“Upwardly Mobile” Delivering Social Protection by Cellphone Katharine Vincent

1. “Upwardly Mobile” Delivering Social Protection by Cellphone Katharine Vincent IDPM and BWPI workshop on mobiles and development Manchester, 16th May 2007

2. Social protection and social transfers • Social protection: interventions aimed at reducing vulnerability • Social transfers: one component of social protection, based on non-contributory, predictable and on-budget transfers to beneficiaries • Can take different forms: • Cash • Vouchers • Food • Agricultural inputs • Medicines • School fee waivers • Growing evidence base for the success of cash transfers in southern Africa and beyond (notably Brazil)

3. Advantages of cash transfers • Flexibility: gives beneficiaries choice on what they want to buy with additional resources • Economic multipliers: provides an injection into local economy, and sustains local markets and producers • Can assist with the protection of household assets • Maintaining dietary diversity, improving child care practices and increased uptake of social services (Kebede, 2006) • Low management and implementation costs compared with purchasing and distributing food aid

4. Disadvantages of cash transfers • Unaffordable to resource-poor countries (counter-argument: Lesotho Old Age Pension) • Stimulate inflation, causing price of key goods to rise (counter-argument: Malawi DECT project) • Social effects uncertain (gender effects, community relations, collective action coping mechanisms and safety nets) • Delivery system problems - leakages • Corruption by officials • Fraud by beneficiaries • High risk of transporting large amounts of cash to remote areas (cash-in-transit heists)

5. RHVP pilot cellphone project in Lesotho • 10 cellphones distributed amongst 3 women’s farming groups in different agro-ecological zones in Lesotho • 1 to a chicken farming group at St Michael’s (lowlands) • 4 to a pig farming group in Nyakasoba (foothills) • 5 to a seed potato and vegetable farming group in Semonkong (highlands) • Intention was “to support remotely-located rural people and to connect them with markets, primarily” (Chaka Ntsane, RHVP Country Coordinator for Lesotho)

7. Cellphone distribution and training • Distributed on Women’s Day 2005 • Siemens cellphone preloaded with ZAR500 of airtime • Training provided by the Maseru-based service provider that supplied the handsets (Vodacom Lesotho) • To address the problem of poor technological capacity, joint monitoring committees were set up comprising representatives of the women’s groups, a teacher in the community and a young student • Idea was that the women could use ZAR100 of the airtime for group communication and sell the use of the remaining ZAR400, thus it should become self-sustaining

8. Follow up evaluation in May 2007 - advantages • Access to communications has massively reduced the time spent on travelling (previously ladies in Semonkong would make a 4 hour round trip to meet within the cooperative at Bishop Allard Vocational School, whereas now they can call immediately and find whether there is a need for them to physically travel) – also wider benefits of accessing medical care in emergencies, etc. • Helps them respond more quickly to the market, which has increased their sales • Some younger ladies in Semonkong have started selling airtime through sms (acting as middlewomen)

9. Follow up evaluation in May 2007 - challenges • 1 lady in Semonkong dropped her cellphone into water whilst doing her laundry: it is currently being repaired in Maseru • Technological capacity – becoming accustomed to the cellphones took some time for women of a variety of ages • Electricity availability is a problem for recharging • Although there have been no incidences of theft the ladies recognise that having cellphones makes them a target – even from within their families! • Airtime is prohibitively expensive compared to public phones, so little selling occurs (ZAR1.60 to ZAR2.90 per minute)

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