Profiles

Cash transfers are a type of social protection that help to reduce the effects of poverty. They are typically delivered in the form of cash or vouchers that beneficiaries can use for various expenses in the same way as earned income. While cash-transfer programmes have shown positive effects on important first-order outcomes, such as food security, household consumption and education, there are limits to the effectiveness of cash transfers alone in addressing all development needs. Many interventions have had inconsistent or no impact on other important well-being outcomes, such as child nutrition, early marriage, health-seeking behaviour, and sexual and reproductive health. In order to improve the effectiveness of social protection in addressing these multidimensional needs, cash transfers are modified to cash-plus interventions by combining them with additional elements, such as in-kind resources, behaviour change interventions and links to other social services. SBC components of cash-plus interventions aim to address the drivers of behaviours that affect children’s well-being. The aims of this rapid evidence assessment are: • Assess the effectiveness of cash transfers combined with social and behaviour change (SBC) components to improve outcomes for children • Identify which types of SBC are effective in improving outcomes • Identify the contextual factors that are necessary to successfully deliver cash-plus interventions with SBC components

Since 2009, the Transfer Project has generated rigorous evidence on the impacts of cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and has supported their expansion.1 The Transfer Project is a collaborative network comprising UNICEF (Innocenti, Regional and Country Offices), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, national governments and researchers. It aims to “provide evidence on the effectiveness of cash transfer programmes, inform the development and design of cash transfer policy and programmes, and promote learning across SSA on the design and implementation of research and evaluations on cash transfers”. this brief summarizes the current evidence and lessons learned from the Transfer Project after more than a decade of research. It also introduces new frontiers of research.

This rapid review seeks to inform initial and long-term public policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by assessing evidence on past economic policy and social protection responses to health and economic crises and their effects on children and families. The review focuses on virus outbreaks/emergencies, economic crises and natural disasters which, similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, were rapid in onset, had wide-ranging geographical reach, and resulted in disruption of social services and economic sectors without affecting governance systems. Lessons are also drawn from the HIV/AIDS pandemic due to its impact on adult mortality rates and surviving children.