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The CASH Plus Model: Improving Adolescent Wellbeing with Evidence

New documentary shows how research and evaluation are improving outcomes for adolescents in Tanzania
24 Jan 2019

(20 December 2018)  In Tanzania a new model of social protection is using research and evidence to improve outcomes for adolescent wellbeing. The results of this programme, called 'Cash Plus', are now documented in a new film produced by UNICEF Innocenti. Told largely through the voices of young people, the 10 minute documentary reveals the crucial role of research and evaluation in improving effectiveness of Tanzania's national Productive Social Safety Net cash transfer social protection programme.

The new film is a rare example of a compelling visual narrative on the role of evidence generation in the development process. 

 

"Far too often the complexity of the community development process is lost when internatioanl organizations seek to make short films about their interventions," said Dale Rutstein, Chief of Communication at UNICEF Innocenti. "The role of research and evaluation is the least likely component of the process to be captured in such films." 

The film examines the gaps discovered in the first phase of Tanzania's Productive Social Saftey cash transfer programme: household incomes and productive activity increased, but risks and challenges for adolescents, especially exposure to HIV, were unaffected. Evaluation evidence led to the development of the Cash Plus approach which linked critical services and sectors for adolescents to the households receiving transfers.


"The Cash Plus Model: Improving Adolescent Well-being with Evidence" could not have been produced without the generous support of the UNICEF Tanzania Country Office, the Tanzania Social Action Fund and the numerous adolescents and community training facilitators in the Rungwe District of Mbeya Province, Tanzania.