Today, millions of people are living in poverty and in emergency situations with lack of basic needs. This thesis will look into cash transfers in emergencies in Kenya and Kenya’s cash transfer program; Hunger Safety Net Program. Cash transfers are money transfers from organizations/donors to households that intent to provide the beneficiaries with the opportunity to purchase basic needs, in order to assist them to get out of poverty and to address Sustainable Development Goal 1; No poverty.  The aim of the thesis is to get a larger understanding of when cash transfers intervention are appropriate during emergencies and to get a view of the current image of cash transfers in Kenya. The thesis will have the following research questions;  When it is appropriate to deliver cash transfer in emergencies?   What is the image of Hunger Safety Net Program and cash transfers in emergencies perceived by different actors? To be able to answer the research question in this thesis, information was gathered through semi-structured interviews and focus groups from four different actor groups; funding sources, implementing agencies, local chief in Lodwar and beneficiaries in two different location in Turkana county. The thesis provides information that cash transfers has a positive impact on the beneficiaries and the local communities. Moreover the findings from the thesis suggests that the cash transfers should be transferred in prevention stage along with other intervention steps, in line with the theoretical frameworks of sustainable livelihood and WHO conceptual framework for the role of cash transfer.  The thesis also provides findings that the image is diverse, however the findings from beneficiaries are that they do not receive their money they are entitling to. The funding source and the implementing agencies claim the opposite and praise the monitoring system that is in place. The thesis findings and conclusions are based on perceptions and therefore no physical evidence is proven, it is up to further research and organizations to investigate where the money is and who is benefitting from the program. The thesis contribution to knowledge are; the cash is appropriate to deliver in prevention stage and at the moment the cash from the Hunger Safety Net Program appears to not reach the beneficiaries, therefore the findings are highly important for knowledge to various stakeholders and for the public.

My thesis explores the conceptual underpinnings of the acclaimed Mexican conditional cash transfer (CCT) program Oportunidades as a way of engaging broader debates about how anti-poverty policy is evolving in the wake of the World Bank’s mid-1990s legitimacy crisis. I am interested in the behaviours and attitudes—or “subjectivities”—that Oportunidades attempts to cultivate amongst participants. Whereas the majority of CCT studies tend to focus on measuring the extent to which the programs “mold” beneficiaries into the categories of being prescribed by the program, my thesis is concerned with specifying and critically examining these categories. I use a hybrid neo-Gramscian, governmentality and critical feminist theoretical framework to probe how Oportunidades beneficiaries are constructed within World Bank and Mexican government discourse, as well as in external program evaluations. I argue that Oportunidades is underpinned by an agent-centred conception of poverty and that the program promotes a kind of gendered market-conducive subjectivity amongst beneficiaries. I conclude by exploring some of the implications of the CCT model. Ma thèse explore les fondements conceptuels du Oportunidades, un programme de transferts conditionnels de fonds (TMC) Mexicain acclamé. J’utilise les TMC comme une ouverture pour élargir le débat sur la manière dont la politique anti-pauvreté évolue dans le sillage de la crise de légitimité à laquelle la Banque Mondiale a fait face dans le milieu des années 1990. Je m'intéresse aux types de comportements et d'attitudes—ou «subjectivités»—que Oportunidades essaye de cultiver chez les participants. Alors que la majorité des études sur les TMC focalisent sur l’évaluation des succès du programme à modeler les participants afin qu’ils entrent dans les catégories de personnes prescrites par le programme, mon but est la spécification et l'examen critique de ces catégories. J'utilise un cadre théorique hybride qui combine néo-gramsciennes, la gouvernementalité et des théories féministes critiques pour enquêter sur la façon dont les bénéficiaires du programme Oportunidades sont construits à l’intérieur du discours de la Banque Mondiale, du gouvernement mexicain, ainsi que dans les évaluations externes du programme. Je soutiens qu’il y a, dans le programme Oportunidades, une conception sous-entendu de la pauvreté centrée sur les comportements des individus et que le programme promeut une subjectivité sexuée des bénéficiaires qui facilite leur participation au marché. Je conclus en explorant quelques implications du modèle TMC.

