The Transfer Project Workshop 2016

From April 6-8, 2016 the Transfer Project convened a major international workshop for policymakers, researchers, and UN experts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting brought together national governments, research institutions and international organizations to discuss rigorous research findings and future directions of government cash transfer programs in Africa and beyond.

Since 2008, the Transfer Project has accumulated a critical mass of evidence on the multiple impacts of government run, cash transfers in Africa. Many governments have scaled-up programmes, raising important new questions on policy and implementation. By bringing together stakeholders to share in-depth experiences, the Transfer Project workshop provided an unique opportunity to discuss lessons learned and look at new ways for moving forward.

The 2016 workshop entered a new frontier for the Transfer Project, with the scope of topics and geographic focus broader than years before. Past events have been dedicated to cash transfer policy, implementation and evaluation; but this year, sessions also covered programme designs that link cash to additional essential social services, known as “social protection plus” or “cash-plus” models. Discussions were held on planned or ongoing impact evaluations, as well as emerging findings, methodological gaps and unanswered questions around cash-plus livelihoods, agriculture interventions and nutrition. This was also the first year the workshop highlighted case studies and cash transfer evaluation experiences from Asia.

The UNICEF Ethiopia Country Offices and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) hosted the event, with Transfer Project partners from across UNICEF, FAO's From Protection to Production (PtoP) Project, Save the Children UK and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill leading various sessions. Among the approximately 80 invited participants included government partners implementing and evaluating cash transfer programmes, and other social protection experts from academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and international development agencies.

(2 May 2016)