The Government of Malawi’s (GoM’s) Social Cash Transfer (SCT) Programme is an 
unconditional cash transfer programme targeted to ultra-poor, labor constrained households. 
The objectives of the programme include reducing poverty and hunger in vulnerable 
households and increasing school enrolment. The programme began as a pilot in Mchinji 
district in 2006. Since 2009, the programme has expanded to reach an additional eight 
districts (Chitipa, Likoma, Machinga, Mangochi, Phalombe, Salima, Thyolo and Balaka) out 
of 28 total districts in Malawi. The programme has gone to full scale in Mchinji, Chitipa and 
Likoma and by 2012, had reached nearly 30,000 households and approximately 103 000 
individuals.