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CHAPTER TWO ONE
the Safety Net Fund, because their schooling had been
interrupted by poverty.
Safety Net Funds are Camfed’s primary direct intervention
for primary school children. This intervention benefits
whole school environments and thus has a positive ‘spillover
effect’ to all children within schools, including boys.
Safety Net Funds are provided as block-grants to schools,
which buy supplies in bulk and allocate them to at-risk
pupils identified through a transparent, community-based
selection process (detailed in Chapter Four).
In 2009, Camfed’s Safety Net Fund supported 117,920
boys and girls. To date, 333,881 children have benefited
from the Safety Net Fund.
Retention rates at primary school level
Camfed’s 2008/09 studies indicate a reduction in pupil
drop-out rates at primary school level in well-established
partner schools. In Zimbabwe, where the drop-out
rate during the economic crisis was high, enrollment
in Camfed partner schools was more stable. In Zambia,
where a national education information system allows
comprehensive tracking of enrollment, evidence shows
that Camfed partner schools in established districts
showed significantly higher enrollment and attendance
rates when compared with all of the schools in their
district. This was not the case for a control group of
schools, suggesting that Camfed’s program boosts
primary enrollment and attendance. Girls’ enrollment has
also significantly improved in Camfed partner schools
in Zambia: up 46% since the program was introduced in
2002, compared to 18% overall in the districts where the
schools are located.
Camfed’s 2009 study in Zimbabwe also showed that
retention of teachers is significantly higher in Camfed
partner schools in the country. Keeping primary schools
open during the crisis depended on whether schools
were able to keep teachers from migrating to urban
areas or nearby countries in search of better employment
opportunities. Data gathered from school records
demonstrate that, in comparison with schools in the
districts overall, the average Camfed partner school lost
less than one teacher, compared to a control group, which
lost an average of three teachers.
Institutional impact of Safety Net funding
In addition to the impact on individuals, the Safety Net
Fund has institutional impact. In a context of poverty,
schools cannot raise funds from the community to
improve educational provision. Moreover, they have
negligible influence on district, provincial or national
distributors of resources. Block grants give schools
financial resources that they can control to greatest
educational effect. The training Camfed provides to ensure
accountability and transparency in the deployment
of these resources builds the decision-making and
accounting capacity at school level and is an important
power-sharing strategy that builds schools’ confidence to
place demands on the national system.
In Tanzania in 2008, the average Safety Net Fund grant
from Camfed to primary schools was equivalent to $11.80
per capita. 14 The average per capita grant earmarked by
the government was equivalent to $10 and anecdotal
evidence is that many schools received none or only a
fraction of this amount.
At a time when textbooks and basic learning materials
had all but disappeared in Zimbabwean schools in
2008, more than a third of students at established
Camfed partner schools reported receiving Safety Net
Fund support. The ratio of male to female recipients
was almost even. Ninety-eight-percent of students
who received this support said it had made a critical
difference to their ability to stay in school.
Girls’ improved success at secondary school
Retention of girls in secondary school following the
introduction of school fees is the biggest challenge to
international and national education goals; yet secondary
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