NGULUBE, Joshua2026-05-132026https://research.unilus.ac.zm/handle/123456789/633Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies - Research ReportThe Social Cash Transfer (SCT) programme in Zambia has served as the foundation of the national social protection framework throughout the last twenty years but the linkage between the participation of the elderly beneficiaries in the programme and the existence of basic needs being fulfilled is still not well comprehended. This is of importance especially in urban informal settlements where cost of living has increased sharply whilst transfer values have remained relatively the same. This paper has discussed the association between SCT involvement and basic need satisfaction among the elderly beneficiaries in Ng'ombe, Lusaka based on three objectives to evaluate the relationship between programme awareness and basic need satisfaction, to determine the relationship between payment characteristics and basic need satisfaction and to determine the relationship between fund utilisation patterns and basic need satisfaction. A quantitative correlational design was adopted. A stratified random sampling was employed to represent the elderly SCT beneficiaries in terms of age, gender and disability status whereby a sample of 311 elderly were selected out of about 1,247 registered beneficiaries. The structured questionnaire interviews with Likert-scale items were used to collect data and analysed with Pearson correlation coefficients in IBM SPSS. The findings were mixed. Availability of credible, trustworthy sources of SCT information was positively related to less economic and caring load (r =.357, p <.01), and a moderate level of programme understanding (r =.130, p <.05). General awareness levels and knowledge of complaints mechanisms, conversely, did not have any significant correlation with any basic needs indicator. The transfer amounts showed some small but statistically significant relationship with the reduction of food insecurity (r =.140, p <.05), but did not show any significant relationships with healthcare access, housing, or dignity. The duration of the programme gave what seems to be a divergent result: longer participation was more positively associated with burden reduction (r =.135, p <.05) but negatively associated with food insecurity reduction (r = -.114, p <.05), suggesting a weakening of the material impact of the programme over time despite the continued presence of its psychosocial benefits. Combined, these results indicate that the SCT programme in Ng'ombe, Lusaka has significant potential to relieve the psychosocial burden among the elderly beneficiaries, but lacks the ability to alleviate material needs due to the lack of transfer values that have not kept pace with urban living expenses. Outcomes seem to be determined by the quality of beneficiary engagement, rather than merely the enrolment status. The paper suggests inflation-linked increases in transfer levels and community-based information interventions through local trusted intermediaries. The next step in research will be to investigate the frequency and predictability of payment as predictors of the effectiveness of the programme and to study the interaction of SCTs with complementary social services in each demographic subgroup.enThesis