social safety nets for poverty alleviation in southern africa

227 Pages·2005·2.1 MB·English

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SOCIAL SAFETY NETS FOR POVERTY
ALLEVIATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

A Research Report for the
Department for International Development

ESCOR Report R7017

Stephen Devereux

The Institute of Development Studies
at the University of Sussex

June 2000

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER TWO - CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 6

CHAPTER THREE - METHODOLOGY 23

CHAPTER FOUR - ‘GAPVU’ IN MOZAMBIQUE 32

CHAPTER FIVE - SOCIAL PENSIONS IN NAMIBIA 63

CHAPTER SIX - CASH-FOR-WORK IN ZAMBIA 112

CHAPTER SEVEN - COMPARISONS, CONTRASTS
AND CONCLUSIONS 176

REFERENCES 188

ANNEXES 200

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DETAILED CONTENTS

Table of Contents i
Tables vii
Figures viii
Boxes ix
Abbreviations x
Acknowledgements xii

CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 1

Research Objectives 1
Policy Context 2
Theoretical and Empirical Context 3
Research Questions 4
Structure of the Report 5

CHAPTER TWO - CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 6

Determinants of Poverty 6
Anti-Poverty Interventions 8
A Conceptual Framework For Anti-Poverty Interventions 9
(cid:137) Livelihood promotion 11
(cid:137) Livelihood protection 13
(cid:137) Social safety nets 15
(cid:137) Social protection 18
Anti-Poverty Programmes In Practice 19
(cid:137) Are livelihood protection and livelihood promotion separable in reality? 19
(cid:137) A note on language, participation, rights and power 21

CHAPTER THREE - METHODOLOGY 23

Conceptualising the Methodology 23
(cid:137) Secondary beneficiaries 23
(cid:137) Multiple impacts 24
Designing the Methodology 27
(cid:137) Survey instruments 27
(cid:137) Sampling 29
Implementing the Fieldwork 30
(cid:137) Zambia 30
(cid:137) Mozambique 30
(cid:137) Namibia 31
Data Analysis 31
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CHAPTER FOUR - ‘GAPVU’ IN MOZAMBIQUE 32

Mozambique: Economic and Political Context 32
Poverty and social indicators 32
Poverty reduction policies 35
Gender and poverty 36
Urban poverty in Maputo 37

The Social Safety Net in Mozambique 39
Origins of GAPVU 39
Design issues 40
(cid:137) Cost-effectiveness 40
(cid:137) Coverage 41
(cid:137) Targeting 42
(cid:137) Corruption and fraud 44
(cid:137) Payment levels 45
GAPVU’s achievements 47
From GAPVU to INAS 49

Survey Findings 51
Demographic characteristics 51
GAPVU participation 51
Household income 53
Uses of GAPVU income 56
Informal safety nets 60
Other economic and social impacts 61

Conclusion 61

CHAPTER FIVE - SOCIAL PENSIONS IN NAMIBIA 63

Introduction to Namibia 63

Conceptualising Namibia’s Social Pension 65

History of the Social Pension 69
(cid:137) Social pensions in South Africa 69
(cid:137) Social pensions in Namibia 74

Design and Administration Issues 80
(cid:137) Coverage 80
(cid:137) Fiscal and political sustainability 83
(cid:137) Targeting and leakages 85
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Impacts 86
(cid:137) Impact as drought support 87
(cid:137) Demographic impacts 88
(cid:137) ‘Abuses’ of the system 89

Findings from Previous Surveys 90
(cid:137) National surveys 90
(cid:137) Regional surveys 95

Survey Findings 97
(cid:137) Study sites 97
(cid:137) Demographic impacts 98
(cid:137) Employment history 100
(cid:137) Income transferred 101
(cid:137) Uses of pension income 103
(cid:137) Impact on education 107
(cid:137) Secondary beneficiaries 107
(cid:137) Impact on local trade 109

