2. Review of Literature
3.5 Benefits of cash transfers
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For that reason, financing rural women’s livelihoods especially in drought prone regions should be a top priority to help reduce feminisation of poverty (FAO, 2015; Shava, 2018). However, in Zimbabwe non-governmental organisations have taken most of the responsibilities of rural poverty alleviation as government has failed to fund welfare projects due to the prevailing economic meltdown of the country (Rukasha, Nyagadza; Pashapa & Muposhi, 2021; Jaka &
Shava, 2018). Although non-governmental organisations have taken up the welfare responsibility, government has put restrictions to their funding causing most of these projects to shut down or run without proper funding (Jaka & Shava, 2018). The government’s main fear is that some external funders’ main interest is to create anti-government sentiments. Jaka &
Shava (2018) did a case study of Chivi rural district where a lot of non-governmental organisations had to close due to changing priorities in the donor countries and other harsh government measures that discouraged fundraising. In the end rural women’s livelihood normally suffer as there is not any financial indemnification for such empowerment programs (Jaka & Shava, 2018).
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strategy to remove “seasonal food insecurities” (MCCTPT, 2016). The unreliable seasonal rainy periods between 2000 and 2001 caused a famine in Malawi; the famine triggered unexpected price hikes for maize, the food price hike continued till 2009 (MCCTPT, 2016;
Miroro, 2016). The sudden spike in prices generated food insecurity as most people in Malawi could not afford to buy at the exorbitant prices marked by the traders. With such an unstable and unfair pricing system, food insecurity becomes a significant challenge, especially for people in the rural areas more than those in the urban areas. As a result, government in conjunction with non-governmental organisations introduced a conditional cash transfer programme called “food-for-work” (MCCTPT, 2016; Orozco Corona & Gammage, 2017).
This policy did not just believe in handing out money for free to the people; instead, it was designed such that for a person to benefit they should have worked in a community developmental programme. For instance, the donor would ask the community to build a road to their own clinic and in return the donor would pay for the work complete (MCCTPT, 2016).
3.5.2 Cash transfer and poverty reduction
In addition to cash transfers reducing poverty, cash transfers can also help in cushioning recipients from extreme poverty. UNICEF (2020) concur that a household that does not receive a cash transfer is most likely to be in extreme poverty, especially, if the household members are senior members of the society. Cash transfers in Brazil proved helpful for the extremely poor: although the money is too little to change a person’s social status the little cash helped address extreme poverty and allowed an individual to have a basic standard lifestyle (Orozco Corona & Gammage, 2017). Although the recipient’s “poverty datum line” would not improve for the better, cash transfer programme helped in bridging the gap between the rich and the poor in Brazil. Similarly, in South Africa cash transfers have helped reduce the national poverty level and improved inequity considerably (Luisa & Fidelia, 2019). Miroro (2016) states that Child Support Grant plays a significant role in fighting poverty in the country.
According to Catubig et al. (2015), the Philippine’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) cash transfer programme has so far been the best social development initiative to have been implemented in reducing the percentage of poverty in the country. Its success came thorough planning done by the Philippine government on how they would support the operations followed by ensuring that the programme targeted credible beneficiaries. There was a high rate of poverty in the Philippines between 2006 and 2009 but the introduction of the
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CCT caused a sharp decline rate of poverty by 5 percent from year 2009-2012 (Catubig et al., 2015).
3.5.3 Cash transfers helping women’s decision making in poverty alleviation
Cash transfers also help in increasing women’s decision-making power and choices, especially when it comes to issues of marriage, fertility and also in decreasing physical abuse by male partners (Luisa & Fidelia, 2019). According to Mercy Corps Cash Transfer programming toolkit (MCCTPT) (2016) early child marriages has been one of the major challenges in poor households in Southern parts of Africa. Most parents in rural Malawi and Zimbabwe have resorted in marrying of their young girls to wealthy old man in exchange for food or money (Luisa &Fidelia, 2019; Nyathi et al., 2017). So with a cash transfer program poor families can make better choices such as sending girls going to school as families will have surplus to meet nutritional values (AIR, 2015; Luisa &Fidelia, 2019). When people can afford basic needs they tend to reduce desperate measures such as early child marriages and in turn improving the lives of these girl children by sending them to school, (Miller et al., 2011; AIR, 2015; Handa et al., 2015; Luisa & Fidelia, 2019).
In addition, women’s decision-making over the use of contraception was also seen to improve in a study from Brazil (Orozco Corona & Gammage, 2017) Although the results were not that significant, studies show that cash transfers resulted in an improvement across other empowerment indicators, particularly on women’s choices about marriage, fertility and engagement in risky sexual activity (Luisa & Fidelia, 2019). Cash transfers deterred girls from thinking about early marriage even their parents could not decide much as the young girls had money for their fees and upkeep (Miller et al., 2011; AIR; 2015). Promiscuity among young women in Kenya also declined during the period they were receiving their cash transfers (Handa et al., 2015; Adato & Hoddinott, 2018). Even the use of contraceptives in Kenya increased causing a slight decline in the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (Handa et al., 2015). Therefore, this shows that cash transfers ease the constraints that would otherwise incentivise sexual relationships with men that are, in some way, transactional (Adato
& Hoddinott, 2018).
The studies done in Kenya and Brazil show that cash transfers can reduce the physical abuse of women and controlling behaviour by men to some extent (MCCTPT, 2016). In agricultural societies most women face multiple challenges and constraints in their role as providers of households. Environmental degradation, lack of appropriate technology, lack of education and
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health services worsened the situation (Glazebrook, 2020). MEPIP & UNDP (2015) noted that poverty was as a result of the longstanding relationship between ownership of technology and resources that existed between men and women. Touray (2016) and Glazebrook (2020) also support the notion that most resources are owned by men and women most of the time find themselves at the mercy of patriarchal system. Most of the services offered for free normally end up being owned but men as they have the financial security and land security for them to gain trust from loaning organisations (Jaka & Shava, 2018). Therefore, the advent of the cash transfers in Ethiopia showed that women who received the financial injection started living independently which greatly helped them on issues of physical abuse as they no longer relied on men for survival (Lumbasi, 2018). Most of the abuse and controlling behaviour of men was because women heavily relied on them for financial and food assistance making men feel like women owed them.
However, some studies found out that emotional abuse of women had increased and that in some circumstances there was an increase in physical abuse towards women when they received larger cash transfer amounts (Adato & Hoddinott, 2018; Handa et, al., 2016, AIR, 2015). The physical abuse and the emotional abuse came mainly from husbands who were not beneficiaries of the cash transfer as they felt their women had become financially stronger than them; and were no longer caring of the normal societal structure where the husband was the decision maker (Adato & Hoddinott, 2018). Women’s decision-making power had increased wider in household expenditure, as the cash transfers had made them financially capable of running their own welfare (Nyathi et al., 2017; Handa et, al., 2016, AIR, 2015).