Five million enlisted for State cash transfers

Senior citizens and people living with disabilities sit outside Equity Bank in Kisii Town to receive their stipend under the National Government Cash Transfer Programme. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

Kenya has more than tripled number of poor and vulnerable citizens currently benefiting from government-backed cash transfer programme.

World Bank’s latest project brief published on its website shows a rise in coverage of cash transfer in the country from 1.65 million in 2013 to 5 million Kenyans in 2019 to surpass a target of 4.2 million citizens.

Kenya’s national safety net programme now reaches 1.2 million households compared to 299,000 households over the last five years, an indication of a reduction in poverty and inequality rates in the country.

Inequality and vulnerability

Increased budgetary allocations for direct cash transfers from around Sh8 Billion ($80 million) in 2013 to over Sh30 billion ($300 million) in 2017 and strong service delivery systems have been attributed to the robust expansion recorded.

“Harmonised policy and programme delivery through a consolidated strategy, adopted in 2016, for all cash transfer programmes allowed the use of streamlined targeting tool, payment system, and grievance management,” said the Brenton Wood Institution.

Population of Kenyans living in extreme poverty (those with a monthly household expenditure below Sh2,000 in rural and below Sh2,500 in urban areas) has reduced by almost 50 per cent to 8.6 per cent over the last decade, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

Before introducing a national safety net programme, the brief noted that Kenya was experiencing a high incidence of poverty — around 46.6 per cent poverty rate.

“Poverty was also intertwined with higher inequality and vulnerability to shocks, the most significant of which was recurring droughts in Northern Kenya,” notes the World Bank.

Most beneficiaries in poor households the brief said now are women accounting for 2.3 million, with the rest being orphans and vulnerable children, people with disability and elderly citizens.

Project Implementation and Beneficiary Satisfaction Report, 2018 shows positive impact of the cash transfers to households with consumption rate highest at 95 per cent, dietary diversity (94 per cent) school attendance and performance (93 per cent) and household health (90 per cent).

The World Bank said government managed to harmonise different cash transfer programmes to reduce fragmentation, duplication to ensure proper coordination and implementation of the safety net programme.

The strategy leveraged on a new financing instrument dubbed, Program for Results Financing (PforR) that links disbursement of funds directly to the achievement of specific programme results.

“There was an urgent need to harmonise the policy, strengthen institutional arrangements, and invest in efficient delivery of cash transfers to leverage their potential to timely address the needs of the poor and vulnerable,” according to the brief.

A consolidated grievance and case management system shows 80 per cent of beneficiaries reported satisfaction with the National Safety Net Programme and its delivery systems in 2018.

Among measures undertaken by government to boost expansion of cash transfer coverage was creation of a Social Assistance Unit by State Department of Social Protection.

This the multi-lateral lender said helped to reduce fragmentation through coordination of the three cash transfer programmes.

A single registry of beneficiaries linked to the Integrated Population Registry System under the National Safety Net Program was put in place in 2015, for transparent and accountable selection of beneficiaries.

The same year, a technology-based payment was introduced, allowing more than 930,000 beneficiary households to receive cash electronically. This system has been improved to offer beneficiaries a choice to select a payment provider that meets their service needs.

Currently, Equity, KCB, Cooperative Bank and the Postbank are the only government listed lenders to distribute the cash allocations for poor and vulnerable households. A harmonised targeting tool for all four cash transfer programs piloted in 2018, is also being refined for future targeting and recertification.