Institutional Factors Influencing Performance Of Cash Transfer Programme On People Living With Severe Disabilities: A Case Of Kwanza Constituency, Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine institutional factors influencing the performance of the cash transfer program for persons with severe disabilities. Specific objectives were to determine the influence of staff capacity, availability of office, transport, and technology on performance of cash transfer program for persons with severe disability in Kwanza Constituency, Trans-Nzoia County. The study was anchored on the theories of change for cash transfer, which includes theory of conditions and theory of growth. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study because of the nature of this study, which seeks to describe or establish the characteristics and association between variables. The study targeted 276 persons with severe disability registered under the cash transfer program in Kwanza Sub-County, 26 local administration, 4 Social development officers and 12 payment agents. A sample size of 175 was drawn from the target population using stratified and purposive sampling to consider all characteristics of PWSD and select other respondents based on the knowledge they have on the topic of the study. Structured questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data. Questionnaires were used to collect data from persons with severe disabilities while interviews schedule was used to collect data from local administration, payment agents, and social development officers. A pilot study was conducted in the same area, but on different respondents not considered for the study to test validity and reliability of research instruments. Data collection involved the administration of questionnaires and conducting face-to-face interviews. Data collected using interviews was analyzed by thematic analysis while data collected using questionnaires was analyzed using SPSS software Version 20. Descriptive statistics used involved describing the sampling units using frequency and percentages. In the findings, 89.2% of respondents noted that there were either one or two social development officers available to serve. In another case, 82.1% of responded stated that there was a great extent to which available social development officers had a capacity to serve. Over 77% of respondents rated the services offered by the social development officer at 4 out of 5. Further, 87.9% of respondents, observed that Kwanza Sub-County had no offices; 78.6% respondents stated that they sought for cash transfer related services in the neighboring Sub-County, Trans-Nzoia West. Apart from that, 79.3% of respondents stated that they knew and could use agency banking while 20.7% indicated that they knew and could use M-Pesa. Even so, 65.7% respondents stated that there less than 3 payment agents close to them. According to the findings, 90% of the respondents noted that mobility of staff influenced performance of cash transfer program. It was recommended that the national government should allocate funds to build offices and facilitate mobility of staff in all sub-counties. The County Social Development office should organize a plan on service delivery to ensure all beneficiaries and potential persons accrue benefits from the program in time and as expected.