Unconditional Cash Transfers and Livelihoods of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Samburu Central Sub-County, Kenya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53819/81018102t3162Abstract
Despite Kenya's implementation of the Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children program since 2004, orphans and vulnerable children in arid and semi-arid regions continue to face significant livelihood challenges, with only 38% of eligible households in Samburu Central Sub-County receiving transfers, and current monthly amounts covering only 44% of basic household needs. This disparity exposes an important knowledge gap: there is little empirical evidence on the individual effects of the specific dimensions of unconditional cash transfer programs, i.e. transfer amount, duration, targeting mechanisms, and programme accessibility, on household livelihood outcomes in this setting. The study examined the impact of the unconditional cash transfers on the livelihoods of orphaned and vulnerable children in Samburu Central Sub-County. The study was based on the Human Capital Theory, the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the Equity Theory. A non-experimental cross-sectional research design was adopted using secondary data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Kenya Continuous Household Survey (2019-2024) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection's Cash Transfer Management Information System database (2019-2024) that contained 2,614 beneficiary households. The dependent variable was a composite Livelihood Index with dimensions related to food security, education and health. Data analysis was conducted with heteroskedasticity-robust regression with clustered standard errors that was supplemented with domain-specific models by regression and analysis of variance. The results of the study showed that KES 1,000 increase in annual transfers increased livelihood outcomes by 0.0061 units (p < 0.05), while a year of program participation increased outcomes by 0.0347 units. Community-based targeting was better than administrative targeting by 0.0356 units (p=0.012). Of all the unconditional cash transfer characteristics, program accessibility had the strongest effect (b = 0.1923, p < 0.05). However, only 32% of households had high accessibility levels. The model explained 43% variance in livelihood outcomes. The study concludes that larger amounts of transfers, continued enrolment, community-based targeting and increased accessibility are important determinants of livelihood improvement for the orphans and vulnerable children. Policy recommendations include a need to increase annual transfers to KES 48,000 with regional cost-of-living adjustments, an incentive to encourage long-term enrolment, a focus on targeting them to areas that need more attention, and expansion of payment infrastructure to reduce distance and disbursement delays.
Keywords: Unconditional Cash Transfers, Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Livelihood Index, Social Protection, Samburu County, Kenya
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