PERCEPTIONS, MANAGEMENT METHODS AND CONFLICTS ASSOCIATED WITH SOCIAL CASH TRANSFERS IN RURAL NIGER

Following the example of other African countries, Niger has also set up a social safety net system based on two major programmes: the cash transfer programme and the cash-for-work programme implemented by a project which now constitutes a permanent institutional mechanism of the State. The aim of this system is to strengthen the resilience of poor people suffering from food and nutritional insecurity by regularly transferring them a minimum amount of financialresources. This study focuses on the first programme, cash transfers. It examines the strategies used by beneficiaries to control and manage cash by analysing the perceptions of key players regarding the principles of the intervention. The results show a diversity of ways in which cash is managed and used, which largely reflects the socio-demographic characteristics of the beneficiaries. In addition, the study reveals a number of problems surrounding this cash intervention, which has now become a real dilemma for certain players in the face of the populations lack of understanding.