Social Protection of the Poor in Africa

Whither Conditional Cash Transfers?

Abstract

Conditional cash Transfers (CCTS) in the past decade have become attractive as social protection programmes for reducing chronic poverty and vulnerabilities in poor African households. however, the adoption of CCTS in african countries overlooks and neglects the individual and different programme contexts required for successful implementation of the programmes. This negligence can impede the achievement of programme objectives as well as their sustainability owing to prevailing socio-political together with economic development constraints. This policy brief thus advocates for greater consideration by government officials and their international development partners of the needs of individual countries in the design and implementation of ccT programmes in africa. While various social protection programmes exist in one (un)conditional form or the other in countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zambia, Egypt, and Uganda amongst others, the introduction of CCTS as social protection programmes is a relatively new phenomena and therefore throws up some challenges. The challenges they present should therefore be seen as part of a learning process rather than reasons to avoid attempting to implement them successfully.