Assessment of the Contributions of Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes in Poverty Reduction: Case Study of the Njaa Marufuku Kenya project in Kisumu East district, Kenya

Abstract

Since 2005, the government of Kenya has been implementing the Njaa Marufuku Kenya as a conditional cash transfer project with overall goal of reducing extreme poverty in Kenya through increased incomes, assets, food security and vulnerability reduction. However, since its introduction, the contributions of Njaa Marufuku Kenya towards poverty reduction has not been established and documented. Therefore, while taking the case of Njaa Marufuku Kenya projects in Kisumu East district, objectives of this study were to establish the contribution of Njaa Marufuku Kenya in reducing extreme poverty through improved incomes, assets, food access and reduced vulnerability amongst supported poor households. The study area was Kisumu East district, which had 15 supported Njaa Marufuku Kenya group-based projects. To establish the contributions of the projects, 8 Njaa Marufuku Kenya supported groups were compared with 8 non-supported groups that were selected within the district through pipeline matching process. The study unit was the household belonging to both sets of groups and overall methodology involved comparing the Njaa Marufuku Kenya groups with the matched non-supported but similar groups. Out of a population of 218 households that were matched, a sample of 170 households were selected randomly through matching. The sampled households were interviewed through questionnaires administered by enumerators. Other primary data was gathered through focus group discussions while secondary data was obtained from office reports, internet, group records/documents and relevant books. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, percentages, standard deviation while qualitative data was analyzed by organizing data into themes and patterns, and evaluating the usefulness of the information to answer the research questions. The inferential statistics used was pooled t-test and ANOVA for quantitative data while Chi-square test was used for qualitative data. In all cases, the degree of freedom was set at 0.05%. The results showed that with regards to improvement of the incomes of poor households, Njaa Marufuku Kenya increased incomes of poor households by a margin of 25.5 percent. The improved incomes was however found to be insufficient to push the poor households above the average national poverty lines. Further, NMK has significantly contributed to improved households’ expenditures on school fees by a margin of 38.2 percent, but very minimal contribution to households’ expenditures on groceries. On acquisition of assets, the study showed that NMK has enabled its beneficiaries to own production assets at individual level by margin of 9.7% and group level by margin of 50%; most NMK supported households have high value assets such as Tomato, broilers, and dairy at group level. On households’ food access, the study showed that NMK has made significant contributions with households producing and depending on their own food more by a margin of 20 percent; 51% of households are able to depend on their own produced food within 6 months. Lastly, on ability of NMK projects to reduce households’ vulnerability to covariate shocks that commonly affect farming, the study showed that NMK project has made no significant change. On the contrary, NMK-supported households have become more vulnerable to covariate shocks by a margin of 27.85 percent. In order to effectively contribute to chronic poverty, the study recommends that NMK project designers should explore other strategies that would lead to higher households incomes generated from farming; deepen households’ access to production assets more at individual rather than group levels; explore ways to ensure all households have access to food; and consider introduction of formal insurance to enable poor households mitigate vulnerability to shocks and hazards.