A brief history of Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP)

Organization(s): International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth
Author: Pedro Lara Arruda
Regions: Southern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa
Country: Malawi
Year: 2018
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This paper presents some of the challenges the SCTP faced between 2006 and 2016. It starts by presenting the relevant features, actors and episodes of the social protection system for the reader to understand the SCTP and its main operational challenges. It then proceeds to describe the governance and funding changes it underwent from 2006 to 2016. Next, the article describes the SCTP’s targeting and selection process and the changes it underwent in the same period, followed by the same thing for the benefit and payment structure. In the subsequent section there is a summary of the findings of impact evaluations across the different stages of the programme. Finally, the conclusion discusses some potential ways to resolve the main challenges facing the SCTP, and social protection in general in Malawi.