Regular cash payments can improve the lives of the millions of children and older people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa, says a new report from HelpAge International, Save the Children and the Institute of Development Studies.

Making Cash Count recommends that in low-income countries affected by HIV/AIDS, an old-age pension should be available to older people (aged 65-plus) and a cash grant should be available to young children (aged under five). The value of the payment needs to take into account basic goods and services and household needs.

Unconditional cash payments were reviewed in 15 African countries. Four programmes were examined in depth, in Ethiopia, Lesotho, Zambia and Mozambique. The value of cash payments ranged from less than US$3 per month in Mozambique to US$111 a month in South Africa.

Enormous difference

Cash payments are put to a wide range of uses. These include food, clothes, seeds, education, healthcare and investment in small businesses. Even small cash payments make an enormous difference to people’s lives, such as the quality and quantity of food eaten, children’s school attendance, healthcare received and so on.

In Zambia, the monthly US$8 payment is targeted at the poorest 10% of the population. More than half of these are older people, mainly older women, caring for orphans. One-third of those receiving the payment use it to generate more money, for example by buying chickens to breed or weaving baskets for sale.

Children benefit

Cash payments benefit children, even when directed at older people, since grandparents are increasingly caring for orphans and other vulnerable children. In Lesotho, the US$25 monthly pension is not only used for basics, such as food, candles, medicine and clothes, but also pays grandchildren’s education costs, such as uniforms, books and stationery.

“The bigger the cash transfer, the bigger the impact. However, the key is the regularity of the payment,” says technical advisor for the report, Amanda Heslop, HelpAge International’s Research Manager.

“If payments are to be predictable and not reliant on external donor funds, they need to be institutionalised into national government structures and budgets. This has been done in Lesotho – one of the poorest countries in Africa – where the government has recently introduced a non-contributory social pension.

“The pension was set up to reduce the hardship and poverty facing older people. It provides vital assistance, in particular to older people who have lost their adult children to HIV/AIDS and are caring for grandchildren.”