Conclusion 110

CHAPTER SIX - CASH-FOR-WORK IN ZAMBIA 112

Introduction 112

The National and Regional Context 113
Background to Zambia 113
Introduction to Western Province 115
(cid:137) Agriculture and food security 116
(cid:137) Food marketing and price seasonality 118
(cid:137) Food aid in Western Zambia 120
(cid:137) Food aid distribution, 1995/96 121

Background to the Cash-for-Work Programme 123

Design Issues in the Cash-for-Work Programme 124
(cid:137) Cash or food? 124
(cid:137) Setting the wage rate 126
(cid:137) Targeting and exclusion 129
(cid:137) Reasons for non-participation 133
(cid:137) Consultation processes 134

Cash-for-Work Programme Impacts 135
Employment 135
(cid:137) Job creation 135
(cid:137) Previous employment and opportunity costs 138
(cid:137) Time and labour allocation 139
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Incomes 143
(cid:137) Determinants of income 144
(cid:137) Group differences 145
Poverty and Inequality 149
(cid:137) Poverty reduction 149
(cid:137) Income inequality 151
Food Security 151
(cid:137) Household food consumption 151
(cid:137) Food price inflation 152
(cid:137) Agricultural production 153
Use of Cash-for-Work Income 155
(cid:137) Asset accumulation and investment 155
(cid:137) Savings 158
Beneficiaries 158
Informal Transfers 160
Social Impacts 162
(cid:137) Relations between participants and non-participants 162
(cid:137) Community spirit 163
(cid:137) Exploitation and stratification 164
(cid:137) Child labour 165
(cid:137) Gender relations 166
Other Economic Impacts 169
(cid:137) Local economy and trade 169
(cid:137) Impact of the road 170
(cid:137) Effects of project termination 170

Conclusion 173

CHAPTER SEVEN - COMPARISONS, CONTRASTS AND CONCLUSIONS 176

Conceptualising safety nets 176

Design and implementation issues 176
(cid:137) Targeting and coverage 176
(cid:137) Mode of payment 178

Impacts 179
(cid:137) Poverty reduction 179
(cid:137) Food security 180
(cid:137) Spending patterns 180
(cid:137) Local trade 183
(cid:137) Informal transfers 183
(cid:137) Social relations 184
(cid:137) Gender impacts 185

Conclusions 186

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REFERENCES 188

ANNEXES

Annex 1. Methodology 200
Methodology Matrix 201
Project Level 202
(cid:137) Semi-structured interviews
Society Level 204
(cid:137) ‘Rapid Sociocultural Assessment’
Local Economy 206
(cid:137) Price monitoring:
1. Food and groceries
2. Livestock
3. Consumer goods
Community Level 208
(cid:137) Rapid Rural Appraisal:
1. Village mapping exercise
2. Participation matrix
3. Impact tree diagrams
Individual Level 209
(cid:137) Household surveys:
1. Participant questionnaire (Namibia)
2. Non-participant questionnaire (Namibia)

Annex 2. Key Informants 218

Annex 3. ‘Conceptualising Anti-Poverty Programmes and Targeting
Women in Sub-Saharan Africa’ (Conference paper)

Annex 4. ‘Cash-for-Work Impact Assessment in Western Zambia’
(Workshop Report)

Annex 5. ‘Targeting Transfers: Innovative Solutions to Familiar Problems’
(Journal article: IDS Bulletin 30(2), 1999)

