“Upwardly Mobile” Delivering Social Protection by

Cellphone

Katharine Vincent

IDPM and BWPI workshop on mobiles and developmentManchester, 16th May 2007

Social protection and social transfers

• Social protection: interventions aimed at reducing vulnerability• Social transfers: one component of social protection, based on

non-contributory, predictable and on-budget transfers to beneficiaries

• Can take different forms:• Cash• Vouchers• Food• Agricultural inputs• Medicines• School fee waivers

• Growing evidence base for the success of cash transfers in southern Africa and beyond (notably Brazil)

Advantages of cash transfers

• Flexibility: gives beneficiaries choice on what they want to buy with additional resources

• Economic multipliers: provides an injection into local economy, and sustains local markets and producers

• Can assist with the protection of household assets• Maintaining dietary diversity, improving child care

practices and increased uptake of social services (Kebede, 2006)

• Low management and implementation costs compared with purchasing and distributing food aid

Disadvantages of cash transfers

• Unaffordable to resource-poor countries (counter-argument: Lesotho Old Age Pension)

• Stimulate inflation, causing price of key goods to rise (counter-argument: Malawi DECT project)

• Social effects uncertain (gender effects, community relations, collective action coping mechanisms and safety nets)

• Delivery system problems - leakages• Corruption by officials• Fraud by beneficiaries• High risk of transporting large amounts of cash to remote

areas (cash-in-transit heists)

RHVP pilot cellphone project in Lesotho

• 10 cellphones distributed amongst 3 women’s farming groups in different agro-ecological zones in Lesotho

• 1 to a chicken farming group at St Michael’s (lowlands)• 4 to a pig farming group in Nyakasoba (foothills)• 5 to a seed potato and vegetable farming group in

Semonkong (highlands)

• Intention was “to support remotely-located rural people and to connect them with markets, primarily” (Chaka Ntsane, RHVP Country Coordinator for Lesotho)

Cellphone distribution and training

• Distributed on Women’s Day 2005• Siemens cellphone preloaded with ZAR500 of airtime• Training provided by the Maseru-based service provider

that supplied the handsets (Vodacom Lesotho)• To address the problem of poor technological capacity,

joint monitoring committees were set up comprising representatives of the women’s groups, a teacher in the community and a young student

• Idea was that the women could use ZAR100 of the airtime for group communication and sell the use of the remaining ZAR400, thus it should become self-sustaining

Follow up evaluation in May 2007 - advantages

• Access to communications has massively reduced the time spent on travelling (previously ladies in Semonkong would make a 4 hour round trip to meet within the cooperative at Bishop Allard Vocational School, whereas now they can call immediately and find whether there is a need for them to physically travel) – also wider benefits of accessing medical care in emergencies, etc.

• Helps them respond more quickly to the market, which has increased their sales

• Some younger ladies in Semonkong have started selling airtime through sms (acting as middlewomen)

Follow up evaluation in May 2007 - challenges

• 1 lady in Semonkong dropped her cellphone into water whilst doing her laundry: it is currently being repaired in Maseru

• Technological capacity – becoming accustomed to the cellphones took some time for women of a variety of ages

• Electricity availability is a problem for recharging• Although there have been no incidences of theft the

ladies recognise that having cellphones makes them a target – even from within their families!

• Airtime is prohibitively expensive compared to public phones, so little selling occurs (ZAR1.60 to ZAR2.90 per minute)

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