Cash Plus dissemination event

UNU-WIDER's SOUTHMOD tax-benefit microsimulation team, in collaboration with the senior partners from Southern African Social Policy Research Insights (SASPRI) and Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR), as well as the International Labour Organization (ILO), is involved in assessing the impact of the social protection programmes in Zambia. This event gathers the Minister of Community Development and Social Services Mrs. Doreen S. Mwamba, and personnel from different ministries in Zambia, other stakeholders, and researchers to discuss the final report and the Policy Brief summarizing the main findings. The team working outside Zambia takes part in the event virtually.

In the event the project team shares the findings on the coverage and poverty impact of social protection programmes in Zambia, focusing on the Cash Plus policies e.g. social cash transfer (SCT) and Supporting Women’s Livelihood programmes. This event is an opportunity to discuss the findings and consider the next steps.

The Cash Plus is a social protection intervention that builds on the regular cash transfers (floors) by combining these with additional social protection benefits (i.e., offering complementary support), to optimize the effects of cash transfers on reducing extreme poverty.

The Cash Plus study analyzes the coverage and impacts of current social protection policies and potential Cash Plus policy reforms using MicroZAMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for Zambia. The purpose of the study is to support the technical committee and the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS) in evidence-based policy making.

The Cash Plus study has been structured into three phases:

1) An empirical analysis of the coverage and under-coverage of the current social protection system
2) An empirical analysis of a potential Cash Plus policy reform
3) An empirical analysis of potential further reforms to extend coverage and support

All phases have included close interaction and discussion between the Cash Plus project team, relevant ministries, and other stakeholders (ILO, FAO etc.) to ensure the policy relevance of produced findings. In this dissemination event he final report, including findings from three phases, is shared with the policy makers.

This event is part of the SOUTHMOD - simulating tax and benefit policies for development  project. SOUTHMOD project is part of UNU-WIDER's research and capacity building programme on domestic revenue mobilization (DRM), funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (Norad).