The role of graduation programming in promoting early childhood development: an overview of the evidence

Roelen, Keetie; Sherer, Micah; Himmelstine, Carmen-Leon

doi:10.5871/jba/008s2.133

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…We reviewed the literature cited in each of the studies that met our criteria to identify additional studies. We also reviewed the studies cited in various review papers and reports (Evans and Popova, 2014;Sulaiman et al, 2016;Roelen et al, 2020;Bastagli et al, 2016;Hashemi and De Montesquiou, 2011;Sulaiman et al, 2016). We identified 30 studies that met our criteria.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence and Mechanisms

et al. 2020

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Why are people living in poverty disproportionately affected by mental illness? We review the interdisciplinary evidence of the bi-directional causal relationship between poverty and common mental illnesses -depression and anxiety -and the underlying mechanisms. Research shows that mental illness reduces employment and therefore income and that psychological interventions generate economic gains. Similarly, negative economic shocks cause mental illness, and anti-poverty programs, such as cash transfers, improve mental health. A crucial step toward the design of effective policies is to better understand the mechanisms underlying these causal effects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence and Mechanisms

et al. 2020

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“…Only about half of the included studies provided any equity evidence (defined as subgroup or interaction effects), of which only 3 studies conducted sex-disaggregated analyses; findings demonstrated either no difference in intervention effects between boys and girls (2) or the intervention effects favoured boys only (1). Few studies specifically involved fathers, which may place increased caregiving burden on mothers, such as collecting food/cash transfers, attending intervention sessions, or complying with conditions of cash transfers; this has also been identified as an issue in graduation programmes for early child development [ 57 ]. More work is needed to investigate and ensure that these interventions benefit the most vulnerable children, thereby narrowing the health equity gap (SDG 10).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of cash-plus programmes on early childhood outcomes compared to cash transfers alone: A systematic review and meta-analysis in low- and middle-income countries

et al. 2021

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Background To strengthen the impact of cash transfers, these interventions have begun to be packaged as cash-plus programmes, combining cash with additional transfers, interventions, or services. The intervention’s complementary (“plus”) components aim to improve cash transfer effectiveness by targeting mediating outcomes or the availability of supplies or services. This study examined whether cash-plus interventions for infants and children <5 are more effective than cash alone in improving health and well-being. Methods and findings Forty-two databases, donor agencies, grey literature sources, and trial registries were systematically searched, yielding 5,097 unique articles (as of 06 April 2021). Randomised and quasi-experimental studies were eligible for inclusion if the intervention package aimed to improve outcomes for children <5 in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and combined a cash transfer with an intervention targeted to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (No Hunger), SDG3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG4 (Education), or SDG16 (Violence Prevention), had at least one group receiving cash-only, examined outcomes related to child-focused SDGs, and was published in English. Risk of bias was appraised using Cochrane Risk of Bias and ROBINS-I Tools. Random effects meta-analyses were conducted for a cash-plus intervention category when there were at least 3 trials with the same outcome. The review was preregistered with PROSPERO (CRD42018108017). Seventeen studies were included in the review and 11 meta-analysed. Most interventions operated during the first 1,000 days of the child’s life and were conducted in communities facing high rates of poverty and often, food insecurity. Evidence was found for 10 LMICs, where most researchers used randomised, longitudinal study designs (n = 14). Five intervention categories were identified, combining cash with nutrition behaviour change communication (BCC, n = 7), food transfers (n = 3), primary healthcare (n = 2), psychosocial stimulation (n = 7), and child protection (n = 4) interventions. Comparing cash-plus to cash alone, meta-analysis results suggest Cash + Food Transfers are more effective in improving height-for-age (d = 0.08 SD (0.03, 0.14), p = 0.02) with significantly reduced odds of stunting (OR = 0.82 (0.74, 0.92), p = 0.01), but had no added impact in improving weight-for-height (d = −0.13 (−0.42, 0.16), p = 0.24) or weight-for-age z-scores (d = −0.06 (−0.28, 0.15), p = 0.43). There was no added impact above cash alone from Cash + Nutrition BCC on anthropometrics; Cash + Psychosocial Stimulation on cognitive development; or Cash + Child Protection on parental use of violent discipline or exclusive positive parenting. Narrative synthesis evidence suggests that compared to cash alone, Cash + Primary Healthcare may have greater impacts in reducing mortality and Cash + Food Transfers in preventing acute malnutrition in crisis contexts. The main limitations of this review are the few numbers of studies that compared cash-plus interventions against cash alone and the potentially high heterogeneity between study findings. Conclusions In this study, we observed that few cash-plus combinations were more effective than cash transfers alone. Cash combined with food transfers and primary healthcare show the greatest signs of added effectiveness. More research is needed on when and how cash-plus combinations are more effective than cash alone, and work in this field must ensure that these interventions improve outcomes among the most vulnerable children.

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“…12 Only 15 studies report on child health outcomes and 20 studies on education outcomes. See also Roelen, Sherer, and Himmelstine (2020) for a review of impact on children. 13 See Bandiera et al 2017;Banerjee et al 2015;Bedoya et al 2019;Das et al 2016;de Mel, McKenzie, and Woodruff 2014;Holmes and Jones 2010;Kabeer et al 2012;Shoaf and Simanowitz 2019;Siddiki et al 2014;and World Bank 2020.…”

Section: Short-term Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Impact and Cost of Economic Inclusion Programs: A Synthesis of Evidence

Paul¹,

Dutta²,

Chaudhary³

2021

Policy Research Working Papers

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The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

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The role of graduation programming in promoting early childhood development: an overview of the evidence

Cited by 9 publications

References 17 publications

Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence and Mechanisms

Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence and Mechanisms

Effectiveness of cash-plus programmes on early childhood outcomes compared to cash transfers alone: A systematic review and meta-analysis in low- and middle-income countries

Assessing the Impact and Cost of Economic Inclusion Programs: A Synthesis of Evidence

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