A thesis submitted to the Faculty Of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Community Work in the Department of Social Work at the University Of Zululand, 2017 / Disability and poverty can no longer be denied as being some of the major factors that affect a number of people across South Africa and other developing, or even developed countries. Yet, disability and poverty are still ill-defined and under researched. South Africa has developed an income system aimed at helping people with disabilities: The Disability Cash Transfer (DCT). Physical and mental conditions of people with disabilities vary from one person to another, which means that the type of care they require as they grow older is also different. Therefore, people with disabilities constantly require financial care and societal acceptance. This is why the South African government provides DCT for people with disabilities who cannot perform any formal work as a way to generate income for themselves. This study seeks to evaluate if the DCT has an effect on people’s lives, with regards to poverty reduction, within Nqutu Local Municipality. Based on the Nqutu Local Municipality Integrated Development Plan First review (2013/2014:6), the estimated dependency ratio on social grants is 90.60%. The Disability Cash Transfer is within that estimated percentage. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data was obtained using questionnaires and interview schedules. The research instruments that were employed in this study to collect data from beneficiaries of DCT were questionnaires, and to gather information from SASSA officials, interview schedules were used. The study target population were the beneficiaries of DCT as well as SASSA officials of Nqutu Local Municipality. To sample DCT beneficiaries, convenience sampling was used, and to select SASSA officials, simple random sampling was employed. This researcher managed to get 73 DCT beneficiaries and 8 SASSA officials. Content analysis was used to analyse interview schedules, in which all SASSA officials expressed that DCT does have an effect on poverty reduction. To analyse questionnaires descriptive analysis and the statistics program (SPSS) was used. The findings of the study reveal that although the DCT may be satisfactory, there is a necessity for implementers to re-evaluate current operations to avoid the exclusion and inclusion errors that exist in the DCT distribution. Therefore, it is prudent for the government, community members, and SASSA to work concurrently into introducing new strategies that will strip off distribution errors and mitigate poverty. Findings, further exhibited that 91.78% respondents believe that the DCT has effects at Nqutu Local Municipality because beneficiaries are able to provide essential needs for their families. A high number of respondents 57.53% mentioned that there are challenges in the DCT distribution. These challenges were found to be the result of the imperfection of the system as it appeared the DCT beneficiaries would sometimes not receive full amount of their grant. It is recommended that the Department of Social Development working together with SASSA revisit the distribution procedure to avoid fraudulent activities that the DCT beneficiaries experience. To reduce poverty people with disabilities should also be given employment opportunities equal to people with no disabilities as a way to reduce a dependency ratio to social grants. / National Research Foundation Of South Africa

The importance of education for individual well-being, social cohesion and economic growth is widely accepted by researchers and policymakers alike. Yet there exist vast numbers of people around the world, largely poor, who continue to lag behind wealthier people, often within their own nations. Conditional cash transfer programs were created to encourage investments in education and health by subsidizing their cost and changing household preferences. The programs increase short-term income as well as future wage potential, thus decreasing short-term and long-term poverty, as well as the poverty that is passed from generation to generation. Begun in Mexico and Brazil, the conditional cash transfer model is being replicated in many countries, but its replicability across socioeconomic and political contexts is far from clear. The present study adds to the research on conditional cash transfer programs through a comparative quantitative analysis of the effects of two programs on key educational outcomes in Nicaragua and Colombia. Using secondary panel data for the Nicaraguan Red de Proteccion Social and the Colombian Familias en Accion programs, a model reflecting demand constraints to education is used to determine the relative impacts of individual and household characteristics in the schooling decision, as well as to measure program impact in some of the most impoverished communities in the two countries. The empirical analysis is situated within a description of the historical, political and demographic contexts into which the programs were introduced. The results indicate that both programs increased enrollment and attendance, with lesser but still positive effects on retention. These effects were stronger for boys in Colombia, as was the importance of schooling expectations in determining enrollment. The study suggests that conditional cash transfer programs should be effective in other settings in which low educational attainment is caused largely by a lack of household resources. / text