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TABLES

Table 1.1 Characteristics of selected social safety net programmes 2
Table 2.1. Categorising poverty and anti-poverty interventions 9
Table 3.1 Methodology matrix for fieldwork undertaken in each country 28
Table 4.1. Mozambique’s Human Development Index in regional context, 1998 32
Table 4.2. Poverty estimates for Mozambique, 1997 34
Table 4.3. GAPVU beneficiaries, 1990 to 1998 43
Table 4.4. GAPVU payments to beneficiaries, 1990-1996 (meticais/month) 45
Table 4.5. GAPVU monthly payment schedule in 1995: stipulated and actual 46
Table 4.6. Sources of household income and mean annual income, 1997 53
Table 4.7. Mean annual income by sex of income earner, 1997 54
Table 4.8. Mean annual household income by town, 1997 55
Table 4.9. Three main uses of GAPVU income 57
Table 4.10. Food and non-food spending by GAPVU households, 1997 57
Table 4.11. Assets purchased with GAPVU income 58
Table 5.1. Namibia’s economic and human development indicators, 1997-1997 64
Table 5.2. Namibia’s formal social safety net programmes, 1998 65
Table 5.3. Social pension payment schedule in South Africa, 1944-1965 72
Table 5.4. Social pension payment rates in South Africa, 1958-1975 72
Table 5.5. Social pension payment schedule in Namibia, 1990 76
Table 5.6. Regional coverage of the social pension in Namibia, 1993-94 81
Table 5.7. Annual private income in Namibia, by main source of income 93
Table 5.8. Demographic profile of pensioner households 98
Table 5.9. Social pensioners’ pre-retirement occupations 100
Table 5.10. Contribution of social pensions to household income 102
Table 5.11. Mean annual income by income source and sex of earner, 1997 102
Table 5.12. Three main uses of pension income (% of uses mentioned) 103
Table 5.13. Uses of pension income (% of households) 104
Table 5.14. Reasons for saving some pension income (% of those saving) 106
Table 6.1. Zambia’s economic and human development indicators, 1987-97 114
Table 6.2. National maize production and imports, Zambia 1987-1995 121
Table 6.3. Estimated food aid requirements for Western Province, 1995/96 122
Table 6.4. Cash-for-work payment and spending by district 128
Table 6.5. Reasons for not participating in the cash-for-work programme (%) 133
Table 6.6. Participation in cash-for-work design and implementation by
participants 134
Table 6.7. Duration of cash-for-work programme participation, by district 135
Table 6.8. Participants’ earnings from previous work 138
Table 6.9. Average total income in participating households, 1996 and 1997 139
Table 6.10. Average total income from all household activities, 1996 and 1997 143
Table 6.11. Average cash-for-work income, 1996 and 1997 (% of total income) 143
Table 6.12. Modelling the logarithm of total income in 1996 144
Table 6.13. Differences in mean incomes of male and female participants’
households 145
Table 6.14. Differences in mean incomes by district 145
Table 6.15. Differences in household incomes between the three categories
of participants 147
Table 6.16. Headcount index using three poverty lines, by district 149
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Table 6.17. FGT indices for total household income using the 1997 poverty line 150
Table 6.18. Total income for households above and below the poverty line 150
Table 6.19. Average total cash-for-work income for households above and below
the poverty line 150
Table 6.20. Gini coefficients by district and gender of cash-for-work participants 151
Table 6.21. Spending of cash-for-work income by expenditure category, Kalabo
District 152
Table 6.22. Major purchases with cash-for-work income 155
Table 6.23. Average spending on items purchased with cash-for-work income 156
Table 6.24. Percentage of cash-for-work income spent on assets, by category 157
Table 6.25. Mean proportion of assets bought with cash-for-work earnings with
respect to total spending on new assets 157
Table 6.26. Amount of cash-for-work income saved, by gender and district 158
Table 6.27. Beneficiaries of cash-for-work spending 159
Table 6.28. Beneficiaries of cash-for-work spending, by sex of participant 159
Table 6.29. Patterns of informal assistance received and given 160
Table 6.30. Changes in patterns of assistance after cash-for-work began and
finished 161
Table 6.31. Distribution of informal assistance given by programme participants 162
Table 6.32. Type of assistance given before and during cash-for-work, by district 162
Table 6.33. Number of income sources per household, 1996 and 1997 171
Table 6.34. Best case and worst case scenarios for an employment-based
safety net 174
Table 7.1. Payment preferences on social safety net programmes 178
Table 7.2. Value and proportionate contributions of safety net transfers 179
Table 7.3. Cash-for-work earnings and spending by district, western Zambia 181
Table 7.4. Spending of transfer income in rural and urban study areas 182
Table 7.5. Beneficiaries of spending of transfer income (% of spending) 183

