Does the unconditional cash transfer program in South Africa provide support for women after child birth? Barriers to accessing the child support grant among women in informal work in Durban, South Africa

Background The child support grant (CSG) is the largest unconditional cash transfer program in Africa and aims to alleviate poverty and improve child health and nutrition in low-income families in South Africa. Among informal working women, the CSG is an important source of income after childbirth when informal workers are unable to work, but reports suggest that women experience delays in accessing the CSG. We explore experiences and challenges of accessing the CSG among informal workers in Durban, South Africa. Methods We undertook a longitudinal mixed-methods cohort study. Women informal workers were recruited during pregnancy and followed-up for up to one year after the baby was born. Quantitative questionnaires and semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to collect data about women’s plans for applying for the CSG, the application process, use of the CSG in the household, and household food insecurity. Interviews were conducted in IsiZulu by experienced researchers. Descriptive analysis of quantitative data used SPSS v26, and framework analysis using NVIVO v12.3 was used for qualitative analysis. Results Twenty-four informal working women were enrolled. The CSG received for older children was reported as an important and reliable source of income for mothers after childbirth. However, delays receiving the CSG for the new baby meant this support was unavailable to first-time mothers. The complex application process for the CSG required mothers to travel to various government departments to complete the required documentation, often taking the baby with them. This was costly and time-consuming for mothers who were already vulnerable, and led to delays in obtaining CSG funds. Many women experienced moderate or severe food insecurity before and after the baby was born. As a result, some mothers had to return to work earlier than planned, disrupting childcare and breastfeeding. Conclusions Cash transfer programmes can effectively support low income households and improve outcomes for mothers and children. In South Africa there is a need for innovative approaches to streamline CSG applications, so women can access the funds immediately post-delivery to fill a resource gap and provide support at a vulnerable time for mothers and their children.

Assessing the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program as a conditional income transfer: a search for a conceptual framework

Purpose Ghana has implemented different kinds of pro-poor program and policies since its independence to reduce poverty. The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) is one of such program. LEAP is a social cash transfer program and its implementation has been under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection since 2008. It provides direct cash and health insurance coverage for extremely poor households across the country to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development. This paper examines the LEAP program in terms of how it has achieved its aim and the opportunities for improvement.Design/methodology/approach Primary data were obtained from interviews of 110 beneficiaries of the program. The study proposes a conceptual framework that links poverty reduction and social policies to assist researchers analyze pro-poor or social cash transfer program.Findings The findings show that the program is challenged with administrative bureaucracies, irregular inflow of funds, perceived political interferences, inconsistent implementation strategies and low value of the cash transfer (which results in little or no impact on consumption). However, the data also show that LEAP has positive impacts on nonconsumption spending like children's schooling. The program' exit strategy does not impact much on beneficiaries to allow them exit without the tendency of being poor.Practical implications This paper discussed the LEAP program as a social cash transfer to the poor in Ghana. The study constructed a conceptual framework to help researchers and practitioners analyze the implementation of pro-poor interventions. This conceptualization allows for cash transfer program to empower beneficiaries and exits them to allow for other beneficiaries to enroll, ensuring reduction in poverty over time. Generally, the beneficiaries have benefited from the LEAP in the areas of consumption, education and healthcare with few beneficiaries being able to accumulate some few assets. The LEAP program has no exit plan.Originality/value This study adds to literature by offering a conceptual framework to help researchers and policy makers in dealing with social assistance policies to the poor. The study also gave an insight into how pro-poor policy strategies could be crafted.

Assessing Sustainability in Development Interventions

Sustainability is often claimed as an impact in development interventions although there is rarely a shared understanding of what it means, how to design for it, and especially how to assess the likelihood that intended streams of benefits will continue. This chapter asserts that to design and later to evaluate an intervention with sustainable impacts, the intervention must deepen indigenous capabilities to manage the program, to solve problems, and to innovate. The design and implementation also must operate within environmental boundaries, not extracting resources beyond the ability to regenerate or degrading environmental services—that is, design and implementation must incorporate the primacy of the environment. A postprogram evaluation 3–10 years after a program has ended provides evidence on whether the program is likely to have sustainable impacts. A case study of an asset transfer program in Malawi highlights the criteria for evaluating sustainability: deepened capabilities and social capital, reinvestment in program activities, and the development of backward and forward linkages catalyzing growing economic opportunities.

