A Journey to Better Social Welfare: The relationship between cash transfer programs and stigma: a scoping review

This thesis is a scoping review that explore qualitative research about the relationship between cash transfer programs and non-material impacts on the beneficiaries in developing countries. This thesis specifically focuses non-material impacts such as stigma and its psychosocial effects. The purpose of this thesis is to broaden the understanding of the non-material impacts of cash transfer programs on the beneficiaries, and in addition, find research trends and knowledge gaps on the relationship between cash transfer programs and stigma in developing countries. The scoping review examines fifteen articles in thirteen countries on the beneficiaries’ experiences related to stigma. The findings reveal diverse non-material impacts of cash transfer programs, including stigma and its psychosocial effects on the beneficiaries. The study finds that these can be both positive and negative, and have both internal and external aspects. Also, the results show a lack of research on the relationship between cash transfers and stigma. In light of the findings, this thesis discusses the multidimensional aspects of cash transfer programs including material, subjective and relational dimensions on the beneficiaries. Additionally, it discusses the research trends and gaps in the research field studying this relationship, and further presents some suggestions to academics and politicians for future studies and improvement of the programs. Therefore, I argue that academics and politicians should increase attention to non-material impacts of cash transfer programs and to consider multidimensional perspectives to understand the material and non-material impacts.