Background: To accelerate the coverage of skilled birth attendance, in 2005, the Indian government initiated a conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) that provides cash to women upon delivering in health facilities. The attempt to increase the utilization of facilities through the JSY, given the health system’s fragile state, has raised concerns about the programme’s success at achieving its intended goal of reducing maternal mortality ratio (MMR). Aim: To understand the implementation of the CCT policy to promote institutional births in India, with a special focus on nine of India’s poorer states. Methods: Thesis uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. The changes in coverage and inequalities in institutional births in the nine states following the initiation of JSY were analysed by comparing levels before and during the programme using state and district level data. The association between the coverage of institutional births and MMR was assessed using regression analysis (I). The change in socioeconomic inequalities in institutional births was estimated using the concentration index and concentration curve, and contributions of different factors to inequalities was computed by decomposition analysis (II). The quality of referral services was studied by conducting a survey of health facilities (n=96) and post-partum women (n=1182) in three districts of Madhya Pradesh. Conditional logistic regression was used to study the association between maternal referrals and adverse birth outcomes, while spatial data for referrals were analysed using Geographical Information Systems (III). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with government and non-government stakeholders (n=11) to explore their perceptions of the JSY, and the data were analysed using a thematic framework approach (IV). Results: In five years, institutional births increased significantly from a pre-programme average of 20% to 49%. However, no significant association between district-level institutional birth proportions and MMR was found (I). The inequality in access to institutional delivery care, although reduced since the introduction of JSY, still persists. Differences in male literacy, availability of emergency obstetric care (EmOC) in public facilities and poverty explained 69% of the observed inequality. While MMR has decreased in all areas since the introduction of JSY, it has declined four times faster in the richest areas than in the poorest (II). Adjusted odds for adverse birth outcomes among those referred were twice than in those who were not referred (AOR 2.6, 95% CI 1.1-6.6). A spatial analysis of the inter-facility transfer time indicated that maternal deaths occurred despite good geographic access to EmOC facilities (III). While most health officials considered stimulus in the form of JSY money to be essential to promote institutional births, non-government stakeholders criticised JSY as an easy way of addressing basic developmental issues and emphasised the need for improvements to health services, instead. Supply-side constraints and poor care quality were cited as key challenges to programme success, also several implementation challenges were cited (IV). Conclusions: Although there was a sharp increase in coverage and a decline in institutional delivery care inequalities following the introduction of JSY, the availability of critical care is still poor. CCT programmes to increase service utilization need to be essentially supported by the provision of quality health care services, in order to achieve their intended impacts on health outcomes.

Social Protection, and in particular social assistance, has emerged as a key area of international development policy. Recognition of the important role of social protection policies is aligned to a growing consensus on their role in reducing poverty and vulnerability and in preventing people from falling into poverty and facilitating exit from poverty. In the late 1990s, the World Bank (WB) developed the Social Risk Management (SRM) framework as a new conceptual framework for analysing social protection in developing countries. In the SRM, risk taking, the proactive management of risk at household level, was argued to be essential in enabling poor households to invest and grasp opportunities for economic development and poverty reduction. This research examines and conceptualizes the why and the how of investment by households in poverty. The research also examines the extent to which access to social assistance interventions may play a positive or negative role in the process. The thesis argues that the SRM oversimplifies and underestimates a variety of factors and processes that play a role in the household’s investment behaviour in three dimensions of their life, namely savings, education and health. In the research, household decision making is conceptualised as a two stage process of ‘constructing’ investment preferences (what they are willing to do), and of ‘realizing’ or ‘revealing’ household choices (what they actually do). The empirical findings indicate that access to social assistance did not appear to have a role in constructing investment preferences. However, it had limited role under certain circumstances in favouring the realization of households’ investment preferences. The research suggests that the SRM fails to encapsulate the complexity of household investment decisions, crucial to exiting poverty. Building on some of the concepts emerged in the research, I develop a ‘behavioural’ variation of the ‘risk taking /poverty exit’ component of the SRM in an attempt to improve the explanatory capacity of this framework. The research utilises the grounded theory framework (GT), adapted to a low income country context, and investigates the role of social assistance in household behaviour through an extensive field work in Bangladesh with urban households targeted by the Old Age Allowance Scheme (OAA), one of the largest social assistance schemes in Bangladesh.

