Can social safety nets contribute to poverty reduction in Africa?

This study examined the design and impacts of cash transfer programmes in three southern Africa countries. Design choices such as targeting, transfer levels and transfer mode (cash or food) require sensitivity by policy-makers and participation by intended beneficiaries. Social safety nets were the least fashionable component of the 1990s 'new poverty agenda', yet their impact on beneficiaries has been little researched.

The paper conclude that safety net impacts (on poverty, food security, trade, gender and social relations) are more wide-ranging and profound than often thought. Even tiny transfers make a significant difference to the livelihoods of the very poor.

Recommendations:

• increasingly, safety net programme beneficiaries are expressing a preference for cash rather than food transfers. This preference should be respected wherever government (or donor) resources and market conditions permit
• since higher value transfers are associated with higher propensities to invest, programme designers must choose between maximising coverage - smaller transfers to more beneficiaries (and maximising poverty reduction impact) higher transfers to fewer beneficiaries
• a preliminary 'sociocultural assessment' is essential to estimate the collateral effects on social relations and gender outcomes before implementation of any safety net programme that has social as well as economic objectives
• the affordability of safety net programmes is a normative and political judgement: fiscal sustainability is a function of political will rather than budgetary constraints

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