K10.3 billion social protection investment transforms Kasungu households

Telling her story from her base at Chilindira Village in the area of Senior Chief Kaomba, Phiri says it has never been easy to provide for the nutritional and educational needs of the children.

“The biggest challenge was lack of food. We couldn’t harvest any because we could not afford to buy fertilizer meaning we stayed the whole year with no food, surviving on piece works. It was difficult and unsustainable.

“Children could not consistently attend classes and their health status was getting poor because of a huge nutrition gap,” she says.

The high cost of living and skyrocketing prices for farm inputs including seed and fertilizer made Phiri’s home perennially food insecure, exacerbating the troubles of the already impoverished family.

Her story is a shared experience for most households in Kasungu District as 38-year-old James Kwenda from Traditional Authority Chilowamatambe testifies.

Kwenda says there have been high levels of poverty amongst households, manifested through lack of food, poor housing, malnourished children and high school dropout rates.

“With little or no capital to venture into businesses, we almost normalized poverty. We thought that is the way of life.

“However, we were concerned with the future of our children if they don’t attend classes. We were worried,” Kwenda says.

Like many of such households in the districts, Kwenda and Phiri’s families took a turn following their enrollment as beneficiaries under the Social Cash Transfer Programme, a component of the Social Support for Resilient Livelihood Project (SSRLP) being implemented by the Malawi Government through the National Local Government Finance Committee with support from the World Bank and Multi-Donor Trust Fund.

Through the programme, at least 16 585 poor and labour-constrained households in Kasungu alone have received over K10.3 billion over the past seven years in cash transfers as capital to build resilience.

Grouped under Chitenje Cluster and trained by Community Savings and Investment Promotion (Comsip), Phiri is now a successful tailor designing and creating custom clothing such as dresses and uniforms.

She says the business has transformed her household in that she can provide for the family with ease.

“Business is good. I sell more items during mobile markets and make a reasonable profit, enough to support the family.

“I have also diversified into rearing chickens, pigs and goats which I sell to raise money for farm inputs while also benefiting from manure, she says.

For Kwenda, the investment in butchery and agribusiness has helped him graduate from a peasant farmer to a successful businessperson. He buys and sells produce such as soybean and maize.

Kamuzu Cluster is another group of beneficiaries located near Chiwengo, the home of the country’s founding President Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

Lozani Banda, a secretary for the cluster says the group has opted to invest in Mbeya fertilizer production capitalizing on the available market for organic fertilizer owing to skyrocketing prices for chemical fertilizers.

“Since most people here cannot afford to buy chemical fertilizers, we saw it as an opportunity to invest in Mbeya fertilizer which despite its many benefits, is cheaper.

“Initially, we produced 55 bags which we sold at a minimum price of K45 000 per 50 kilogramme bag. Production is ongoing so that we meet the available demand.

Banda says the group envisions forming a cooperative specializing in farming and fertilizer production.

“We testify that we have been transformed following the trainings on mindset change, environmental conservation and business management which Comsip gave us.

“The fertilizer we make responds well to calls to adopt modern farming approaches that can deal with effects of climate change. Compost fertilizers not only retain moisture but also replenish the degraded soils resulting in bumper harvests,” she says.

Commenting on the fertilizer initiative, Principal Agriculture Officer at Kasungu District Council, Jonathan Baloyi encourages the group to sustain the venture saying the market for such products is available.

“There is great demand for inorganic fertilizers because of the effects of climate change and the rising prices for chemical fertilizers. So this initiative must be sustained.

“Climate change is a big problem and government encourages all such efforts that could help mitigate the impacts. As we replenish our soils with inorganic fertilizers, we are also fighting food insecurity,” Baloyi says.

Business Development Manager for Comsip, Febron Mwiba, expresses excitement that the training has had a transformative impact amongst the beneficiary households.

“We encourage them to be in groups and then we give them practical training that can assist their households.

“Our training centres on how to run village savings and loans groups (VSLs), business management, environmental protection, actionable smart agriculture and soil improvement technologies like compost and Mbeya manure making,” Mwiba says.

He notes that compost manure is easy to make because the raw materials are easily found and in the end, households can harvest more for both food and commercial purposes.

“We have been to all the 28 districts with the training, reaching over 300,000 people.

“The groups have various objectives for keeping money depending on training we gave them but the common denominator is that the funds must be invested into a business that can give them more returns,” Mwiba says.

The social cash transfer programme targets thousands of ultra-poor and labour-constrained households who receive varying amounts of monthly stipend depending on household size and the number of school-age children present in the household.

It began as a pilot in 2006 in Mchinji and has now spread to all districts aiming to create wealth, improve the nutritional status of households, increase school enrolment and, by implication, reduce school dropout rate in primary and secondary school.

By September 2017, the programme had benefitted over 777,000 people in over 174,500 households across 18 districts, including 430,000 child members before spreading to all 28 districts in 2020.

In Kasungu alone, at least 16 585 beneficiaries have received a total of K10.3 billion since the first transfer in August 2018.

Principal Social Welfare Officer for Kasungu, Victor Nyirenda, says the programme has had a positive impact in the district citing increased school enrolment as an example.

“We have seen tremendous change amongst households in the district. We have seen families now owning livestock and some producing various crops for both subsistence and commercial purposes. Still, some have ventured into businesses while others have formed loan groups.

“I would say we are in the direction as regards poverty reduction. Comsip has assisted a lot in ensuring that the money that the beneficiaries get is multiplied through village loan groups and businesses. In the end, the impact has been huge,” says Nyirenda.

He says it is encouraging that most of the beneficiaries use the money as capital and use the profits to meet their various family needs.

“In such an arrangement, the little they get turns out to be very valuable.

“The results of the programme show that unconditional cash transfer programmes to the ultra-poor can protect consumption and generate additional economic activity,” he says.

Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Jean Sendeza thanks development partners for funding the social welfare initiative which she says has economically empowered vulnerable households.

“My appeal is that beneficiaries should use the money productively. We would like to see them graduate from their current status and then we can enrol new beneficiaries into the programme.

“And lastly, I appeal to traditional leaders to ensure that only deserving people are enrolled,” Sendeza says.