Cash transfer plan to cushion children against adverse poverty

The government is implementing a pilot project on Universal Child Benefits (UCB), a cash transfer programme to cushion children from the adverse effects of poverty.

According to Children Service Assistant Director Peter Ombasa, the UCB plan will complement the existing cash transfer scheme, and targets children less than two years.

It is being piloted in three counties — Kajiado, Embu and Kisumu — and is now in its third cycle of payment. “UCB rides on existing programmes like Inua Jamii. But other things, such as selection of beneficiaries, are done independently. Beneficiaries must be in Inua Jamii. Those in the UCB programme are given Sh800 per child monthly, but paid every two months,” explained Ombasa.

He made the remarks during the regional dialogue on child sensitive social protection held yesterday, ahead of the Day of the African Child to be marked today.

Social protection

During the meeting, Save the Children and End Child Poverty Global Coalition organisations urged the Government to ensure social protection for all children because poverty inflicts irreversible damage to them.

Ombasa said UCB is being implemented in the country based on government statistics that show that a high share of children is poor.

According to statistics, at least 42 per cent of under 18s are monetary poor, while 52.5 per cent are multi-dimensionally poor.

Similarly, he said, studies in the country have shown that incomes are highly volatile, leaving people vulnerable to shocks. Yet investing in children has high returns.

He also said that data has shown the social protection coverage is still low in Kenya despite the progress made so far, where 10 per cent of the population is covered, compared with 25 per cent in other Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).

Before the programme is rolled out countrywide, a firm will be contracted to undertake the baseline survey to see the impact so far in the past six months.

Most households in Kenya have low incomes, with 87 per cent living on less than Sh245 per day.

“UCB will fulfill every child’s right to social protection, improve multiple children’s outcomes that include health, nutrition and education. It will be shock responsive by increasing resilience of households and offering a platform to deliver emergency cash when needed and act as an economic stimulus for recovery from Covid-19,” said Ombasa.

“We chose to ride on existing programmes because this is a pilot and we want to see the impact for instance, if we give you money on top of what you have, will you take care of the children well, what will be the nutritional value, what will be

psychosocial effects, how will the community respond and generally what will be the economic level of those particular communities,’ Ombasa added.

He said the three counties were selected because of the available data, which includes the number of children there against the poverty estimates.

Before the programme can be implemented countrywide, Ombasa said that a firm will be contracted to undertake the baseline survey to see the impact so far in the last six months.

“We want to find the impact in terms of the family set up, economic uptake and other factors before we think of going nationally, which also depends on availability of funds. Everything is gradual because funds are not easily available at any particular time and Governments do not just rush into programmes, they try to filter in to see what is the impact on the economy,” he said.

He said statistics have shown that most households in the country are on low incomes, with 87 per cent of the population living on less than Sh245 per day.

Only 3 per cent are living on more than Sh440 a day, which means that for a four-person family, this is equivalent of a salary of Sh54,800 per month.

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