By Robert Katuli

Lilongwe, February 27, Mana: A study conducted by Mwapata Institute has shown that more non-poor households in the country benefit more from social safety net programmes than the deserving poor households.

This was disclosed Monday in Lilongwe during a media briefing which Mwapata Institute organized on social protection programmes and climate resilience in Malawi.

In an interview, Research Director for Mwapata Institute, Professor Levison Chiwaula, said the Institute conducted the study after observing that the country has been experiencing multiple shocks over the past years.

“We wanted to know how resilient are the households; how are they able to take care of themselves in such a situation of shocks and risks.

“One thing we noted is that the households that were in, for example, social safety net programmes, when hit with the shocks, these households most of the times were able to come back to their normal life levels so quickly than those households not on social protection programmes,” said Chiwaula.

He added that although the program may have been effective in making sure households are cushioned from shocks and risks, the poor targeting issues need to be addressed, as, apart from the concern about non-poor households benefiting at the expense of poor households, some also benefited from more than one safety net programme.

“There is lack of coordination when it comes to post-disaster response. Different agencies implement different programmes; at the end you find that some individuals receive more support, and others don't.

“We noted that some households receive multiple social protection programmes while others don't receive any even though they qualify to be supported,” Chiwaula explained.

In addition to the targeting issues, the study also recommends that the amount of money in programmes such as cash transfers should be increased in order to increase the benefits.

Chiwaula, therefore, thanked government for its intention to increase the amount of money provided through cash transfers, saying this will help a lot.

In his presentation, Mwapata Institute Research Fellow, Dr Anderson Gondwe, concurred with Chiwaula, saying there is need to strengthen the social protection programmes, which have proved crucial in supporting households during disasters.

He said households’ food security and resilience capacity have improved with the safety net programmes, adding that cash transfers, among other initiatives, have had a positive impact on resilience and food consumption status.

Apart from cash transfers, other social safety nets the study focused on include food/cash for work initiative, school feeding programme, and supplementary feeding programme, just to mention a few.

Mwapata Institute, an agricultural policy think-tank, conducted the study between 2010 and 2020, with support from the Irish Embassy.