This brief is based on data collected during qualitative fieldwork in March 2014, and contributes to a wider evaluation of the SCTPP undertaken by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and the Department of Economics, Mekelle University. The qualitative research forms part of a comparative sixcountry study that explores the impact of cash transfer programmes on household economic decisionmaking, the local economy and social networks in sub-Saharan Africa, under the auspices of the From Protection to Production (PtoP) project implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).