Myth-Busting? Confronting Six Common Perceptions about Unconditional Cash Transfers as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in Africa

Handa, Sudhanshu; Daidone, Silvio; Peterman, Amber; Davis, Benjamin; Pereira, Audrey; Palermo, Tia; Yablonski, Jennifer

doi:10.1093/wbro/lky003

Cited by 88 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Over the last decade, social safety nets (SSN) have rapidly expanded on the African continent, becoming a core strategy for addressing poverty and vulnerability, responding to shocks, increasing productivity and investing in human capital. Popularity among governments and other stakeholders has been bolstered by regional evidence showing that SSNs are effective in combating poverty and food insecurity, increasing resilience and agricultural productivity, and improving the education and wellbeing of future generations (Garcia and Moore 2012;Bastagli et al 2016;Handa et al 2018;Hidrobo et al 2018). By 2017, every country on the continent had at least one SSN, while the average country had 15, ranging from two (Republic of Congo and Gabon) to 56 (Burkina Faso) (Beegle, Coudouel, and Monsalve 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards gender equality: A review of evidence on social safety nets in Africa

Peterman¹,

Kumar²,

Pereira³

et al. 2019

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The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), established in 1975, provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. IFPRI's strategic research aims to foster a climate-resilient and sustainable food supply; promote healthy diets and nutrition for all; build inclusive and efficient markets, trade systems, and food industries; transform agricultural and rural economies; and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is integrated in all the Institute's work. Partnerships, communications, capacity strengthening, and data and knowledge management are essential components to translate IFPRI's research from action to impact. The Institute's regional and country programs play a critical role in responding to demand for food policy research and in delivering holistic support for country-led development. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world. , eds. This version is also slightly updated to include additional studies. AbstractOver the last decade, social safety nets (SSNs) have rapidly expanded in Africa, becoming a core strategy for addressing poverty, responding to shocks, increasing productivity and investing in human capital. Poverty, vulnerability and well-being have inherent gender dimensions, yet only recently has gender equality been considered as a potential program objective. This study reviews the evidence on the impact of SSNs on women's wellbeing in Africa, while contributing to an understanding of how SSNs affect gender equality. We first motivate and take stock of how gender shapes the design and effectiveness of SSNs in Africa. We then summarize evidence from rigorous impact evaluations of SSNs on women's wellbeing across five key domains from 38 studies on 28 SSN programs across 17 countries. We find substantial evidence that, in many instances, SSNs decrease intimate partner violence and increase psychological wellbeing for women, as well as moderate evidence that SSNs increase dietary diversity and economic standing. We find minimal evidence that SSNs improve women's food security and nutrition; however, few studies measure these outcomes for women. Finally, a substantial body of evidence reports on the impact of SSNs on women's empowerment and intra-household bargaining power, however, with weak and mixed results. Our findings are generally promising, since most SSNs are not designed specifically to increase women's wellbeing. However, the results show that household-level impacts do not automatically imply individual women benefit, and further that conclusions from global evidence reviews do not necessarily apply in Africa. There is little research that rigorously identifies the design features and impact pathways from SSNs to gender equality and women's wellbeing, suggesting a priority for future research.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards gender equality: A review of evidence on social safety nets in Africa

Peterman¹,

Kumar²,

Pereira³

et al. 2019

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…Table 13 summarises the key components of the suite of the six evaluations, in addition to Lesotho, and the main findings regarding children-related expenditure. Although specific programme objectives vary, all programmes were designed with poverty-related objectives, including the improvement of food security, health and education of children, and household resilience to negative shocks (Handa et al 2017). One key component of all programmes reviewed here is the fact that they are unconditional.…”

Section: Comparison With Other Cash Transfer Programmes In Sub-saharamentioning

confidence: 99%

Shaping Cash Transfer Impacts Through ‘Soft-Conditions’: Evidence from Lesotho†

Pace

Daidone

Davis

et al. 2018

Journal of African Economies

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Cash transfer programmes have been shown to have positive effects on a variety of outcomes. While much of the literature focuses on the role of conditionality in achieving desired impact, this paper focuses on the role of 'soft conditionality' implemented through both 'labelling' and 'messaging' in evaluating the impact of the Child Grants Program in Lesotho, an unconditional cash transfer programme targeting poor households with orphans and vulnerable children. Beneficiary households received a clear message that the transfer should be spent on the interest and needs of children. Our findings suggest that 'soft conditionality' does play a role in increasing expenditure for children, especially on education, clothing and footwear. Results indicate in fact that transfer income is spent differently from general income as it exerts both an income and a substitution effect. This behavioural change is confirmed by comparing the ex-ante expected behaviours with the ex-post actual response to the programme. We find that for expenditure categories linked to the well-being of children the expost response was much higher than the ex-ante expected behaviour.

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“…Th e claim that social safety nets may represent a work disincentive among beneficiaries has been largely disproven (Banerjee et al 2015a(Banerjee et al , 2015b. Similarly, it has been found that benefi ciaries do not tend to use social transfers to purchase temptation goods, such as alcohol and tobacco, but rather to smooth consumption and raise human capital expenditures (Evans and Popova 2014;Handa et al 2017).…”

Section: Strongly Agreementioning

confidence: 99%