CIPP evaluation model - The agreement of the five ministers: Arranging and organizing junior high school teachers

The purpose of this study is to use a descriptive qualitative method to describe the program of the agreement of the five ministers that was implemented in Salatiga. According to the findings, the implementation of the program to organize and arrange Civil Servant teachers in the city of Salatiga is still not going well. This issue prompted additional research into the process of leveling and rearranging teachers. Problems in the implementation of the ongoing program at the Salatiga Education Office were discovered with the assistance of CIPP. In terms of context, the implementation procedures are consistent with the Regional Government’s procedures in terms of vision and mission, objectives, and identification of needs and opportunities. The input is seen to be by the Mayor of Salatiga’s decision, such as aspects of strategy, procedures, and teacher placement. However, the Education, Youth, and Sports Office does not manage funds because there is no allocation. The stages of the process have been running, including readiness identification and monitoring, mutation implementation, and discipline. The result stage demonstrates that while not all of them have achieved their goals, such as equal distribution of teachers in schools, they have done well in terms of benefits, impacts, and sustainability. As a result of the results obtained from the input and output aspects, the Salatiga government must allocate funds for the teacher transfer program for organizing and rearranging middle school teachers in Salatiga to run as expected.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE ON IMPLEMENTATION OF PROFESSIONAL TRANSFER PROGRAM AT PT JASA MARGA (PERSERO) TBK.

The impact of technological developments and the application of GNNT or Cashless in toll road transactions can trigger company to terminate employment, but the company is not allowed to lay off, this is a challenge for Jasa Marga so that there are no layoffs and operational services in the field continue to run by Government policies and the PUPR Ministerial Decree. In 2017-2019 PT Jasa Marga (Persero) Tbk. made a change by preparing a voluntary Professional Transfer Program (A-Life) for employees. In this process, Jasa Marga Management, the Employees, and Employees Union are committed to jointly leading the change management process in a professional transfer program that takes into account the interests of the Company and the Employees, however should improve the quality of organizational culture as well. The method used a qualitative approach based on a case study to examine the state of natural objects, in which the researcher is the key tool, the data collection technique is performed by triangulation (a combination of observations, interviews, documents), the resulting data tends to be qualitative data, analytical data is inductive/qualitative and research finding of qualitative research is about understanding meaning, understanding unique, construct phenomena and find hypotheses. The conclusion there were the process, obstacles, and effectiveness of change management implementation in the professional transition program (ALife) and organizational culture which has not been implemented optimally.

Effects of Season on Donor and Recipient Cows and Calf Performance from Birth to Weaning in Embryo Transfer Programs in the Tropics

The aim of this study was to assess the seasonal effect of an embryo transfer program in the tropics on the donor response, recipient reproductive performance and calf growth from birth to weaning. This study included five-year records from 145 donors, 1149 embryo transfers (ET) and 609 in calves. The effect of the season (dry or wet) was evaluated at the time of embryo flushing, embryo transfer and birth of the calves. There was a seasonal effect on the yield and quality of the embryos. The number of nonfertilized and transferable good quality embryos increased in the wet season. For the recipients, the probability of pregnancy after an ET decreased by 6% for each year of the dam’s age. However, no seasonal effect was found when comparing ET calves with their control group (natural mating—NM), nevertheless, weaning weight was associated with birth body weight, treatment, sex of the calf, season at birth, year of treatment, and dam’s age. Calves born by NM had lower average daily gain (ADG), and male calves registered higher gains than females. Likewise, calves born during the rainy season had lower ADG compared with calves born during the dry season. In conclusion, this study shows that seasonal effect is more apparent in donor and calf performance than in the recipients.

Interactions between Conditional Cash Transfers and Preferred Secondary Schools in Jamaica

We explore whether the academic benefit from attending a preferred secondary school differs between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the Jamaican Conditional Cash Transfer Program, Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH). The academic outcomes assessed include end of secondary and post-secondary high-stakes examinations independently administered by the Caribbean Examinations Council. Among girls, receiving PATH benefits before secondary school enrollment does not influence the academic gains from attending a more selective school. However, boys who received PATH benefits prior to secondary school enrollment benefit significantly less from subsequently attending a more selective school with respect to comparable peers who did not receive PATH benefits. These results suggest negative dynamic interactions between PATH and selective secondary schools among boys.