Social cash transfers in developing countries

Against the background of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the overarching goal of poverty reduction in development cooperation, the discussion has recently centered on noncontributory forms of social protection, including e.g. tax-financed social pensions, across-the-board child benefits, conditional cash transfers (social assistance for families whose children attend school and have regular medical checkups), and even the possibility of a universal citizen allowance. Several southern African and Latin American countries already have programs of this kind. The ILO has also looked into whether South and Southeast Asian countries as well as countries in East African would be able to develop at least tax-financed pension systems, and it suggests that development cooperation could contribute to financing social services of this kind. This ongoing project at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) was looking into whether and under what circumstance this proves reasonable and promising.