This thesis examines whether, how and to what extent social cash transfers help the poor in reducing poverty; not only in income terms but also in relation to how they build on their capabilities and address gender inequality, risk and vulnerability. The thesis explores these questions through an analysis of a community targeted social cash transfer scheme from Traditional Authority Mlomba, Machinga district in Malawi, using the capability approach as the conceptual framework of analysis. The study is located in the critical realist domain as its underlying research philosophy. The study is qualitative in nature, using semi-structured interviews, observations and life histories. The scheme targets the poorest 10% of the population who are also labour constrained and deemed to be economically unproductive. Thus, the study offers some insights into an area that is not well researched as it is a relatively new concept to target the poor who are also labour constrained and not economically productive. In this thesis, I show that despite the limited resource base compared to the large number of the poor, social cash transfers as low as US$14 per household per month can make a valuable contribution to the reduction of poverty through building capabilities of the poor, empowering women and addressing some of the gendered inequalities, risk and vulnerability. Therefore, social cash transfers are not just handouts but act as ladders that can uplift the absolute poor out of poverty.

This study evaluates what would be the consequences of a wide implementation of large-scale cash transfer programming in humanitarian aid. The aspects that will be assessed here is the rationale for as well as criticism against the proposed implementation. The study also analysed what implications such a reform would have to key stakeholders in the humanitarian system. The theoretical framework employed for this study consists of two separate sections. The first section presents the available evidence on large-scale cash transfer programming (LSCTP) in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability to affected populations (AAP). For the second section, a review was conducted on previous studies relating to key stakeholders and how they would be affected by the aforementioned reform. The stakeholders analysed include donors, affected governments, operational humanitarian organisations (NGOs and UN agencies), affected populations, and the private sector. For the study, eight interviews were conducted with key informants, which was complemented by secondary data. The study found that the rationale for donors to implement LSCTP on a wide scale is strong, both from an efficiency, effectiveness, and AAP perspective, although the cost- efficiency aspect does require some attention. With regard to the stakeholders analysed, donors, along with affected populations, affected governments and the private sector, are all expected to benefit from a wide implementation of LSCTP, whereas the reform is expected to be disadvantageous to NGOs and UN agencies.

My thesis explores the conceptual underpinnings of the acclaimed Mexican conditional cash transfer (CCT) program Oportunidades as a way of engaging broader debates about how anti-poverty policy is evolving in the wake of the World Bank’s mid-1990s legitimacy crisis. I am interested in the behaviours and attitudes—or “subjectivities”—that Oportunidades attempts to cultivate amongst participants. Whereas the majority of CCT studies tend to focus on measuring the extent to which the programs “mold” beneficiaries into the categories of being prescribed by the program, my thesis is concerned with specifying and critically examining these categories. I use a hybrid neo-Gramscian, governmentality and critical feminist theoretical framework to probe how Oportunidades beneficiaries are constructed within World Bank and Mexican government discourse, as well as in external program evaluations. I argue that Oportunidades is underpinned by an agent-centred conception of poverty and that the program promotes a kind of gendered market-conducive subjectivity amongst beneficiaries. I conclude by exploring some of the implications of the CCT model. Ma thèse explore les fondements conceptuels du Oportunidades, un programme de transferts conditionnels de fonds (TMC) Mexicain acclamé. J’utilise les TMC comme une ouverture pour élargir le débat sur la manière dont la politique anti-pauvreté évolue dans le sillage de la crise de légitimité à laquelle la Banque Mondiale a fait face dans le milieu des années 1990. Je m'intéresse aux types de comportements et d'attitudes—ou «subjectivités»—que Oportunidades essaye de cultiver chez les participants. Alors que la majorité des études sur les TMC focalisent sur l’évaluation des succès du programme à modeler les participants afin qu’ils entrent dans les catégories de personnes prescrites par le programme, mon but est la spécification et l'examen critique de ces catégories. J'utilise un cadre théorique hybride qui combine néo-gramsciennes, la gouvernementalité et des théories féministes critiques pour enquêter sur la façon dont les bénéficiaires du programme Oportunidades sont construits à l’intérieur du discours de la Banque Mondiale, du gouvernement mexicain, ainsi que dans les évaluations externes du programme. Je soutiens qu’il y a, dans le programme Oportunidades, une conception sous-entendu de la pauvreté centrée sur les comportements des individus et que le programme promeut une subjectivité sexuée des bénéficiaires qui facilite leur participation au marché. Je conclus en explorant quelques implications du modèle TMC.