FIGURES

Figure 2.1. Livelihood promotion: ‘Green Revolution’ 12
Figure 2.2. Livelihood promotion: Employment creation 13
Figure 2.3. Livelihood protection: Social assistance 14
Figure 2.4. Livelihood protection: ‘Crowding out’ 15
Figure 2.5. Social safety nets: Cash transfers 17
Figure 2.6. Social safety nets: Microcredit 18
Figure 3.1 Conventional approaches to project evaluation 25
Figure 3.2 A holistic approach to project evaluation 26
Figure 3.3 Sampling rules for the quantitative survey in each country 29
Figure 4.1. GAPVU beneficiaries by year of registration 52
Figure 4.2. Mean annual income by source, 1997 54
Figure 4.3. Wealth ranking in three Mozambican cities 56
Figure 4.4. Impact tree diagram: GAPVU’s impact on household food security 59
Figure 5.1. Pensions as social insurance for retired workers 67
Figure 5.2. Social pensions as social assistance for poor Namibians 67
Figure 5.3. Social pensions as gratuitous income for the rich 68
Figure 5.4. Monthly social pension payment rates, 1989-1999 77
Figure 5.5. Assets owned by Namibian households, 1994 92
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Figure 5.6. Annual household income by main source (N$) 93
Figure 5.7. Poverty in Namibia by household’s primary source of income 94
Figure 5.8. Household composition, southern sample 99
Figure 5.9. Household composition, central sample 99
Figure 5.10. Household composition, northern sample 99
Figure 5.11. Annual spending of social pension, by region 105
Figure 5.12. Asset purchases with social pension, by region 106
Figure 5.13. Secondary beneficiaries of social pension 108
Figure 6.1. Food availability by month, Western Province, Zambia 117
Figure 6.2. Wholesale maize prices in Mongu and Kalabo markets, 1995-1996 119
Figure 6.3. Conceptualising cash-for-work in western Zambia 124
Figure 6.4. Employment rationing in Zambia’s cash-for-work programme 131
Figure 6.5. Participants’ perceptions of positive impacts of the programme 136
Figure 6.6. Participants’ perceptions of negative impacts of the programme 137
Figure 6.7. Agricultural labour calendar 140
Figure 6.8. Impacts of the cash-for-work programme on labour time 142
Figure 6.9. Household incomes across the three programme districts, 1996-1997 144
Figure 6.10. Impacts of the cash-for-work programme on household food security 154
Figure 6.11. Negative impacts of cash-for-work on intrahousehold relations 168
Figure 6.12. Impact of cash-for-work programme termination 172
Figure 7.1. Spending of transfer income as a step sequence 181

BOXES

Box 5.1. Cash Paymaster Services and delivery of social pensions in Namibia 82
Box 5.2. Observations by Namibian politicians about social pensioners, 1992 90
Box 5.3. Case study of a social pensioner household in southern Namibia 107
Box 5.4. Traders and social pensioners in southern Namibia 109
Box 6.1. Participation and exclusion on the cash-for-work programme 131
Box 6.2. A young participant who was the oldest in her household 165
Box 6.3. Intra-household conflicts 167
Box 6.4. Gendered ownership and control of assets in Western Zambia 167
Box 6.5. Local traders in Lukulu District 169
Box 6.6. Cattle trader who lost business after the project ended 171

MAPS

Map 4.1. Map of Mozambique, with survey cities highlighted 33
Map 5.1. Map of Namibia, with study areas highlighted 64
Map 6.1. Map of Zambia, with study areas highlighted 113

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