Promoting social transfers: DFID and the politics of influencing

This report examines efforts by DFID to promote social transfers and social protection in low and middle-income countries.

DFID has strategically positioned itself as a lead donor in this field, helping to establish new policy spaces through which social transfers and social protection could be discussed and promoted. DFID's actions have yet to achieve significant outcomes in terms of actually reducing vulnerability and poverty. However, a number of more intermediate outputs and outcomes have been achieved, including the development of national strategies and policies on social protection, some budgetary commitments, a growing awareness amongst key policy actors of the potential of social transfers and social protection to reduce vulnerability and poverty, the piloting of social transfer schemes that could potentially be scaled-up to national level, and growing levels of donor harmonisation in this area. In most cases social protection remains seen as a donor-driven agenda. As such, it is possible that many of these gains could be rolled back in the short-medium term. Nonetheless, the report argues that DFID could have achieved a greater level of influence had it developed stronger relationships with more powerful policy actors, made better use of influential actors within its own hierarchy, and attuned its efforts even more closely to the particular political contexts within which it operates.

Finally, the paper explains that efforts to subject DFId's policy influencing activities in this field to higher and more regular levels of monitoring and evaluation face significant challenges, specifically in terms of developing meaningful indicators, avoiding onerous reporting systems that could stifle the creative process of policy influencing on the ground. However, the document identifies promising ways forward.

EPRI - 2009