Publication
Policy Watch: Issue 5 January 2025
05 February 2025
- The Government of Lesotho, with leadership from the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development (MoGYSD)and financial and technical support from European Union, UNICEF and the World Bank is making steady progress towards digital payments. This is contributing to improvements in the delivery of social assistance. The Government is transitioning from manual payments (via third-party cash-in-transit services) to mobile payments through selected mobile network providers.
- UNICEF’s efforts primarily focus on the digitization of the Child Grants Programme, an unconditional cash transfer programme implemented by the MoGYSD that targets poor and vulnerable households that have at least one child between the age of zero and 17 years.
- From a project intervention perspective, the digitalization of social assistance payments is only the first layer of wellbeing improvement for the vulnerable households targeted. Indeed, Ntlafatsa Bana provides for a Cash Plus initiative, which aims at helping CGP beneficiaries and families access child protection (birth registration), housing (access to electricity/ renewable energy) and nutrition (community-based nutrition interventions), and water and sanitation services.
- A recent study by UNICEF Lesotho revealed that the majority of beneficiaries appreciates the benefits of digital payments.
- Despite this encouraging progress, the transition to mobile payments is facing some challenges. The Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development, together with the development partners, will discuss strategies to address such challenges.
Published by
UNICEF
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