This thesis examines whether, how and to what extent social cash transfers help the poor in reducing poverty; not only in income terms but also in relation to how they build on their capabilities and address gender inequality, risk and vulnerability. The thesis explores these questions through an analysis of a community targeted social cash transfer scheme from Traditional Authority Mlomba, Machinga district in Malawi, using the capability approach as the conceptual framework of analysis. The study is located in the critical realist domain as its underlying research philosophy. The study is qualitative in nature, using semi-structured interviews, observations and life histories. The scheme targets the poorest 10% of the population who are also labour constrained and deemed to be economically unproductive. Thus, the study offers some insights into an area that is not well researched as it is a relatively new concept to target the poor who are also labour constrained and not economically productive. In this thesis, I show that despite the limited resource base compared to the large number of the poor, social cash transfers as low as US$14 per household per month can make a valuable contribution to the reduction of poverty through building capabilities of the poor, empowering women and addressing some of the gendered inequalities, risk and vulnerability. Therefore, social cash transfers are not just handouts but act as ladders that can uplift the absolute poor out of poverty.

The Old Age Pension (OAP) program for elderly South Africans puts a significant cash transfer in the hands of many poor households. This dissertation investigates its impact on labor force participation and consumption of selected household items. In the first half of the dissertation, we take advantage of a policy reform that lowered men's OAP eligibility age from 65 to 60 for men to match that of women for estimation identification. Using the General Household Survey data, we first demonstrate that both men and women respond to the eligibility age by dropping from labor force participation at the eligibility age, as expected. Using a difference-in-difference-in-difference estimator, we estimate that at the median predicted wage, age eligibility reduces men's probability of labor force participation by approximately 6.14 percentage points. Previous studies show that not only is the OAP take-up rate high among the age-eligible, but its value is sufficiently high to generally make it a significant component of total household income for the majority of pensioners and their households. Other studies add that it is a dominant source of income in older households, such that it is often the sole source of income in these households, especially those in rural areas. In the second half of the dissertation, therefore, we examine the impact of age-eligibility status on a number of selected household outcomes, such as food security, sanitation, source of drinking water, and ownership of consumer durable goods. We also examine the extent to which gender influences its impact on household outcomes. We find positive effects on a select number of outcomes; however, we note this is more associated with females' age-eligibility status, but not that of males.

Oportunidades is a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) that uses a proxy means-test targeting model to select eligible households for the programme. According to the Income and Expenditure Household Survey of 2008, approximately two in every three eligible rural households participate in Oportunidades, whereas only one in every three eligible urban households receives the Oportunidades cash transfer. This research explores the factors behind this lack of take-up, the costs of participation and the implications of targeting inefficiency on the programme’s impact on income poverty. It argues that a sample selection model is a pertinent tool of analysis as it informs on the distribution of cash transfers conditional on household eligibility. This conditional distribution is also used to understand the costs of participation as a latent variable. Eligible households are less likely to invest in human capital and neither the cash transfer nor the income forgone by children and teenagers are sufficient to overcome these costs of participation. By identifying a method to quantify behavioural change of households, I associate the costs of participation to the difficulties of inducing health-related behavioural change among recipients and eligible non-recipients. At an aggregate state level, targeting inefficiency is not fully explained by only looking at the budget constraints of the programme. In fact, targeting efficiency is positively associated to aggregate behavioural change and negatively associated to aggregate costs for participation at state level. Yet, targeting efficiency does not guarantee impact on income poverty and Oportunidades’ highest impact on income poverty also associated with the inclusion of non-eligible households in the programme. This research reconsiders the importance of the context in which CCTs are implemented and informs on the conflicting aims of CCTs: providing income poverty relief via cash transfers and incentivizing behavioural change by conditioning the cash transfer in health and education investment.

