Anti-poverty programmes can change how people see the state and each other

By Katrina Kosec, Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University
Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

When floodwaters washed away Woudou Oumar’s home in northern Cameroon, he and his family lost not only shelter but hope. Then a government-supported cash transfer arrived. “The money transfer was a real boost for me and my family,” he says, explaining how he rebuilt his house, bought seeds for farming, paid for his daughters’ schooling, covered his son’s medical care after the disaster, and became more hopeful.

Stories like Woudou’s highlight how social transfers can shape more than incomes:…

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