Evaluation of the Child Grants Programme (CGP) in Lesotho (2014-2022)
Evaluation report and research summary
Highlights
In 2009, Lesotho started to implement the Child Grants Programme (CGP), a regular and predictable cash transfer aimed at supplementing the income of poor households to elevate children’s living standards. The CGP pilot started with 1,000 households with children aged zero to 17, covering 2,500 children, in six community councils.
Since the last evaluation in 2013, the CGP, as well as the socioeconomic and policy context in Lesotho changed significantly. During this time, the programme expanded coverage to all rural areas; piloted mobile payments; and started linking beneficiaries to a range of complementary services like the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) bursary for secondary school. The targeting methodology used through the National Information System for Social Assistance (NISSA) to identify qualifying households also underwent revision and expanded to cover the whole country.
At the same time, Lesotho experienced several shocks, including at least two severe droughts, the COVID-19 pandemic and considerable food price inflation. The CGP transfer amount remained unchanged from 2010–2022 and many key processes relating to communication and case management remained manual despite some investments. As such, a follow-up evaluation was crucial to track the programme's progress; take stock of its impact and determine whether it has been sustained; assess its key implementation and operational processes and systems; and identify further opportunities for improvement.
Impact
The evaluation findings offered vital information to the key implementing and supporting agencies of the CGP, including MoSD, UNICEF and the EU for decision-making about programme design and operations.
The evaluation found that a lot of progress in terms of scaling up the CGP had been made and that CGP maintains an important protective role for its beneficiary households with small but significant positive impacts on extreme food insecurity and children’s health. However, the evaluation also showed that rising inflation eroded the transfer value severely, which by 2022 constituted merely 8% of average monthly household consumption expenditure, compared to 21% in 2013. This has decreased the programme’s impact. Past evaluations of the CGP have shown that with a more adequate transfer value, larger and more wide-reaching impacts can be achieved, particularly in the area of children’s education. In 2023 the Government of Lesotho announced that the CGP transfer values would be increased.
In terms of operations and programme delivery, the evaluation identified a range of concrete areas and actionable recommendations for improving the CGP’s effectiveness and efficiency. The mobile payment pilot was identified as an important starting point, but improving the CGP’s case management, complaints, and appeal mechanisms, as well as programme communications should also be a priority. This will also be important to enhance the CGP’s impact by ensuring beneficiaries get paid the full amounts they are entitled to and can access complementary services. Such improvements can also further strengthen the CGP’s positive impact on social cohesion and improve communities’ perceptions of the programme.
