AbbreviationsDCSEAGOKMOHAOPM<strong>OVC</strong><strong>OVC</strong>sUNICEFDepartment of Children’s Services, Ministry of Home AffairsEnumeration AreaGovernment of <strong>Kenya</strong>Ministry of Home AffairsOxford Policy ManagementOrphan or Other Vulnerable ChildOrphans <strong>and</strong> Other Vulnerable ChildrenUnited Nations Children’s Fundxii
1 Introduction1.1 The <strong>OVC</strong> cash transfer programme1.1.1 Background<strong>Kenya</strong> is a country of 34 million people, of which around half are children (under 18 years old), <strong>and</strong>many of whom are living in poverty. The crisis of HIV <strong>and</strong> AIDS has also worsened poverty in<strong>Kenya</strong>. High levels of poverty are found in: i) the poorest people living in arid areas where theeconomy revolves around pastoralists, ii) people who were otherwise poor anyway who have beenaffected by HIV <strong>and</strong> AIDS to the point whereby the economically active members of the householdare either ailing due to HIV/AIDS or have died, <strong>and</strong> iii) people living in urban slums around cities<strong>and</strong> large towns where transient <strong>and</strong> migrant populations live.The poverty of orphans <strong>and</strong> vulnerable children became the subject of discussion in the course ofthe parliamentary elections towards the end of 2002, with many parliamentary c<strong>and</strong>idates pledgingto allocate more resources to this group if elected. Commitment <strong>and</strong> action has been forthcoming<strong>and</strong> the Government of <strong>Kenya</strong> is in the process of developing a National Policy <strong>and</strong> a NationalPlan of Action for <strong>OVC</strong>s, a key aspect of which is the provision of a direct cash transfers to familiescaring for <strong>OVC</strong>s. It is intended that the cash transfer payments provided by the <strong>OVC</strong> CashTransfer (<strong>OVC</strong>-<strong>CT</strong>) programme will strengthen the capacities of households <strong>and</strong> communities tobe able to take care of <strong>OVC</strong>s, which has been identified as the key priority area in responding tothe situation of <strong>OVC</strong>s in the country.1.1.2 <strong>Programme</strong> implementationPhase 1The Government of <strong>Kenya</strong> (GOK) submitted a proposal in 2004 to the Global Fund for HIV, TB <strong>and</strong>Malaria, a key component of which was the funding of the development <strong>and</strong> expansion of a cashtransfer scheme for the most vulnerable children. However, the proposal was not funded; a keyweakness of the submission was that it proposed a programme that had never been tried in <strong>Kenya</strong><strong>and</strong> that there was no basis on which to support the viability of the programme. The Department ofChildren’s Services (DCS) in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA), with assistance from UNICEF,embarked on an initiative to demonstrate the feasibility of such a welfare system in the country. ByDecember 2004, 500 households in the districts of Garissa, Kwale <strong>and</strong> Nairobi were receiving apayment, which at the time was KSh 500 (approximately $6.50) per <strong>OVC</strong> per month. This markedPhase 1 of a pilot learning process, with the objective of informing the design of a larger scale pilot.In April 2005, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) <strong>and</strong> UNICEF hosted a review workshop toidentify lessons learned <strong>and</strong> facilitate the shaping of a larger pilot project that could form the basisfor nationwide scale-up. The results presented at the workshop indicated that the scheme had hada positive impact on the welfare of the recipients, particularly in terms of education, health, <strong>and</strong>nutrition. At the same time, the DCS was exp<strong>and</strong>ing the programme to ten additional districts,building on some of the initial lessons, <strong>and</strong> a further 2,500 households were targeted. In total 3,000recipient households were reached in Phase 1.Phase 2The Pilot was scaled up from the initial 3,000 <strong>OVC</strong> (Phase 1) to around 7,500 (Phase 2) during2007. Apart from the initial 13 districts, the programme also began to be piloted in four new donorfundeddistricts in Nyanza Province (Kisumu, Homa Bay, Migori <strong>and</strong> Suba), where evidence1
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