equality; the availability of equal
opportunity access to food, education and health services for all children as
well as increasing government’s accountability towards the development of
children thereby enhancing and preserving children’s citizenship.
The Cash Transfer programme has been generally welcomed by the
people. Apart from direct uses towards the needs of children, the income has
been instrumental in helping households on other requirements such as
medication for caregivers and hiring of labour. To end with, any Social
Assistance programme is more likely to be considered functional when the
beneficiaries feel comfortable under such a scheme, that is, when support is
sufficient for meeting their needs.
42
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48
Appendices
Appendix A: Human Development Index: Dimensions and Indicators.
Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2010 (2010:13)
49
Appendix B: Zimbabwe monthly Inflation (based on Consumer Price Index) 2009 and 2010.
Year 2010
Year 2009
Note: the monthly inflation average is depicted by the green line.
Source: Monetary Policy Report 2009 and 2010 (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe 2010: 22, 2011: 23).
50
Appendix C: Response Matrix Caregivers.
Could buy foodstuffs
10
40-45
4
No significant change
13
25-30
1
Could buy foodstuffs
15
40-45
5
Could repay debts
18
25-30
2
Freedom to choose what to buy
Male
5
30-35
7
50-55
4
No significant change
8
45-50
2
Could buy foodstuffs
11
45-50
4
No significant change
22
35-40
3
Could buy blankets and clothes
√
Casual labour including children
3
3
vending
35-40
√
Remittances/
donations
6
√
Money insufficient
Could hire labour to work in the fields
Can’t afford transport
3
Other Income Sources
Can’t afford drugs
55-60
Professional Medical
attention
Female
2
Children treated at
home
Most Significant Change Story
Health Status
(last 6 months)
Affords stationary
Children
Children in school
Age
Children on BEAM or
other assistance
Case
Education Status
Food not enough
Food
Status
Could buy foodstuffs
Caregiver Status
√
3
√
√
√
√
3
√
√
√
1
√
√
4
√
√
√
√
1
√
√
√
4
√
√
√
√
√
√
2
√
2
2
Could seek medical attention for his wife
√
√
2
4
2
2
1
4
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
3
51
√
√
√
√
Appendix D: Response Matrix Children.
√
yes
√
1
no
More than one (food, school equipment etc.)
16
2
no
Got school uniform
19
3
no
No significant change
√
√
√
√
Boys
1
14
1
yes
3
11
2
no
Could get clothes
12
17
2
yes
Could pay exam fee
14
10
1
no
No significant change
17
16
0
yes
Improved food availability
20
0
no
Could get stationery
21
1
yes
Improved food availability
√
√
√
√
No significant change
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
52
√
√
√
Can’t afford drugs
√
Professional medical
assistance
Children treated at
home
√
Health Status
Could get stationery
excluding text books
Caregiver afford
tuition fees
Child on BEAM or
other assistance
12
√
Improved food availability
Child out of school
9
2
Education Status
Food availability
hasn’t changed
16
Most Significant Change Story
Food availability has
improved
girls
4
Could get enough
food
Age
Food Status
Child aware of the
programme
Case
Other children in
household
Child Status