SEEVCA Zambia
A Government initiative, supported by USAID, to improve services for vulnerable children and adolescents
Introduction
Introduced in 2017 by the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS), the Service Efficiency and Effectiveness for Vulnerable Children and Adolescents (SEEVCA) initiative aims to show the value of combining social protection programming, especially social cash transfers, with case management to increase access to services for households caring for highly vulnerable children and adolescents.
The Government is committed to addressing these vulnerabilities, and expanding social protection initiatives, especially the Social Cash Transfer (SCT) programme, to provide a solid foundation for additional support to vulnerable children and adolescents. The SCT programme contributes to reducing vulnerability and expanding protection for the most marginalized Zambians with the following results:
i) The programme has reached 49,478 children (boys 23,564, girls 25,914), including from many child-headed and female-headed households.
ii) The impact on a household of receiving an SCT is immense. An Impact Evaluation carried out between 2010 and 2014 found that the cash transfers improved all socio-economic indicators: schooling, health, well-being, possession of shoes and blankets, and the regularity of meals.
iii) There is a multiplier effect of the transfers, adding between 49 and 69 Ngwee in value to every Kwacha transferred. Through spill-over effects, the SCTs also strengthen communities through improved social cohesion as households become actively involved in community activities.
SEEVCA Publications and Reports
Background
Many children and adolescents in Zambia face multiple vulnerabilities including household poverty, exposure to violence, family separation, lack of education, malnutrition, HIV, early pregnancy, and child marriage. These impact the development and growth of children and adolescents, reducing opportunities for them to thrive, to reach their full potential, and to contribute to the health and well-being of Zambia.
Some key facts
- The majority of Zambian children are either deprived or poor (64%) and most of the deprived children are also poor in relation to the national poverty line. An estimated 700,000 children of school-going age are out of school, having either dropped out or never entered school. Over a quarter of children from the poorest families are out of school compared to the 4.3% from the wealthier families.
- The number of girls out of school at the lower secondary level is nearly double that of boys.
- The Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) analysis found that 41% of children 0-17 suffer from at least three deprivations at a time.
- Overall, HIV prevalence is 15.9% in urban which is twice as high as rural areas with a prevalence of 7.1%
- Over 40% of girls and a third of boys aged 13–17 years old experienced one or more forms of sexual, physical, or emotional violence in the previous 12 months, with physical violence being the most common.
The Programme
The SEEVCA initiative is implemented by the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS) with funding from USAID and technical support from UNICEF.