Shaping Citizen-State Relations Through Cash Transfer Program Design

• In Event: The Changing Landscape of Social Protection in Africa

Abstract

In 2020, there were approximately 123 social cash transfer programs operating in countries across sub-Saharan Africa, many of them part of government’s long-term social protection plans. Where cash transfers in Latin America have largely been conditional cash transfers, which require beneficiaries to meet certain conditions or co-responsibilities, often related to education and healthcare, the majority of programs across sub-Saharan have been unconditional programs, or programs with both conditional and unconditional elements. Through a comparative study of long-term government-implemented cash transfer programs in Tanzania and Kenya, this research examines the political drivers of conditionalities in cash transfer programs. It not only traces political elites’ decision-making processes related to conditions in both countries, but also examines how ‘hard’ conditionalities in Tanzania and ‘soft’ conditionalities in Kenya have shaped beneficiaries’ experiences with social cash transfer programs across similar rural communities in Tanzania and Kenya.

This paper presents two key arguments. First, it argues that over the long-run political decisions about program design, including conditionalities, are shaped by electoral politics and internal pressures for program expansion. This argument challenges the existing literature on conditionalities in sub-Saharan Africa, which emphasizes the decisive role that international development partners play in shaping program design. The paper demonstrates that competitive elections in Kenya have led to political pressures for the broad expansion of social cash transfers nationwide rather than focus on graduation and conditionalities. In contrast, in Tanzania, the increasingly authoritarian political space has included a reinvigoration of productivist rhetoric focussed on hard work and self-reliance. Political elites have thus emphasized the importance of cash transfer co-responsibilities, which are viewed as central to the creation of ‘productive’ citizens. Second, the paper argues that ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ conditionalities result in similar outcomes across programs, despite very different political drivers for their implementation.

Author

• Alesha Porisky, Northern Illinois University