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Over the last 20 years, more than 100 countries have implemented social safety nets, targeted at the poorest and most vulnerable. Impact evaluations have shown the effectiveness of these programmes, and policymakers have explored different methods of delivery, including cash transfers. Cash Transfers for Poverty Reduction offers the first systematic discussion of the design and implementation of poverty reduction schemes, and cash transfer programmes in particular. The authors also draw on their own practical experience and present global case studies in order to show the effects that these decisions have on operations and outcomes. Featuring end-of-chapter questions and answers to help test your knowledge, this book offers an operational guide for key stakeholders, officials and students in understanding the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of cash transfer programmes. Publication: November 23, 2023 Authors: Francisco V. Ayala is President of Ayala Consulting Corporation/SOPROEN (since 1996) and has more than 25 years of experience as an International Social Protection Consultant. David Lawson is Associate Professor Development Economics and Public Policy at the University of Manchester, Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki, and Visiting Professor at the University of International Business and Economics, Beijing Endorsements: “This ground-breaking book fills a big gap in social protection knowledge. It examines in detail how to effectively and efficiently deliver cash transfers – from organisational capacity assessment to cost analysis and case mangement. If you want to know how to deliver poverty-reducing cash transfers, this book is essential reading. Professor David Hulme, University of Manchester “This excellent book contributes on the basics of the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of cash transfer programs in developing countries. One of its great strengths is the use of country examples and experiences to illustrate key concepts and lessons learned.” Cem Mete, PhD, Practice Manager, the World Bank. “It is a valuable contribution to learning how to design and implement social protection interventions. It provides information which is essential to enhance the human capital of the most vulnerable people in the world.” Eulalia Flor Recalde, professor at the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Ecuador. “Social Protection is high on the agenda of many national governments and international development partners. In this context, cash transfers can play an important role to cover the poor and vulnerable in particular (SDG 1.3). While most publications on the topic only discuss the impacts of cash transfer programmes this book by Francisco Ayala and David Lawson drills deeper and explains HOW to engineer these schemes and ensure that they are effective and efficient. Mandatory reading for social protection practitioners! Dr Patrick Rudolph, Head of Division Health & Social Protection Asia, KfW Development Bank” Dr Patrick Rudolph, Principal Portfolio Manager, KfW Development Bank, Health & Social Protection Asia View More Information About Book ...

SOPROEN provided support at the start of 2022 to the Malawi Government by developing a Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) Management Information System (MIS) with the financing of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). The GRM MIS is a tool that allows to register any type of case presented by beneficiaries and non beneficiaries of a social protection program in Malawi. The MIS allows to manage the cases presented, classify them within a particular category (claims, complaints, grievances, requests, updates), register actions as part of the investigation process and finally register the feedback from the affected person to know if their problem or case was satisfactorily resolved or not. The purpose of this system is to give households a voice and allow them to have the freedom to communicate with the projects and express their concerns or doubts regarding their participation in a particular process. Publication: August 11th, 2022 ...

Annual recurrent weather conditions have led to dry spells and food insecurities in many parts of Malawi. It was needed to address affected peoples’ immediate needs in a short amount of time. Therefore, the Lean Season Response (LSR) was created with support of UNICEF and was executed by the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare. The LSR was executed between December 2021 and April 2022 and benefited around 17,000 beneficiary households in the districts of Neno, Nsanje, Balaka and Ntcheu. The SOPROEN team was in charge of the operative design and as well as the implementation of the Management Information System (MIS) for Emergencies tool, software that was developed by the company. Since the areas to be intervened have internet connection issues (due to the particularities of the geographic areas), the company also developed two offline applications: one to perform the data collection process and the other to execute the payment process. In the latter process, the delivery of ID cards was implemented for payment receivers that did not have national IDs and the payment confirmation was done using QR codes. Publication: September 2nd, 2022 ...

Since June 2022, SOPROEN has provided support to the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare in Malawi for the design and implementation of the Floods Recovery Response, a project that tries to mitigate the effects made by the flooding that has affected the country and that caused displacement of thousands of families and affected a vast amount of the poor population. The project has been financed by UNICEF and has focused on providing assistance through a one-time cash transfer to households in four districts: Nsanje, Chikwawa, Mwanza and Neno. The SOPROEN team supports in the execution of the project through the Management Information System (MIS) for Emergencies, a software developed by the company, which is parametric and flexible and that can be utilized for all kinds of emergencies and multiple emergencies at the same time. To date, the cash transfer has been paid to close to 12,000 beneficiary households. Publication: October 31st, 2022 ...