The government plans to disburse cash to victims of the recent El Niño floods in eight counties by expanding a programme that currently gives money only to victims of drought in the devolved units of government.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revealed the government, with support from the World Bank, plans to distribute cash to households that were affected by the El Niño rains in eight arid counties of Turkana, Wajir, Mandera, Marsabit, Garissa, Tana River, Isiolo and Samburu.
The lender said some €8.8 million (Sh1.54 billion) is available for spending under the programme.
This will be done through the expansion of the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP), which gives cash to drought victims, to include households affected by other climate-induced shocks such as floods.
“The authorities are exploring, with the support of the World Bank, to use the HSNP to distribute cash assistance to households affected by recent El Niño flooding in eight northern counties,” said the IMF in a fresh disclosure.
“In this context, the World Bank is working with the authorities on technical aspects of triggers to facilitate the expansion of emergency cash transfers under HSNP’s 'shock-responsive’ component to include those affected by flooding.”
El Niño rains in Kenya began last October. The heavy rains caused floods, leading to the deaths of more than 160 people mostly in the eight counties.
More than 529,120 people from some 105,824 households were displaced, according to figures given by the government in December.
HSNP, which is being implemented by the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), is one of four cash transfer programmes under the National Safety Net Programme (NSNP) collectively called Inua Jamii.
The other three programmes are transfers of Sh2,000 monthly to older persons, cash transfers to orphans and vulnerable children and transfers to persons living with severe disability.
The four cash transfer programmes support about 1.4 million beneficiaries directly and about 5 million beneficiaries indirectly.
According to the IMF, the World Bank is exploring the obligatory use of the Enhanced Single Registry (ESR), which is a digital database of the poor and vulnerable population for the cash transfers, as well as pegging the transfers to inflation and other economic indicators.
“The ESR will objectively identify beneficiaries and improve transparency and efficiency of the program,” said the IMF.
The use of the register is aimed at streamlining the tracking of beneficiaries to minimize fraud where individuals use fake identification to benefit from the cash.
The cash transfer programmes have been identified as key to alleviating poverty, especially among the most vulnerable population.
A World Bank analysis for instance suggests that by raising support per household per month to about Sh3,000 (one-quarter of average monthly expenditure by poor households), overall social assistance could be higher by 0.1 percent of GDP which could be financed through revenue recycling.
“Potential areas of reforms include increasing the proportion of NSNP beneficiaries who come from the bottom 40 percent of the consumption distribution from 59 to 80 percent and to increase coverage of female-headed households,” said the IMF.
