Download Sonya Sultan - Overseas Development Institute

Social Transfers to Tackle
Child Poverty
Sonya Sultan
Social Development Adviser
Policy Division
1 Palace Street, London SW1E 5HE
Abercrombie House, Eaglesham Road, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 8EA
Millennium Development Goals are
off track
• 800 million hungry
• 11 million children under five die each
year
• 100 million children not in school
• 43 million orphans in Africa, over 80
million in Asia
1 Palace Street, London SW1E 5HE
Abercrombie House, Eaglesham Road, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 8EA
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Commission for Africa
Recommendation: African governments
should develop social protection
strategies for orphans and
vulnerable children, through support
to their extended families and
communities. Donors should commit
to long-term, predictable funding of
these strategies with US$2 billion a
year in 2007 and rising to US$5-6
billion by 2015
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Children Affected by AIDS
•
The UK has endorsed the Framework for the
Protection, Care and Support of Orphans and
Vulnerable Children Living in a World with
HIV/AIDS (hereafter referred to as the UNICEF
Framework). In line with that we are working to
ensure that vulnerable children and those
orphaned by AIDS, receive the care, financial
and social support they need, have assured
access to health services, and are able to
attend and complete school.
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What are Social Transfers?
All forms of public action (governmental or non
governmental) that are designed to transfer
resources to groups deemed eligible due to
deprivation.
Can include:
Employment guarantee schemes
Fee Waivers
Subsidised or free commodities
Cash transfers
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Why consider Social Transfers
now?
• We are not making enough progress with
MDGs
• We need something that will have have
an immediate effect as well as help
address long-term development goals
• This is a cost-effective means of
addressing extreme poverty
• New willingness by donors and
governments to consider this as an
option
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What can it achieve?
Mexico Oportunidades
Growth rate of 12-36 month children up by 16%
Average household consumption grew by 14%
In Brazil, the Child Labour Eradication
Programme (PETI),
Reduced the incidence of child labour from 19.6%
in 1992 to 12.7 in 2001.
South Africa – Pensions
Living with a pensioner reduces likelihood of
household being poor by 12%
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Can cash transfers be put in
place in poor countries?
Bangladesh – Cash for education
Covered 2.4 million children in 2004, has resulted in a
20-30% increase in school enrolment among
beneficiaries. The children on this programme are
also likely to stay in school between six months to 2
years longer than other children (CHIP, 2004). This
is likely to increase their lifetime earnings by 7 to
25%.
Nicaragua - Red de Proteccion Social
22% increase in school enrolment from a baseline
among beneficiaries of 68.5%. 18% increase in
immunization among recipient children aged
between 12 and 23 months.5 % decline in stunting
for children under 5 years between 2000 and 2004.
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Impact of Social Transfers
• Regular and predictable transfers to the
•
•
•
•
poor have an immediate impact on
poverty and hunger, while also
addressing long-term human
development outcomes
Improves nutritional status
Reduction in income poverty
Increase in the number of children
attending school
Improvements in health, specially of
children
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Cash transfers can support
growth
• Stimulate local markets
• Reduce distress selling
• Build productive assets
• In the long-term, enable children from
very poor families to become a bettereducated and healthier workforce
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The effect of cash transfers on
children
Even programmes not directly targeting
children tend to have significant
beneficial impact on children
• Pensions in Namibia
• Productive Safety Nets Programme in
Ethiopia
• Cash Transfer Programme in Zambia
• Cash Payments to War-displaced Urban
Destitute households (GAPVU) in In
Mozambique
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Complementing other
interventions
• Cash transfers will be most effective
when combined with access to services
and availability of wider economic
opportunities for the household.
• Cannot be a solution to extreme poverty
on their own.
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Are cash transfers affordable?
A recent study by ILO demonstrates
• A pension to all people over 65 would
cost no more than 1% of GDP or 3.7% of
government expenditure
• A national programme to reach 10% of
households with $6 per month – as in
Zambia – would cost no more than 0.7%
of GDP in Ethiopia and and Tanzania and
0.5% of GDP in Kenya
• In Zambia, this would be less than 2% of
annual donor assistance
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Are Cash transfers affordable?
• Cost of child benefit at US$ 0.25 ppp per day
to all children up to the age of 14 ranges for
2005 from 1.8% of GDP (Guinea) to 6.3%
(Tanzania)
• If child benefit restricted to orphans up to the
age of 14, then cost falls mostly to less than
1% of GDP in African countries considered.
• Bangladesh Cash for Education is financed
from the Government recurrent budget
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Cost-Effectiveness
It is cheaper often to have a long-term and
predictable social assistance programme to
address extreme deprivation rather than using
emergency food aid
• Examples: In Ethiopia, the safety net
programme now in place will cost one third the
annual ‘emergency’ food aid to the same
population
• In Zambia, cash transfers will cost $19million
compared to $45 million for food aid for a
similar number of people
•
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Implementation challenges
Social Transfer practice will vary in different
institutional contexts.
• It is possible to start with simple designs and
scale up.
• Social transfer programmes have even been
possible in fragile states such as Somalia, DRC
and Afghanistan
•
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How Much ? Who to ? And how?
Agreeing who is poor – targeting issues
Understanding needs for and effect of transfers
Understanding the scope for graduation
Getting institutional set-up right and management
support
Making sure the finance will not dry up
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Country leadership and Ownership
•
The key implementation challenge will be to
get political support for Social Transfers within
governments, the electorate and regional
institutions
• People likely to benefit from SA not in positions
to influence decision-making
• Politicians worry about making such long-term
commitments to social transfers – seen to
encourage ‘dependency’
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What do donors and DFID need to do
differently
Donors also need to show their willingness to
support Social Transfers – traditionally have
been averse to cash and ‘social welfare’ type
approaches
• Have to commit to long-term and predictable
funding for Social Transfers – this is beginning
to happen – Ethiopia, Zambia
•
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