Can cash transfers prevent inter-generational poverty in South Africa?
Cash transfers reduce current poverty by enhancing poor people’s access to food and other basic needs. Claims for long term impacts can also made, based on recipients’ investment of cash grants in their farm, business or human capital. Evidence from South Africa confirms that cash transfers achieve positive education, health and nutrition outcomes – even without attaching conditions. The ‘irresponsible’ behaviour of poor people is sometimes blamed as the cause of their poverty, and ‘conditioning’ this behaviour – by giving them cash inducements to invest in their children’s education and health – is therefore proposed as a solution. An alternative view is that poverty is a consequence of social and economic structures, and unless these underlying causes are addressed then imposing conditions on cash transfers is unnecessary and potentially counter-productive. Several evaluations of social cash transfers show that conditionalities are not necessary to improve poor people’s lives. Studie