Transferências Condicionadas de Renda (TCR), como o Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) no Brasil, são cada vez mais adotadas no mundo para romper com o ciclo de transmissão da pobreza, por meio de transferências monetárias a famílias pobres, condicionadas a investimentos em capital humano. Como cerca de 76% da população pobre do mundo vive em áreas rurais, e a incidência de pobreza é maior em localidades remotas florestadas, os TCR são frequentemente implementados junto a populações semiautárquicas de países em desenvolvimento. Assim, essas transferências têm aumentado a disponibilidade de recursos monetários junto a essas populações, como certos povos indígenas. Nesses contextos, evidências prévias mostram que a monetarização das economias locais pode ter efeitos positivos, negativos ou nulos na dedicação de tempo às atividades de subsistência e no consumo de recursos naturais. Porém, existem duas lacunas nesse conhecimento. Primeiro, estudos prévios avaliaram os efeitos conjuntos de diversas fontes de renda, muito embora estas variem nos investimentos de tempo necessários, de nulos (e.g., TCR e aposentadorias) a altos (e.g., salários e comércio de artesanato). Segundo, a maior parte da literatura assume, ainda que implicitamente, que as decisões na base das escolhas humanas são racionais e motivadas, sobretudo, por maximizar a renda ou, eventualmente, minimizar os riscos. Porém, evidências empíricas e avanços teóricos indicam que as decisões nem sempre são racionais, tanto por limitações cognitivas que levam a outros processos decisórios (e.g., heurísticas), como porque são motivadas por outros fatores (e.g., prazer, emoção, normas sociais). Portanto, esta dissertação teve por objetivo investigar se o aumento da renda monetária de transferências do PBF estava associado a diferenças no investimento de tempo em atividades de subsistência (agricultura, caça, pesca e coleta) e no consumo de produtos derivados ou não dessas atividades pelo povo indígena Kisêdjê da Amazônia brasileira. Além disso, investigou se o hedonismo e a contabilidade mental seriam motivadores dessas decisões. Três hipóteses foram testadas. Primeira, diferentes fontes de renda monetária devem produzir efeitos diversos sobre o tempo dedicado pelos Kisêdjê a atividades de subsistência. Segunda, os efeitos do PBF devem variar de acordo com o quanto as pessoas apreciam cada atividade de subsistência, i.e., o hedonismo é importante para prever investimentos de tempo nessas atividades. Terceira, os Kisêdjê realizam contabilidade mental, i.e., separam o dinheiro em diferentes contas mentais e, portanto, fontes alternativas de renda monetária devem produzir padrões de consumo distintos e fontes de renda de baixo esforço, como o PBF, devem privilegiar o consumo de alimentos ou de bens supérfluos. Para tal, o estudo adotou um delineamento observacional em painel, compreendendo todos (242) os indivíduos adultos (>=16 anos) de 2 comunidades. Os dados foram coletados em dois períodos em 2016 e 2017, por meio de survey por entrevistas estruturadas e experimento em contabilidade mental, e observação direta de alocação de tempo (random-interval instantaneous sampling), sendo analisados por técnicas de estatística descritiva e modelos mistos de regressão. Os resultados mostraram, primeiro, que as transferências do PBF não tiveram efeitos no tempo dedicado às atividades de subsistência, embora outras rendas monetárias (e.g., trabalho regular, aposentadoria) tenham ora aumentado, ora reduzido a probabilidade de investimento de tempo. Segundo, o hedonismo foi mais importante que as fontes de renda monetária para explicar o esforço alocado na atividade de caça para os homens. Por fim, não foram observadas evidências de contabilidade mental, ou seja: (i) o padrão de consumo não diferiu segundo a fonte de renda, mas somente entre homens e mulheres; (ii) com fontes de renda de baixo (e.g. PBF) ou alto esforço, os Kisêdjê estiveram menos propensos a consumir bens supérfluos. Os resultados parecem sugerir que os efeitos do PBF nas atividades de subsistência e no consumo dos Kisêdjê são baixos, muito embora a cobertura ampla tenha dificultado a avaliação. Quanto aos motivadores, os resultados apontam para a importância de investigar outros determinantes além da renda. / Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs), such as the Bolsa Família Program (BFP) in Brazil, have increasingly been adopted worldwide to break the cycle of poverty transmission, by transferring cash to poor families, conditional on investments in human capital. As about 76% of the worlds poor live in rural areas, and poverty incidence is higher in remote forested localities, CCTs are frequently implemented in semi-autarkic communities of developing countries. Thus, these transfers have increased the availability of cash income resources to semi-autarkic populations, such as certain indigenous peoples. In this context, prior evidence shows the monetization of local economies has been associated with positive, negative, or null effects on the time allocated to subsistence activities and consumption of natural resources. However, there are two knowledge gaps. First, previous studies evaluated the combined effects of several income sources, although these sources vary on the necessary time investments, from null (e.g., CCTs) to high (e.g., wages and handicrafts trade). Second, most previous studies assume, although implicitly, that decisions which base peoples choices are rational and motivated, above all, on income maximization or, occasionally, risk minimization. However, empirical evidence and theoretical advances indicate that decisions are often not always, either because of cognitive limitations that lead to other decision-making processes (e.g., heuristics), or because they are motivated by other factors (e.g., pleasure, emotion, social norms). Therefore, this dissertation aimed to investigate whether increased levels of cash income from the BFP transfers were associated with differences in time investments in subsistence activities (agriculture, hunting, fishing and gathering) and in the consumption of Kisêdjê indigenous people from the Brazilian Amazon. Additionally, we investigated if hedonism and mental accounting were the motivators behind these decisions. Three hypotheses were tested. First, alternative income sources should produce different effects on the time allocated by the Kisêdjê to subsistence activities. Second, the effects of BFP should vary, depending on how much people appreciated each subsistence activity, i.e. hedonism is important to predict time investments. Third, Kisêdjê do mental accounting and, therefore, different cash income sources should distinct consumption patterns and low-effort activities such as BFP should increase the likelihood of consuming superfluous food or goods. To do that, we adopted an observational panel design, including all (242) adult individuals (>= 16 years) in 2 communities. Data were gathered in two periods in 2016 and 2017, through a survey based on face-to-face interviews and experiment in mental accounting, direct observations of time allocation by random-interval instantaneous sampling, and were analysed by descriptive statistical techniques and mixed-effects regressions. The results indicated that, first, BFP cash transfers had no effect on the time spent on subsistence activities, although other income sources (e.g., wages, pensions) in certain cases increased, while in others decreased the likelihood of time investments. Second, hedonism was important than cash income sources in explaining the effort allocated to hunting for men. Finally, we did not observe evidences of mental accounting, i.e.: (i) consumption patterns did not differ across income sources, but only between men and women; (ii) with low-effort (e.g., BFP) or high-effort income sources, the Kisêdjê were less likely to consume superfluous goods. Our results suggest that the effects of BFP transfers on subsistence activities and consumption are low, although the high rate of coverage has impaired our analyses. As regards motivations, the results point to the importance of investigating determinants other than income.

