Zambia's Child Grant Program: 48-Month Impact Report

Zambia’s Child Grant cash transfer program (CGP) provides grants directly to poor households with children under five years old, empowering families to decide how best to meet their needs, beginning in the three districts with the highest rates of mortality, morbidity, stunting, and wasting.

Overall Impacts at 48 Months

The overall results from the collection of evaluation reports over the four-year period of 2010–2014 demonstrate unequivocally that common perceptions about cash transfers—that they are a handout and cause dependency, or lead to alcohol and tobacco consumption, or induce fertility—are not true in Zambia. This unconditional cash transfer has proven to be an effective approach to alleviating extreme poverty and empowering households to improve their standard of living in a way that is most appropriate for them, based on their own choices. Program impacts persisted at 24, 36, and 48 months into program implementation.