Can cash transfers improve gender relations?

Evidence on the gender impacts of social protection interventions is mixed, with variable outcomes depending on programme design and local culture. A cash transfer project in Lesotho found complex but generally positive impacts on relations between men and women.

Cash transfers can be an appropriate response to both chronic poverty and emergency food insecurity. Recipients of cash or in-kind transfers are often household heads – typically men. Two common concerns are that men may spend cash irresponsibly – for instance, on alcohol and cigarettes – and that women are likely to have less control over cash transfers than food aid. Lesotho’s experience shows that these concerns may be unfounded, or can be avoided through adjustments in project design.

Historically, food aid has been the main response to humanitarian crises in Lesotho. But, in response to rising questions about the effectiveness of food aid, donors and nongovernmental organisations have started looking at alternatives, including cash. Research by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), in the UK, examined the impact of the ‘Cash and Food Transfers Pilot Project’- a cash transfer programme piloted by World Vision in the Maseru and Mohale’s Hoek districts.

ODI analysed and compared findings from field research on cash only, food only, cash plus food beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, to explore the impact of cash transfers on gender relations. Major findings included the following.

• Gender relations in Lesotho are closely tied to shifting employment opportunities. Many men have been retrenched from the mines in South Africa, and some women have found jobs in the textile industry, where wages are much lower. This shift in economic power and reduced household income has led to increased economic pressures and intra-household conflicts.
• During crises such as food shortages, the coping strategies of men and women differ. This often creates tensions and can undermine women’s needs.
• Cash transfers appear to reduce conflicts between men and women over how money is spent within the household, but not between households. Men are more willing to give cash loans to friends and neighbours, while women tend to share food and cash with neighbours.
• Anti-social expenditure by men (alcohol and cigarettes) leads to conflict within households, but the shift from food to cash transfers did not significantly increase this.
• Managing and allocating income from cash transfer programmes is done in a very systematic way – household expenses are shared more equitably than is normally seen with wage incomes and social pensions.
• Conflicts between children and care-givers due to cash transfers are of a greater concern than gender conflicts. These are particularly acute in households where older people are taking care of orphans and vulnerable children.

World Vision’s pilot project has had positive impacts on households. Although the amount of cash transferred was relatively small, generally when extra money comes into the households, it reduces conflict. As a result of the sensitisation by World Vision, the cash received is seen as a ‘gift’ to the entire household than to an individual. People were also made aware about how resources could be shared equitably. Although the intervention was a short term response to drought, it could have a long-term positive effect on intra-household gender relations.

Rachel Slater and Matšeliso Mphale

Rachel Slater
Overseas Development Institute,
111 Westminster Bridge Road,
London SE1 7JD, UK
T +44 20 79220300
r.slater@odi.org.uk