Ireland provides K1.3bn to Social Cash Transfer Programme
News
30 September 2020
A beneficiary of the Social Cash Transfer Programme receives her monthly payment in Balaka District, Malawi. Photo: WFP Malawi. Used with permission.
The Irish Government recently disbursed €1.5 million to the Government of Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Programme, also known as Mtukhula Pa Khomo. This is the first tranche disbursement of a €2.7 million commitment that the Embassy of Ireland will make to the Government in the year 2020.
In 2016 Ireland entered into a second phase of a 5-year mutually beneficial multi-annual agreement with the Malawi Government. The programme has been successfully implemented in Ntcheu and Balaka Districts by Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development providing technical oversight. 73% of the programme's beneficiaries are women.
The funds come at an opportune time, when the world and Malawi are fighting the Covid19 pandemic. It is hoped that the vulnerable households of the SCTP will use the cash transfers to cushion themselves from the severe and negative impacts caused by the Coronavirus. These impacts are all the more pronounced in low-income countries like Malawi, where the economic crisis caused by the pandemic may hit harder than the virus itself.
Asked for a comment on this disbursement, Ambassador of Ireland to Malawi, H.E Gerry Cunningham said:
‘As identified in Ireland’s response to Covid19, social protection is a key policy instrument to protect the most vulnerable and mitigate the social and economic impact of Covid-19. I am pleased that in our work in Malawi, social protection is one of the key interventions to reach the furthest behind first. We are pleased that the Government of Ireland is able continue to work with the Republic of Malawi especially in these difficult times by ensuring that SCTP beneficiaries continue to receive their much-needed cash transfers on time’
A total of 24 448 households are covered in Ntcheu and Balaka districts in the Mtukhula Pa Khomo programme. Payments are done electronically through FCB and FDH Banks and each beneficiary has an ATM card. The Malawi Ministry of Gender has put measures in place to ensure that beneficiaries are kept safe and are prevented from catching the virus and continue to receive their payments on time.