Cash Transfers and Gender: A closer look at the Zambian Child Grant Programme

Cash Transfers and Gender: A closer look at the Zambian Child Grant Programme

Published: 2016 Innocenti Research Briefs

In 2010, the Zambian Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health began implementation of the Child Grant Programme with the goals of reducing extreme poverty and breaking the inter-generational cycle of poverty. The impact of the grant was explored across a range of outcomes for women over the medium term (two to four years).

One of the difficult aspects of assessing this evidence is the myriad of indicators used to measure ‘empowerment’. For example, researchers have used indicators ranging from women’s intra-household decision-making to social networks, land or asset ownership, and interpret all these as ‘empowerment’, making it difficult to draw conclusions. The analysis is complemented with qualitative data to understand the meaning women and men place on empowerment in the rural communities. Although more evidence is needed to understand how cash transfers can empower women in Africa, women’s savings and participation in small businesses were seen to have increased, giving them more autonomy over cash and improving their financial standing.

The Impact of Zambia’s Unconditional Child Grant on Schooling and Work: Results from a large-scale social experiment

The Impact of Zambia’s Unconditional Child Grant on Schooling and Work: Results from a large-scale social experiment

AUTHOR(S)
Sudhanshu Handa; Luisa Natali; David Seidenfeld; Gelson Tembo; Zambia Cash Transfer Evaluation Team

Published: 2015 Innocenti Working Papers
Since the mid 1990s, and following the successful implementation of large scale programmes in Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, cash transfers have become an important part of the poverty alleviation toolkit in developing countries, even among the poorest where, for many, such programmes seemed both administratively complex or simply unaffordable. The ‘African model’ of cash transfers has several distinguishing features which differentiate it from those in Latin America. In this article we take advantage of the unconditional nature of the Zambian CGP, which targets families with very young children and whose objectives are focused on their health and development, to see if the programme has an impact on the schooling and work of school-age children who in principle are not the main target population of the programme. We use data from a large-scale social experiment involving 2,500 households, half of whom were randomized out to a delayed-entry control group, which was implemented to assess the impact of the programme.
Cash Transfers and Climate-resilient Development: Evidence from Zambia’s Child Grant Programme

Cash Transfers and Climate-resilient Development: Evidence from Zambia’s Child Grant Programme

AUTHOR(S)
Kathleen Lawlor; Sudhanshu Handa; David Seidenfeld; Zambia Cash Transfer Evaluation Team

Published: 2015 Innocenti Working Papers
This study investigates whether cash transfers enable households facing weather and other negative income shocks to avoid adverse coping strategies that can lead to poverty traps. While cash transfers are not routinely considered in the policy discourse concerning climate adaptation programming, because ex-ante transfers enable households to avoid negative coping strategies and even increase food consumption in the face of covariate weather shocks, cash transfers offer a sound approach for building climate-resilience amongst the world’s most vulnerable and facilitating their “autonomous adaptation” to a changing environment. Cash also enables households to productively cope with the many other idiosyncratic shocks the rural poor routinely face.
Unconditional Government Social Cash Transfer in Africa Does not Increase Fertility

Unconditional Government Social Cash Transfer in Africa Does not Increase Fertility

AUTHOR(S)
Tia Palermo; Sudhanshu Handa; Amber Peterman; Leah Prencipe; David Seidenfeld

Published: 2015 Innocenti Working Papers
In Africa, one of the key barriers to the scale-up of unconditional cash transfer programmes is the notion held by politicians, and even the general public, that such programmes will induce the poor to have more children. The hard evidence on this question is scanty. The current study uses evaluation data from the Zambian Child Grant Programme (CGP), a large-scale UCT targeted to households with a child under the age of five at programme initiation and evaluates the impact of transfers on fertility and child-fostering decisions. The overall goal of the CGP is to reduce extreme poverty and break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The results contribute to the small literature that rigorously documents the fertility impacts of unconditional cash transfer programmes in developing countries.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 40 | Thematic area: Social Policies | Tags: cash transfers, economic policy, fertility
Best of UNICEF Research 2014

Best of UNICEF Research 2014

Published: 2014 Innocenti Publications
Each year the Office of Research-Innocenti reviews submissions for the best research being published across all UNICEF offices: country programmes, National Committees, Regional Offices and headquarters divisions. The purpose of this activity is to showcase and recognize high-quality, high-impact research being done in the organization. At the end of the process each year the Office of Research-Innocenti issues a publication containing summaries of the papers considered to be of particular merit. In 2014, the summaries cover issues concerning child protection, cash transfers, ECD, maternal health, inclusive education, and WASH.
Are Cash Transfers a Silver Bullet? Evidence from the Zambian Child Grant

Are Cash Transfers a Silver Bullet? Evidence from the Zambian Child Grant

AUTHOR(S)
Sudhanshu Handa; David Seidenfeld; Benjamin Davis; Gelson Tembo; Zambia Cash Transfer Evaluation Team

Published: 2014 Innocenti Working Papers
We document the broad impacts of the Zambian Government’s Child Support Grant , including on consumption, livelihood strengthening, material welfare of children, young child feeding, investment in assets, productive activities and housing after two years, making this one of the first studies to demonstrate both protective and productive impacts of a national unconditional cash transfer programme. However impacts in areas such as child nutritional status and schooling depend on initial conditions of the household, suggesting that cash alone is not enough to solve all constraints faced by these poor, rural households.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 35 | Tags: cash transfers, zambia
Two Errors of Targeting

Two Errors of Targeting

AUTHOR(S)
Giovanni Andrea Cornia; Frances Stewart

This paper is the product of the authors’ detailed study of food intervention programmes in nine countries. It identifies the imperfections common to all such schemes, finding that most can be brought under two headings - the ‘two errors’ of the title. These mistakes involve excess coverage - food aid is misdirected and reaches a non-priority population - and are characterised by a failure in the prime objective of the intervention. Having made the diagnosis, the authors go on to discuss possible remedies, highlighting areas in which improvements might be made to the structure of food initiatives. It is hoped that this document will be of value to all those working to ensure that food aid gets to the people who need it most.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 56 | Thematic area: Economic Development | Tags: economic aid, economic planning, food supply | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
Toward Structural Transformation with a Human Focus: The economic programmes and policies of Zambia in the 1980's

Toward Structural Transformation with a Human Focus: The economic programmes and policies of Zambia in the 1980's

AUTHOR(S)
Venkatesh Seshamani

Cite this publication | No. of pages: 66 | Thematic area: Economic Development | Tags: adjustment policies, human development | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
Can Unconditional Cash Transfers Lead to Sustainable Poverty Reduction? Evidence from two government-led programmes in Zambia

Can Unconditional Cash Transfers Lead to Sustainable Poverty Reduction? Evidence from two government-led programmes in Zambia

AUTHOR(S)
Sudhanshu Handa; Luisa Natali; David Seidenfeld; Gelson Tembo; Benjamin Davis

In sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in the world, the number of cash transfer programmes has doubled in the last five years and reaches close to 50 million people. What is the impact of these programmes, and do they offer a sustained pathway out of ultra-poverty? In this paper we examine these questions using experimental data from two unconditional cash transfer programmes implemented by the Government of Zambia. We find far-reaching effects of these two programmes, not just on their primary objective, food security and consumption, but also on a range of productive and economic outcomes. After three years, we observe that household spending is 59 per cent larger than the value of the transfer received, implying a sizeable multiplier effect. These multipliers work through increased non-farm business activity and agricultural production.
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