| dc.description.abstract | The concept and practice of social protection in developing countries has advanced at an
astonishing pace over the last decade or so. There is a growing consensus around the view that
social protection constitutes an effective response to poverty and vulnerability in developing
countries, and is also an essential component of economic and social development strategies.
Particularly, cash transfers as a form of social protection have in the recent times gained
increasing interest among donors, NGOs and National governments. They are seen as an underexploited
means of providing basic social protection. As a result numerous cash transfer schemes
have been piloted worldwide. Notable is the Kenya Cash Transfer Programme on Orphans and
Vulnerable Children (OVC) which was piloted in the year 2004.
The broad objective of this study was to therefore explore the extent to which cash transfers
promote secure livelihoods among beneficiary households. It was guided by the assumption that
cash transfers as a form of social protection would have positive effects on household wellbeing
and livelihoods. The specific objectives of the study were to: analyse the asset portfolios of
beneficiary households; analyse the uses of cash transfers within beneficiary households; find out
the extent to which cash transfers were invested in productive activities and finally to establish
the extent to which the cash transfer programme had led to improved wellbeing of beneficiary
households. The study was done in Kibera slum and used a sample size of 60 households who
had benefited from the cash transfer programme. Snow - balling and purposive sampling were
the main sampling techniques used in the study. Structured questionnaires, key informant
interviews, focus group discussion and observation were the main methods of data collection.
Asset analysis in the beneficiary household's established that these households had a very low
asset base. On the uses of cash transfers, the study established that cash transfers were mainly
used to secure basic level of consumption needs as opposed to enabling people to save, invest
and accumulate assets. The study established that the cash transfer money was rarely invested in
productive activities contrary to the view held by Adato and Basset (2008), Vincent K. And Cull
T. 2008, Farrington et al. (2007), UNICEF report (2008) who observe that social protection
enable people to move structurally out of poverty by building assets and investing in productive
activities. In relation to improving household's wellbeing, the study found out that cash transfers
had to a great extent improved the household wellbeing of beneficiary respondents; however
cash transfers had the potential of perpetuating dependency among beneficiary households.
Some of the recommendations that the study offers include: the need for more developmental
and holistic response to address the multiple vulnerabilities that are faced by ave households;
proper targeting mechanism based on vulnerability analysis to inform the design of social
protection mechanisms in order to increase their effectiveness in promoting secure livelihoods;
integrating the cash transfer programme within a wider national social protection system that
complements interventions promoting growth and providing basic social services and the need
for the Government to increase the cash transfer allocations to the households to allow
significant investments in productive activities and achieve a bigger impact in terms of health,
education and income generation among others. | en |
