Means-tested cash transfers have emerged as the instrument of choice, spreading from middle income early adopters to lower income countries. In Kenya's case, in 2009, the HSNP cash transfers were established in risk-prone pastoral regions as a response. However, two major weaknesses of HSNP have been exposed. HSNP does not address the vulnerability of the near poor, or does little to enhance capacities and incentives for poor households to accumulate from cash transfer dependence.

This presentation is based on the AMA Innovation Lab projects for the Conference on the Economics of Asset Dynamics and Poverty Traps. The goal of this workshop was to bring together empirical researchers with modelers working in the area of economic growth and poverty reduction.

This presentation took place in Washington DC, United States on June 28, 2016.