A presente dissertação teve como objetivo explorar as conexões do Programa Bolsa Família com a questão educacional, analisando em que medida o programa reduz as múltiplas dimensões da desigualdade educacional enfrentada por seus beneficiários. Partindo-se da ideia que o direito à educação pressupõe a garantia de algo comum, e portanto igual para todos, adotou-se a concepção de desigualdade educacional de Marcel Crahay (2000), que define três dimensões necessárias de igualdade educacional: acesso, tratamento e conhecimento. Realizou-se uma discussão teórica sobre o papel da educação dentro do desenho do Bolsa Família, que busca por meio do acesso aos serviços educacionais cortar o ciclo intergeracional de pobreza em que estão inseridos seus beneficiários. Depois, foi diagnosticada a situação enfrentada pelos beneficiários em cada dimensão da desigualdade educacional. Esse diagnóstico foi realizado a partir de bases de dados do Sistema Presença, Censo Escolar, Ideb, Pnad e outros indicadores educacionais disponibilizados pelo Inep. Por fim, analisou-se como o programa busca e tem efeitos na redução das múltiplas dimensões da desigualdade educacional. Este último passo foi realizado a partir de uma revisão de literatura das produções acadêmicas da área e de um estudo de caso na rede municipal de Osasco. Conclui-se que os principais efeitos do Bolsa Família são sobre a dimensão do acesso, ainda que ele tenha efeitos potenciais e incipientes sobre a dimensão do tratamento e do aprendizado, principalmente via integração setorial. / This dissertation\'s main goal was to explore the ties between Bolsa Familia social program and the educational issue, analizing to what extent the program reduces the multiple aspects of educational inequality the beneficiaries are subject to. It was adopted Marcel Crahay\'s educational inequality concept that defines three necessary dimensions to reach educational equality: access, treatment and knowledge. I have made a theoretical discussion of the role education plays in the Bolsa Familia design, which aims to interrupt the beneficiarie\'s intergenerational poverty cycle by broadening the access to educational services. After that, I unraveled the situation faced by the beneficiaries in each dimension of educational inequality. This diagnosis was made using the Sistema Presença, Censo Escolar, Ideb and Pnad databases, along with other educational indicators made public by Inep. At last, I analyzed the program\'s efforts and results in reducing educational inequalities, in its multiple aspects. That last part was made by reviewing the specific academic literature and with a case study in the municipality of Osasco. The conclusion is that the main effects of the Bolsa Familia program are related to the access dimension, although it has potential and incipient effects on the treatment and knowledge dimensions, specially when it comes to sectorial integration.