Die vorliegende Dissertation umfasst vier Aufsätze, von denen die ersten beiden die regionale und individuelle Persistenz von Arbeitslosigkeit analysieren. Der dritte Aufsatz erforscht das passende Design für die Höhe von finanziellen Leistungen im Rahmen von Cash-Transfer-Programmen und der vierte Aufsatz präsentiert eine alternative internationale Armutsgrenze verglichen mit der aktuellen offiziellen Armutsgrenze der Weltbank. Während die ersten drei Essays sich auf die Situation Indonesiens beziehen, geht der vierte Aufsatz auf die Situation aller Entwicklungsländer ein. Der erste Essay testet die Hysterese-Hypothese gegen verschiedene Hypothesen zur Persistenz von Arbeitslosigkeitsraten in den Provinzen Indonesiens und verwendet dabei Zeitreihen- und Panel-Unit-Root-Analysen mit Daten aus den Jahren 1990 bis 2012. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einerseits, dass die meisten individuellen Tests auf Provinzebene, die sich auf lineare Trends und CBS-Definitionen stützen, die Hysterese-Hypothese nicht verwerfen können. Andererseits wird die Hysterese-Vermutung vermehrt verworfen, wenn die Tests quadratische Trends und die alte Definition (U1) nutzen. Die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der Tests, die die Hysterese-Hypothese anhand verschiedener Sample-Kategorien, wie beispielsweise Geschlecht, analysieren, legen das Verwerfen der Hypothese ebenfalls nahe. Wenn die Ergebnisse mittels Panel-Daten untersucht werden, verwirft die Mehrheit der Tests Hysterese, ganz gleich ob lineare oder quadratische Trends benutzt werden. Schließlich stellt der Artikel fest, dass lokale Wirtschaftsmaßnahmen zur Investitionsförderung und Politiken, die auf das Wachstum der realen regionalen Mindestlöhne ausgerichtet sind, sich besser als die Erhöhung lokaler staatlicher Ausgaben dazu eignen, die Arbeitslosenquote zu senken und sie an normale Levels auf den lokalen Arbeitsmärkten anzupassen. Der zweite Essay führt eine dynamische Probit-Analyse bezüglich dem Auftreten individueller Arbeitslosigkeit durch und benutzt dabei Paneldaten des National Socio-Economic Surveys (Susenas) von 2008-2010. Der Aufsatz vergleicht mehrere dynamische Random-Effects-Schätzer miteinander, wobei er besonders auf die Ansätze von Heckman (1981) und Wooldridge (2005) eingeht. Die Ergebnisse finden starke Belege für die Persistenz bzw. die zeitliche Abhängigkeit individueller Arbeitslosigkeit in Indonesien. Dieses Resultat fügt sich in die Theorie des "Scar-Unemployment" ein. Der dritte Essay untersucht die derzeitige Empfängergruppe von Cash-Transfer-Programmen (mit Fokus auf BLT und PKH Programmen) in Indonesien. Als Alternative zu bestehenden, fixen, staatlichen Leistungen der indonesischen Regierung im Rahmen der Cash-Transfer-Programme, schlägt der Aufsatz bessere Methoden für das Design und die Berechnung der Höhe der finanziellen Unterstützung vor. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine signifikante Anzahl von nicht-armen oder nicht-berechtigten Haushalten staatliche Leistungen erhalten. Auf der Grundlage von Simulationen ergeben sich deshalb folgende alternative Optionen für die Höhe der Auszahlungen: (1) die Transferzahlungen so anpassen, dass sie dem Einkommensdefizit des armen Haushalts zzgl. der erwarteten Inflation entsprechen, oder (2) die Leistungen so auszahlen, dass sie dem 75%-Perzentil des Einkommensdefizits der Haushalte zzgl. der erwarteten Inflation in den entsprechenden Provinzen entsprechen. Diese zwei alternativen Optionen reduzieren die regionalen Armutsraten signifikant verglichen mit der derzeitigen fixen und generellen staatlichen Transferleistung. Schließlich zeigen wir mit dem letzten Aufsatz, dass die von Ravallion, Chen, und Sangraula (2009) geschätzte Beziehung zwischen durchschnittlichem Konsum und nationalen Armutsgrenzen für die Herleitung der absoluten internationalen Armutsgrenze in Höhe von $1.25 pro Tag statistisch problematisch ist. Unsere alternative statistische Schätzung erzeugt einen Punktschätzer einer absoluten internationalen Armutsgrenze, der substanziell höher liegt als $1.25 pro Tag; allerdings verfügen die Schätzer über sehr hohe Standardfehler.

