Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods - Scalable Handbook

Malawi continues to face different types of climate-related disasters/shocks. Such shocks include floods, droughts, stormy rains, strong winds, hailstorms, and others. These climate-related risks are understood to be one of the biggest threats to social and economic progress, and to have particularly detrimental effects on poverty and inequality. Consequently, there is an urgent need to address vulnerability to disaster and climate risk, especially among poor households. 

The intention is to be able to leverage Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP) to provide additional cash transfers to poor and vulnerable households in case of extreme weather- or climate-related shocks through an automatic expansion or scale-up. This support intends to safeguard development gains made under the broader SCTP and effectively build community resilience to disasters. Experience has shown that the faster support can reach the poor and vulnerable before or after disasters, the less likely they are to resort to negative coping strategies.

This Scalable Handbook sets out the guiding principles, an operational framework, and an institutional structure for scaling up the SCTP in response to shocks. It defines institutional responsibilities and sources of finance to allow government to rapidly respond to disasters. The handbook is intended to serve as the key reference document for practitioners and agencies involved in the scale-up, or for other stakeholders who may want to use SCTP systems for scaling up. This handbook will be updated as needed to reflect lessons from the implementation of SCTP scale-ups.