Irish Aid Ethiopia organises an experience sharing visit to Tigray

From August 18-19, 2014, a team of around 22 attendees* travelled to Tigray to assess on the ground the Electronic Cash Transfer Pilot Programme and learn from this experience. Especially for partners involved in the implementation of the PSNP, the visit aimed to build awareness and capacity in informing decisions and in adopting the system into the anticipated similar pilot in two Woredas in Oromia region. The visit was organized by Irish Aid in collaboration with MOSS-ICT, Tigray BoLSA, DeCSI and the joint financial inclusion project of the World Bank and MoFED.

The aim of this pilot is to gradually introduce automated cash transfers within the Tigray Social Cash Transfer Programme (TSCP). The advantages for the end beneficiaries (mainly ultra-poor and labour constrained individuals) are that they are now able to receive their money in close proximity to their dwellings, avoiding transportation expenses and long queues, and in a secure way. The system also has benefits to both donors and implementers alike in that it reduces the risk of fraud (as there is no physical cash movement), is easier to monitor, speeds up and improves quality of reporting, comes with reduction in operational costs and is easily scalable and replicable.

*(Representatives attended from the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED), the Ministry of Agriculture-Food Security Coordination Directorate (MoA-FSCD), Amhara and Oromia Regional BoFED, MOSS-ICT (the private consultancy firm managing the M-Birr Electronic cash transfer pilot), the microfinance institution DeCSI, development partner organisations drawn from the EU delegation in Ethiopia, DFAT-D (Canada), UN-WFP, Irish Aid and the Donor Coordination Team of the PSNP)