National Safety Net Program for Results

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The objective of the National Safety Net Programs for Results Project is to support the Republic of Kenya to establish an effective national safety net program for poor and vulnerable households. An essential component of a cash transfer program is a payment mechanism that delivers payments securely to the intended recipients. While the payment mechanisms for the cash transfer programs have improved significantly, the majority of payments are made using a paper-based system with only limited authentication of beneficiaries' identity. This Disbursement-linked indicator (DLI) aimed to gradually increase the use of payment service providers (PSPs) that: (i) make payments electronically, and (ii) use two-factor authentication. The large distances covered by the program combined with severe capacity constraints within the government administration in Northern Kenya has meant that all key areas of the Hunger Safety Net Program (HSNP) implementation are subcontracted as follows: a) the administrative component, including targeting, enrollment, registration, and case management, is implemented by a consortium of Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) headed by Oxfam GB; b) the payments component is managed by the Financial Sector Deepening Trust, which in turn sub-contracted Equity Bank to deliver payments to beneficiaries through a network of banking agents; c) the social protection rights component, which is designed to spread awareness of beneficiaries' rights, entitlements and responsibilities and to manage the complaint and grievance mechanism, is implemented by help age international; and d) the monitoring and evaluation component has been implemented by oxford policy management, which collects and analyzes data on a range of process and impact indicators.