Centre for Global Health Inequalities Research (CHAIN), Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), PO Box 8900, Torgarden, Trondheim 7491, Norway.
Department of Public Health and Nursing, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU, PO Box 8900, Torgarden, Trondheim 7491, Norway.
Health Policy Plan. 2024 Feb 22;39(2):95-117. doi: 10.1093/heapol/czad009.
Cash transfers (CTs) have been increasingly used in low- and middle-income countries as a poverty reduction and social protection tool. Despite their potential for empowering vulnerable groups (especially women), the evidence for such outcomes remains unclear. Additionally, little is known about how this broad concept fits into and is perceived in such programmes. For example, Lesotho's Child Grants Programme (CGP) is an unconditional CT targeting poor and vulnerable households with children. The CGP has been presented as one of the Lesotho's flagship programmes in developing the country's social safety net system. Using the CGP's early phases as a case study, this research aims to capture how programme stakeholders understood and operationalized the concept of economic empowerment (especially women's) in Lesotho's CGP. The qualitative analysis relied on the triangulation of information from a review of programme documents and semi-structured key informant interviews with programme stakeholders. First, the programme documents were coded deductively, while the interview transcripts were coded inductively, and then both materials were analysed thematically. Finally, differences or disagreements within each theme were explored individually according to the programme's chronology, the stakeholders' affiliation and their role in the CGP. The complexity of economic empowerment was reflected in the diversity of definitions found in the desk review and interviews. Economic empowerment was primarily understood as improving access to economic resources and opportunities and, less so, as agency and social and economic inclusion. There were stronger disagreements on other definitions as they seemed to be a terminology primarily used by specific stakeholders. This diversity of definitions impacted how these concepts were integrated into the programme, with particular gaps between the strategic vision and operational units as well as between the role this concept was perceived to play and the effects evaluated so far.
现金转移（CT）作为一种减贫和社会保护工具，在中低收入国家中的使用日益增多。尽管它们有赋权弱势群体（尤其是妇女）的潜力，但这种结果的证据仍然不清楚。此外，人们对这一广泛概念如何融入和被此类项目所理解知之甚少。例如，莱索托的儿童补助金计划（CGP）是一项针对有儿童的贫困和弱势家庭的无条件 CT。CGP 被认为是莱索托发展国家社会安全网系统的旗舰计划之一。本研究以 CGP 的早期阶段为例，旨在捕捉方案利益相关者如何理解和实施莱索托 CGP 中的经济赋权（尤其是妇女）概念。定性分析依赖于对方案文件的审查和对方案利益相关者的半结构化关键人物访谈的信息进行三角测量。首先，对方案文件进行演绎式编码，而对访谈记录进行归纳式编码，然后对这两种材料进行主题分析。最后，根据方案的时间顺序、利益相关者的隶属关系及其在 CGP 中的角色，分别探讨每个主题中的差异或分歧。经济赋权的复杂性反映在案头审查和访谈中发现的各种定义中。经济赋权主要被理解为改善获得经济资源和机会的机会，而较少被理解为机构和社会及经济包容。其他定义的分歧更大，因为它们似乎主要是特定利益相关者使用的术语。这种定义的多样性影响了这些概念如何融入方案，特别是在战略愿景和运营单位之间，以及该概念被认为发挥的作用和迄今为止评估的效果之间存在差距。
