This article examines the impact on children’s education and labour of monthly
cash grants targeted on ultra-poor households and designed to reduce poverty
and enable families to invest in human development. It conducts a randomised
community trial, with baseline and endline surveys of intervention and control
households; verifies school enrolment; and completes key-informant interviews
and focus-group discussions. Compared with non-beneficiaries, intervention
children experienced a 5 percentage point difference in enrolment, higher
educational expenditures, fewer absences, and a 10 percentage point decrease
in labour outside the home. Qualitative data confirm the quantitative findings.
Transfers to poor households had a positive impact. However, the Malawian
educational system needs to be improved for short-term impacts to lead to
long-term development in human capital.
Key words: Cash transfer, social protection, education, child labour, Africa,
Malawi