Govt drums up support for social cash transfer
Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare has asked stakeholders to assist families benefiting from the Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP) with additional socio-economic services.
The programme, popularly known as Mtukula Pakhomo, is being piloted in Dedza and Mangochi districts, targeting about 28 000 ultra-poor and labour-constrained households who are getting cash transfers every month.
Rachel Banda, the ministry’s desk officer for Linkages and Referrals Programme, said cash alone is not enough to reduce poverty and vulnerability; hence, the need for provision of other complementary interventions.
She said this in Dedza on Thursday during a meeting with stakeholders to sensitise them on the Linkages and Referral Programme the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare wants to implement to ensure that Mtukula Pakhomo beneficiary households are linked to other socio-economic services.
Said Banda: “The ministry, with support from Ayala Consulting Group and Unicef, will soon train district teams from Dedza and Mangochi who are going to facilitate the process of linking social cash transfer beneficiaries to other socio-economic service providers.
“We want to see to it that the beneficiaries are also accessing other interventions, for example, farming technologies that can boost food production and enhance food security in their households.”
The programme’s monitoring and evaluation officer in Dedza, Emmanuel Sohaya, asked the ministry to further target local leaders with the orientation to enlighten them on the need to prioritise recipients of social cash transfers when identifying beneficiaries to other socio-economic support programmes.
The ministry is implementing the social cash transfer programme with funding from the Government of Malawi, Germany, Irish Aid, European Union (EU), the World Bank and Unicef.
