Zimbabwe: Using Evidence to Overcome Political and Economic Challenges to Starting a National Unconditional Cash Transfer Programme

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Citation

Seidenfeld, David; Dumba, Lovemore; Handa, Sudhanshu; Muwoni, Leon; Reeves, Hannah; & Sammon, Elayn (2016). Zimbabwe: Using Evidence to Overcome Political and Economic Challenges to Starting a National Unconditional Cash Transfer Programme.. Davis, Benjamin; Handa, Sudhanshu; Hypher, Nicola; Winder Rossi, Natalia; Winters, Paul; & Yablonski, Jennifer (Eds.) (pp. 226-246). Oxford, England: FAO.

Abstract

Zimbabwe’s national cash transfer programme, called the Harmonized Social Cash Transfer (HSCT), stands out from other cash transfer programmes in Africa because it started in a highly sensitive political environment, with a compromise government of national unity and immediately following one of the worst economic collapses on the continent. Perhaps the biggest lesson from the Zimbabwe case is how a rigorous evaluation, including the entire suite of ancillary studies that emanated from the evaluation exercise, served as a vehicle to build trust and accountability among key stakeholders (development partners and government) within a politically tense atmosphere. The existence of a credible evaluation allowed all parties to base their discussions and dialogue around a strong and indisputable evidence base, rather than assertions or anecdotes. In that sense then, the evaluation initiative in Zimbabwe has been an essential component to consolidating and expanding the HSCT.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198769446.003.0010

Reference Type

Book Section

Year Published

2016

Author(s)

Seidenfeld, David
Dumba, Lovemore
Handa, Sudhanshu
Muwoni, Leon
Reeves, Hannah
Sammon, Elayn