This paper analyzes the impacts of the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme. The goal of this paper is to help improve the design of cash transfers. First of all, I analyze whether the cash transfer positively affects child health variables despite occurring in a region with poor supply side health institutions. I find significant results for many child level variables, such as frequency of illnesses, but insignificant improvements in anthropometric measurements. Secondly, I examine whether female-headed households invest more in child health than male-headed households. The results show that the impacts of the cash transfer did not depend on the sex of the household head. This result provides some evidence that females do not always have systematically different preferences for expenditure on children than males. The paper uses the imperfect randomization of the cash transfer in combination with difference-in-differences regressions, propensity score matching, and Lee Bounds tests in order to ensure the robustness of the results.

As sociedades mundiais passam por mudanças substanciais que repercutem nas áreas da segurança alimentar e das políticas públicas sociais. Apesar de terem ocorrido significativas conquistas econômicas e sociais nos últimos anos, no Peru ainda existe dificuldade para oferecer segurança alimentar a toda sua população e isto se reflete na alta prevalência de subnutrição infantil concentrada principalmente nos espaços rurais, onde até o primeiro semestre de 2010, 30,9% das crianças são subnutridas. Esta situação representa uma ameaça para a sustentabilidade do desenvolvimento do Peru, devido aos efeitos irreversíveis da subnutrição na capacidade intelectual e física do indivíduo. Sendo a pobreza uma das principais causas da subnutrição, os programas de transferência condicionada de renda têm um grande potencial em favorecer a segurança alimentar dos beneficiados. Neste contexto o presente estudo tem como objetivo mostrar os reflexos na segurança alimentar dos beneficiados do programa de transferência condicionada de renda JUNTOS, na comunidade indígena de Pilpichaca, uma das comunidades mais pobres e com maior prevalência de crianças subnutridas do Peru. Foi realizado um estudo descritivo e quantitativo em uma amostra de 90 famílias. A escolha das famílias beneficiadas foi feita aleatoriamente em uma relação de todas as famílias beneficiadas com crianças menores de cinco anos. O levantamento dos dados foi feito através de questionário fechado apresentado as mães. Pretendia-se conhecer: a forma de acesso aos alimentos, à água e esgoto, acesso aos programas públicos de suplementação e complementação alimentar, uso da transferência de renda, mudança no consumo de alimentos, o estado nutricional nas crianças menores de cinco anos, a relação entre as variáveis: estado nutricional e o tempo de exposição ao programa JUNTOS; e a avaliação do Programa JUNTOS pelas mães beneficiadas. Os resultados mostram que aumentou o consumo de alimentos de alto valor nutritivo e o gasto com alimentos também é favorecido. Os resultados da regressão linear apontam que há uma relação proporcional entre o estado nutricional e o tempo de exposição ao programa JUNTOS, mas esta não é estatisticamente significativa. A transferência de renda representa 51.2% da renda familiar e as mães avaliaram o programa JUNTOS como uma boa política pública. / In Peru, although significant economic and social achievements have occurred in recent years, there is still a difficulty in providing food to entire population. This is reflected in a high prevalence of child malnutrition, mainly concentrated in rural areas, where, in the first half of 2010, even 30.9% of children is malnourished. This situation represents a threat to sustainable development of Peru, the irreversible effects of malnutrition on physical and intellectual capacity of the individual. With poverty being a major cause of malnutrition, the programs of conditional cash transfer have great potential to promote food security of beneficients. In this context, this study aims to show the effects of food security of the beneficients of the program of conditional cash transfer: JUNTOS, in the indigenous community of Pilpichaca, one of the poorest communities and with the highest percentage of malnourished children in Peru a descriptive and quantitative analysis on a sample of 50 families was made. The choice of beneficiary households was made randomly from a list of all beneficiary families with children under 5 years. The survey was made through different closed questionnaires presented to the mothers. The aim was to know: how to access food, water and sanitation, as well as public programs to food complement and supplementation, use of income transfer, change in food consumption, nutritional status among children under five years, the relationship between variables: nutritional status and exposure time to the program JUNTOS and program JUNTOS evaluation by mothers benefited. The results show that increased intake of foods of high nutritive value, spending on food is in plus, but can not show a significant relationship, between nutritional status and exposure time to the program JUNTOS. The transfer of income represents 51.2% of a total family income. The mothers generally rated JUNTOS as a good public policy.

