The Sustainable Market Inclusive Livelihood Pathways to Self-Reliance (SMILES) project, funded by the IKEA Foundation and implemented by the AVSI Foundation in a consortium with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), Renewable Energy, Powering Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods Enhancement (REPARLE), Makerere University (MAK), and DAI, addresses the food consumption issue by providing targeted households with consumption support — a monthly cash stipend for eight months to households via their mobile money accounts for basic needs, including food.
The primary purpose of this consumption support is to help households stabilise their food consumption by ensuring they have adequate and diverse meals, meet other basic needs, build resilience, and protect their productive assets, such as livestock, solar panels, small businesses, and farming equipment and tools, from being sold to cover basic expenses. In the early stages of the project, providing a monthly cash stipend for food and other basic needs is essential to the targeted project participants due to the extreme poverty they live in. This support enables participants to engage fully in project activities and focus more proactively on their self-reliance and resilience.
In August 2023, the project began providing monthly consumption support based on the food consumption gap, with each refugee and host household receiving Ugandan Shillings 13,000 (4 Euros) per household member. The project administers a post-distribution monitoring survey one week after the money is disbursed to the participants’ mobile money accounts in order to learn how participants used the funds and to spot-check any arising issues. Participants' opinions about the cash distribution process, including how to access and use the funds and any family or community-related concerns, are gathered by coaches and community-based trainers.
Key Findings from the SMILES Project
This article presents findings on specific parameters, including safety, satisfaction, access, relationship changes, and the utilisation of cash over the eight months. Overall, 99.6 percent of participants felt safe accessing their cash. Those who felt unsafe were concerned about being perceived as carrying large amounts of money. Regarding satisfaction, 98 percent of participants were pleased with the consumption support process. Additionally, 97 percent accessed their cash for food. Although some community members, particularly in the refugee settlement, made offensive remarks to a project participant who had received cash, only 1 percent of project participants reported changes in relationships, most of which were positive by the community members.
Regarding cash utilisation, 88 percent of participants reported using the cash for its intended purpose. There was no significant increase in expenditure on food, non-food items, or savings between August 2023 and March 2024, the distribution period. However, a 4 percent reduction in food expenditure and a corresponding increase in savings were noted. Participants exhibited a higher propensity to save, with a 9 percent average increase in savings from November 2023 to February 2024 compared to other months.
The reduction in food expenditure corresponded with an increase in savings, reflecting participants' ability to apply financial literacy skills to save more as their resources increased. Notably, in the sixth post-distribution monitoring survey, only 77 percent of participants spent on food—the lowest across the eight months. This decline is attributed to participants having more food sources following the crop harvest season, leading them to allocate cash towards savings and non-food items, including household items (utensils, buckets, jerricans, saucepans, soap, bedding, mats). Across all post-distribution monitoring surveys, the largest proportion of money received was spent on food.
However, participants reported instances of disagreements over money use, incidents of domestic violence, and cases of cash theft by spouses or other family members, with an average incidence rate of 0.2 percent. Coaches followed up with households that reported such issues, providing tailored support as needed. Additionally, the project strengthened its messaging on joint decision-making and the effective use of consumption support during group sessions.
The line graph shows how participants utilised consumption support for the eight months of distribution
According to the findings, it is evident that upon enrolment in the SMILES project, participants’ food needs are extremely high due to their economic status (extremely poor), necessitating consumption support. As they progress in the program, they start applying the skills learnt from the Farmer Field and Business School and business management training to produce more food and earn additional income respectively. This leads to a reduction in their food expenses and an increase in savings and expenditure on non-food items.
Consumption support not only plays a major role in initially addressing households' food needs but is also crucial as households progress and eventually become self-sufficient in meeting their basic needs. The SMILES project implements a Graduation approach — a sequenced, time-bound, and multi-sectoral intervention with a systematic layering of activities such as saving, core technical skills training, coaching, referrals and linkages, among others. This ensures that when consumption support halts, participants are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to sustain their consumption needs self-reliantly.
About the SMILES project
The Sustainable Market Inclusive Livelihood Pathways to Self-Reliance (SMILES) project is a five-year (November, 2022 – October, 2027) initiative funded by the IKEA Foundation. The project works with 14,000 households (extremely poor refugee and host community) comprising 70,000 individuals in Kyaka II and Kyangwali Refugee Settlements in Western Uganda with the aim of supporting them to become resilient.
The project delivers a graduation model integrated with a Market System Development approach targeting women and youth and their household members. Key sectors include livelihoods, agriculture, food security, protection, energy and environment. The project is implemented by AVSI Foundation in partnership with UNHCR and the Office of the Prime Minister and in a consortium with Innovations for Poverty Action, Renewable Energy, Powering Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods Enhancement (REPARLE), Makerere University Kampala, and DAI Global LLC.
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