The Impact of Valor Criança
Social cash transfer pilot programme in Angola
Highlights
The Government of Angola and its Development Partners developed and implemented Apoio à Protecção Social – APROSOC (‘Strengthening and expanding social protection to the vulnerable population in Angola’) between 2014 and 2022 as a first step towards establishing a national social protection system. A key component of the programme, Valor Criança, the first-ever cash transfer programme in Angola, was a child-sensitive unconditional social cash transfer programme targeted at households with children zero- to five-year-olds in selected municipalities prone to food-insecurity. Beyond the cash, the programme adopted a cash ‘plus’ approach providing linkages to services such as support to birth registration, early childhood development, nutrition counselling, income generation activities, adolescent empowerment, and Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS).
Evidence on the effectiveness of social assistance programmes in Angola is limited. This study addresses this evidence gap by examining the impacts of the Valor Criança programme on various domains of child and household well-being. The study also investigates the impacts on gender equality outcomes using the conceptual framework developed as part of the Gender-Responsive Age-Sensitive Social Protection (GRASSP) research programme (2018-2023) led by UNICEF Innocenti and funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The study examined in detail the following research questions: 1) What are the impacts of the Valor Criança on caregivers and children?, 2) What are the broader impacts of the Valor Criança on households?, 3) How do design and implementation features of the APROSOC and Valor Criança influence programme objectives and outcomes? and 4) How do household and caregiver characteristics shape the impact of the cash transfer programme? Lastly, the report findings help formulate policy and research recommendations in support of policy actions towards creation of a nationwide social assistance programme in Angola.