This paper analyzes the impacts of the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme. The goal of this paper is to help improve the design of cash transfers. First of all, I analyze whether the cash transfer positively affects child health variables despite occurring in a region with poor supply side health institutions. I find significant results for many child level variables, such as frequency of illnesses, but insignificant improvements in anthropometric measurements. Secondly, I examine whether female-headed households invest more in child health than male-headed households. The results show that the impacts of the cash transfer did not depend on the sex of the household head. This result provides some evidence that females do not always have systematically different preferences for expenditure on children than males. The paper uses the imperfect randomization of the cash transfer in combination with difference-in-differences regressions, propensity score matching, and Lee Bounds tests in order to ensure the robustness of the results.

This paper investigates the impact of Familias en Acción, a conditional cash transfer program in Colombia, on participant credit behavior. The motivation of the research is derived from previous studies which indicate that conditional cash transfer programs have effects on households aside from those directly intentioned by the programs. While the direct impacts of Familias en Acción have been measured by the research team responsible for evaluating the program, potential indirect effects remain uninvestigated. My research specifically focuses on the impacts of the program on credit behavior. I compute estimates on the percent change in loan balance outstanding and credit participation over the four-year evaluation period by comparing households that are benefiting from the program (treatment) and those that are not (control). Because Familias en Acción was not a randomly assigned program, I use quasi-experimental data collected in three rounds over four years. I control for dissimilarities between the treatment and control group by utilizing a difference-in-differences approach and by controlling across a wide-range of observable household characteristics. I find that the program does affect credit behavior in treated households. In both urban and rural areas, the outstanding loan balance and the number of households involved in the credit market increases after the first year of the program. After four years of the program, the effect is still significant and positive in rural areas though not in urban areas. This indicates that the program affects credit behavior in all treated households in the short run and rural households in the long run. These findings provide new considerations for policy makers who are implementing these programs in developing countries.

This study investigates whether the girls' education project "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" was able to increase girls' schooling and to what extent it was effective. In Turkey, there is still gender disparity in primary education although it is compulsory. "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" is UNICEF and Turkish Ministry of Education's joint project, which aims to increase girls' primary enrollment. The project consists of increasing public awareness, free books and incentives (in the form of conditional cash transfer) for female students. To find the magnitude of the program's impact, data is collected from Turkish and European statistical databases and a panel data analysis is employed. The results show that if the program has been implemented in a province, girls' enrollment rate increases by 1.310-2 units and total schooling increases by 1.410-2 units. Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) found to have a bigger impact on girls' enrollment rates than total enrollment rates but the impact is not statistically significant. When a dummy for poverty is included in the model, then CCT becomes significant and the impact can be interpreted as; 1% increase in the conditional cash paid to a province results in 1.310-4 units increase in girls' enrollment rates. It is concluded that the project's impact is statistically significant but the magnitude is smaller than expected. Improvements are needed for increasing the effectiveness of the project. New cash transfer schemes should be implemented and community contribution should be encouraged. Another result of the analysis show that school buildings and adult literacy have greater impacts than the girls' education project.