Social Cash Transfer Programme, SCT
Basic Information
Country
Geographic area
Programme type
Programme Details
Programme objectives
To reduce vulnerability among ultra-poor, labour-constrained households.
Programme components
Cash transfer, and social support services, such as promotion of education and adequate nutrition, and birth registration.
UNICEF. 2013. UNICEF Annual Report 2013 – Liberia. Monrovia: UNICEF. Accessed 11 November 2015.
<http://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Liberia_COAR_2013.pdf>.
Start date
2009
First payments: 2009; Official launch: 2010. Reference:
UNICEF, European Union and Government of Liberia. 2012. Transformative Transfers: Evidence
from Liberia’s Social Cash Transfer Programme. Monrovia: UNICEF. Accessed 11 November 2015.
<http://www.unicef.org/liberia/Transformative_Transfers_LiberiaCashTransferProgramme.pdf>.
Coverage
Approximately 3,798 households or 19,000 individuals (2014).
Programme expenditure
Approximately EUR4 million
Targeting and eligiblity
Targeting methods
Proxy Means Test
Geographical Targeting
Targeted areas
Bomi and Maryland counties.
UNICEF, European Union and Government of Liberia. 2012. Transformative Transfers: Evidence
from Liberia’s Social Cash Transfer Programme. Monrovia: UNICEF. Accessed 11 November 2015.
<http://www.unicef.org/liberia/Transformative_Transfers_LiberiaCashTransferProgramme.pdf>.
UNICEF. 2013. UNICEF Annual Report 2013 – Liberia. Monrovia: UNICEF. Accessed 11 November 2015.
<http://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Liberia_COAR_2013.pdf>.
Target groups
Labour-constrained and extremely poor households.
Eligibility criteria
Eligible households were both extremely poor (as measured by their level of
material assets, alternative resources and access to food) and labour-constrained,
with a dependency ratio equal to or greater than three to one.
UNICEF, European Union and Government of Liberia. 2012. Transformative Transfers: Evidence
from Liberia’s Social Cash Transfer Programme. Monrovia: UNICEF. Accessed 11 November 2015.
Eligibility reassessment (if any)
Monitors from the SCT Secretariat and community leaders
were responsible for verifying and correcting beneficiary lists.
UNICEF, European Union and Government of Liberia. 2012. Transformative Transfers: Evidence
from Liberia’s Social Cash Transfer Programme. Monrovia: UNICEF. Accessed 11 November 2015.
Coverage and other information
Type of benefits
Cash
Amount of benefits
1-person household: LRD700 (USD10)
2-person Household: LRD1,050 (USD15)
3-person Household: LRD1,400 (USD20)
4-person (or more) household: LRD1,750 (USD25)
Plus: LRD150 (USD2) for each child in primary school
LRD300 (USD4) for each child in secondary school
UNICEF, European Union and Government of Liberia. 2012. Transformative Transfers: Evidence
from Liberia’s Social Cash Transfer Programme. Monrovia: UNICEF. Accessed 11 November 2015.
Payment/delivery frequency
Monthly
Benefit delivery mechanism
Payments were administered by EcoBank through designated distribution
points throughout both counties and overseen by the SCT Secretariat.
In 2014, beneficiaries in the central urban centres (Tubmanburg City, Harper
and Pleebo) were paid through Mobile Money, a facility that enables payment
through mobile phones.
UNICEF, European Union and Government of Liberia. 2012. Transformative Transfers: Evidence
from Liberia’s Social Cash Transfer Programme. Monrovia: UNICEF. Accessed 11 November 2015.
Benefit recipients
Heads of households
Minimum and maximum duration of benefits (if any)
The programme allows retargeting and possible graduation after each two-year period.
Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and frequency
An external mid-term evaluation was commissioned by the Government of Liberia
and UNICEF and carried out by the Centre for Global Health and Development
(CGHD) at Boston University. An end-of-programme external evaluation was
conducted by Suba Belle and Associates (SBA) in August 2015.
UNICEF, European Union and Government of Liberia. 2012. Transformative Transfers: Evidence
from Liberia’s Social Cash Transfer Programme. Monrovia: UNICEF. Accessed 11 November 2015.
