Success in Swaziland

As a key project to help malnourished children and their families in Swaziland draws to a close, we look back at how our work really has changed children's lives for the better.

Friday 18 April 2008

When Swaziland suffered one of its worst droughts in recent times, Save the Children used a groundbreaking mix of cash and food aid to help nearly 50,000 people get the urgent essentials they needed.

The history

In late 2006 and into 2007, Swaziland - a small, landlocked state in southern Africa - experienced one of its worst droughts in nearly two decades.

Many of the country's subsistence farmers couldn't grow enough food, so prices shot up and the government declared a national disaster.

"The current serious drought, which seems to be the worst in recorded history, threatens severely diminished harvests and serious water shortages in large parts of the kingdom," said the then chairman of the National Disaster Relief Task Force.

Working with the Swaziland government, Save the Children stepped in to help nearly 50,000 of the worst affected children and their families.

Cash and food aid

We've been working in Swaziland for nearly 40 years and our experience suggested the best approach was to give families a mixture of cash and food aid. That's because we knew that while food was available in local markets, it was simply too expensive for the poorest families to buy.

The benefits of distributing cash as well as food are:

  • It ensures people can buy a variety of food when they need it.
  • It stimulates the local economy. 
  • It gives people more control over decisions in their lives.

A first for Swaziland

In September 2007, backed by the British government and working with Standard Bank and the National Post Office, we began to distribute cash - the first time that cash had been directly distributed in an emergency in Swaziland.

We helped families to set up bank accounts with ATM access. They got a small grant paid into their account every month, which allowed many to access a bank for the first time. It also saved a lot of administration and transport costs for the project.


A women uses an ATM machine to access her bank account in Swaziland.

Our staff ran training sessions to teach people basic financial skills, such as using ATMs and understanding bank charges. This allowed people to talk through some of the real concerns they had, including "the bank steals money" and "those machines will eat our cards".
 
We also held three-day trainings for children who'd been orphaned and now have to look after their younger siblings. (Swaziland has one of the highest HIV rates in the world and many of these children were orphaned as a result of AIDS.) During the trainings, children got psychological support such as how to cope with bereavement, as well as training on how to budget and prioritise family needs.

Key successes

  • At a basic level, the programme has saved lives by providing children and their families with access to vital food.
  • People spent the cash on a more varied diet than seen in many food-only programmes.
  • Families have invested in poultry, seeds and fertiliser to try and improve future harvests.
  • Many families are also now benefiting from access to modern financial services and a greater financial understanding in general. Some have begun to deposit small savings to help with future crises.

The final cash transfer was made to families in April, including an extra sum to help them prepare for future harvests. We expect the best elements of this model to be replicated in other responses beyond Swaziland.

You can support our emergency work by donating online to our Children's Emergency Fund.