Cash transfers improve livelihoods for children and mothers in Aweil East
UNICEF piloted a social protection programme reaching over 1600 mothers with young children to improve livelihoods and encourage nutrition and health services access.
A mother and restaurant owner
Young mother, Akiir Lual, is a recent recipient of a cash transfer pilot project in Aweil, Northern Bahr El Ghazal State in Northwestern South Sudan. As a breastfeeding mother, her two-year-old girl was suffering from malnutrition for almost a year and referred for treatment at a nearby Nutrition Site. When Akiir received her first cash transfer, she invested it into buying nutritious foods that provided a variety of foods for her daughter and five other children.
UNICEF, with generous funding from Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and implemented by Action Against Hunger (ACF) is piloting the cash programme in 17 villages in Aweil aligned with existing nutrition programmes in the areas.
With the help of Community Nutrition Volunteers (CNVs), they screened children or mothers with malnutrition in nearby villages and registered them for the cash transfer project. In addition to receiving cash transfer, they also benefited from other services including antenatal care services, screening and treatment for malnutrition, nutrition counselling and immunization for their children. The cash transfer allowed each of the 1,626 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers to receive 261,500 South Sudanese Pounds (approx. US$246) in two payments over the six-month pilot.
This may not sound like a lot of money, but for women and children living in an area with extreme food insecurity and critical malnutrition severity, it is a lifeline.
After receiving the second cash transfer, Akiir improved her household food diversity to combat malnutrition. Before this pilot, Akiir relied on fetching and selling firewood to provide very basic and less diverse foods for herself and her children.
“Life was tough for me as a mother. I struggled to provide three meals for my children; however, with this cash, I can buy enough and more diverse food items, including vegetables, meat and fish, medicines for my children and save some money for their schooling,” she said.
Poverty is widely acknowledged to be the major precursor of malnutrition in many parts of South Sudan and social protection and safety-net interventions are crucial to prevent maternal and child malnutrition and other health problems. The pilot cash transfer project, which delivers direct unconditional cash to eligible mothers, is part of the development of UNICEF’s social protection programme. Many other countries use such programmes as an important poverty reduction and social security measure.
When Agol Yom Yuot, also a mother of five children, received her first cash transfer, she invested the money in her small restaurant kiosk at Madhol Market in Aweil East. This investment she has enabled her to buy additional chairs, plates, sauces as well as renovating the roof of the restaurant’s simple shelter. This has led to increases in her earnings by ten-fold and she can now provide variety of foods for her children.
“Now my children will no longer be going to bed hungry, and if they get sick, the increased income will contribute to their treatment.”
Women as well as children across South Sudan are often vulnerable to malnutrition. Women need to consume nutrient-rich foods when pregnant and breastfeeding to maintain their energy and optimal nutrition. Lack of access to a variety of foods puts pregnant women at greater risk of complications during pregnancy and birth due to malnutrition.
After the second cash transfer, Agol advised other mothers to invest the money and start small business activities, including selling products such as peanut butter or creating kitchen gardens as a sustainable effort to improve their food security and avoid malnutrition.
“The daily working life of a mother can be physically and mentally stressful, we would like to spend enough time with our children, but mothers cannot stay home all day. We are forced to leave the house and look for casual work opportunities,” said Agol.
South Sudan has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world, with around 25 per cent of children or 1.65 million children expected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2024. This intervention has the potential to increase consumption of variety of foods including proteins, which is often missing in children’s diets in South Sudan.
The cash transfer project has also boosted the opportunities for mothers in many aspects, including improved access to healthcare services. Mary Atoch Aguer is a mother who increased her antenatal care (ANC) visits in Madhol, Aweil East. The cash allowed Mary and other pregnant mothers to pay for transport and access ANC services from the health clinic, which she would otherwise not have been able to obtain.
“Before the cash transfer, pregnant mothers had difficulty paying for public transport and getting health services, including the ANC card in this locality,” said Mary. She used part of her first cash transfer to get to a nearby hospital for safe delivery; she delivered her second baby six days before receiving the second cash transfer. She will now use the money for the postnatal care visits until her newborn turns one year old.
Aluel, Atoch, and Agol are among the1,626 mothers who received cash in Madhol County.
During a recent meeting by UNICEF and partners, with participants in the programme, mothers confirmed that the cash transfers provided to mothers with acutely malnourished children improved recovery from acute malnutrition. The cash transfer project appears to lessen the sharing of ready to use therapeutic foods at household level.
Mothers learn optimal nutrition practices and how to prepare nutritious meals from locally grown foods as part of the integrated nutrition services provided by UNICEF and other partners such as WFP. They are also encouraged to develop income-generating and livelihood activities to fight malnutrition.
With the addition of these vital cash transfers in Aweil East County, mothers can become more empowered to improve food diversity for their children and take steps to improve the health and well-being of themselves and their families.
