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Case studies > Zambia

Pilot Project on Social Welfare cash transfers for destitute households in rural Zambia

Project idea and proposal based on recommendations of a consultancy carried out in Choma District/Southern Province by Dr. Bernd Schubert, SLE-Berlin In the framework of the Zambian/German Project: “Social Safety Nets for Households and Communities in precarious social and economic circumstances” Presented by Dr. Joerg Goldberg, GTZ/MCDSS Technical Adviser

Overall objective of the pilot project: Designing and testing a Social Welfare Transfer System for households whose survival is at risk and who have limited or no self-help-capacity (“destitute households”) Purpose: Providing destitute households with a basic cash-income ensuring a low but regular and and reliable component of livelihood Some features of destitute households in Zambia based on an analysis of the 1998 LCMS rough date (targeting female headed, elderly headed and child headed households) Indicator of HIV/AIDS impact: Number of orphans (according to recent demographic and education survey: percentage of orphans 5-14: 17 % (1998) to 23% (2002)) Households caring for orphans are the most vulnerable: Female widow: 184,000 = 10 % of hhs Elderly 60+: 236,000 = 13 % (of them 30 % female) These two household groups (= 19 %) are caring for more than 50 % of orphans (ca. 410,000 of 800,000)

Poverty profile of widow hd. and elderly hd. households
	Widow hd.	60+ hd.	Male hd.
% orphans (0-18)	66 %	26 %	9 %
No. orphans	305,000	155,000	390,000
Extr. Poverty incidence	64 %	73%	52%
Per hd/month income (K)	23,000	20,000	39,000
% income fr. own/sale of crops (rural)	37% / 8%	39% / 12%	24% / 24%
% income fr. remittances	8 %	9 %	3 %

Coping mechanism of destitute households Reducing human capital above average Benefiting to a low degree from formal Social Safety Nets (NGO/Church charity, food for work, etc.) Economic burden on extended family and communities reduces capacity to care for themselves Coping strategies and dependence on extended family undermine human capital and reduce productive capacity Permanent and reliable Social Welfare transfers are an investment in human capital and contribute to easing the economic burden on poor “capacitated” households Targeting the destitute households for permanent social welfare transfers Type of hh.: disabled/chronically sick, elderly or child headed, widowed/divorced women Dependency ratio more than 300 (Dr.Schubert/Choma) Caring for children under 16 According to evidence from some Districts, between 5 to 10 percent of rural households could be eligible Institutional framework for implementation Reformed Public Welfare Assistance Scheme (PWAS): Community Welfare Assistance Committees, Networking with NGOs, Churches etc. Home-based care programs: CHAZ Objective Linking up to existing community based structures, enabling the integration of Welfare support into other activities in in favour of the target group (consumption, productive, counselling) Financial impact GFTAM seems prepared to support pilot project (100,000 $ preparation, 500,000 $ . implementation GTZ/MCDSS Social Safety Net Project . (100,000 EUR preparation/300,000 EUR. implementation Estimated cost of a national rural scheme 7,5 % of rural households = 100.000 hhs. Support of 6 EUR/hh/month = 80 EUR/year = 8 Million EUR/year

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