The Multi-Purpose Cash Transfer (MPCT) project was a nine-months initiative implemented in collaboration with ACTED and REACH. Funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this project was executed by RECONCILE in Tiaty East, Tiaty west and Baringo North Sub-Counties in Baringo County, Kenya. MPCT aims to provide targeted lifesaving assistance to food-insecure communities in Kenya impacted by climate shocks and conflict. The project is specifically designed to address the basic food needs of households facing crises in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) counties through the provision of life-saving multi-purpose cash transfers.

Project Scope

MPCT covered a total of 16 villages (6 in Tiaty west, 9 in Tiaty East and 1 in Baringo North) and benefitted 795 households. The project is structured around four key outputs: Selection, registration, and verification of beneficiaries: Provision of multi-purpose cash transfers; Monitoring and Evaluation of multi-purpose cash transfers, and Review of Complaints Response Mechanism (CRM) reports and register:

Project Scope

MPCT covered a total of 16 villages (6 in Tiaty west, 9 in Tiaty East and 1 in Baringo North) and benefitted 795 households. The project is structured around four key outputs: Selection, registration, and verification of beneficiaries: Provision of multi-purpose cash transfers; Monitoring and Evaluation of multi-purpose cash transfers, and Review of Complaints Response Mechanism (CRM) reports and register:

Achievements from cash transfer interventions

  1. Successful beneficiary targeting process. RECONCILE fully involved all the relevant stakeholders in the beneficiary targeting processes. The county government was key in guiding the organization on areas that are more vulnerable. The community was fully involved in the selection process thus limited bias.
  2. Improved household copying mechanism: Regarding the utilization of the funds, the community utilized the money to purchase food, paying school fees, settling off their debts, starting small scale business while others shared with their neighbors. The field visit established that the students were retained in school, household dietary diversity improved and use of negative coping strategies reduced during the field visit.  The visit also established that other interventions like construction and rehabilitation of water resources and health related interventions are also needed in the project areas.
  3. enhanced visibility of the organization. The application of the participatory method in the beneficiary selection where every village member participated in the exercise enhanced the visibility of RECONCILE work at the grass root level
  1. Enhanced capacity of the youth in digital data gathering. The project further built the capacity of the youth in the project area through training them on digital data collection which further gave them opportunity in helping in the enumeration process. This enhanced their skills in digital data gathering processes.
  2. enhanced availability of market information. RECONCILE supported the data collection on prices and other market indicators through retailer and customer interviews to inform cash-based interventions and better understand market dynamics in Kenya. During the exercise, 34 (20 core food and 14 nonfood) item prices were assessed alongside other market information.
  3. Enhanced coordination; RECONCILE coordinates well with the partners such as the Kenya Red Cross Society, Give Directly, World Food Programme (WFP), World Vision, NDMA, the national government through the office of the County Commissioner and the County Government of Baringo. This strong coordination framework helped the organization to build synergy with other partners which prevented the duplication of beneficiaries and ensured the needs are addressed in a coordinated manner. This further created a clear strategic direction and avoided isolated work and practices by different actors.

The coordination enabled RECONCILE to identify areas that are receiving humanitarian aids even within Tiaty East and West Sub-counties which were the project target locations. Moreover, the organization also plans jointly with other partners during joint market monitoring initiatives to minimize double coverage of market places. This has led to wide coverage in getting the market data in Baringo county that will help the Kenya Cash Consortium make an informed decision on Minimum Expenditure Basket when designing cash transfer interventions.

The coordination with the county government was evident through implementing the project within the existing county policy framework. A kick of meeting with the County cash technical working group and Sub County cash technical working group helped the organization to implement the project in the most vulnerable areas. The county government willingly provided the relevant and up to date information on the vulnerability status of different wards in the county.

The harmonious relationship that the organization has built with the county saw strong county buy-in through its willingness to guide on areas of implementation based on evidence-based research. During the implementation, the county through the ward administrators provided necessary support which saw successful beneficiary identification and selection process.  This has so far helped monitor the progress at county level and also at the national level with regards to technical contribution.