Publication

The focus of this report is on the government's flagship umbrella poverty reduction programme, the NTPPR, which seeks to address a range of deprivations experienced by poor households and communities and to improve their productive capacities. Access to credit, basic services, agricultural extension services, land holding and legal aid, is coupled closely with human capital development programmes, such as school fee exemptions, vocational training, loans for tertiary education, investments in health and sanitation, and improvements in community infrastructure. In preparation for the new National Social Protection Strategy, which is currently under design and which aims to address the fragmented implementation approach of NTPPR, we examine the current programme through a gender lens, mindful that, as a growing body of international evidence suggests, tackling the gendered manifestations of risk and vulnerability are likely to have positive spill-over effects on general programme effectiveness.