Targeting of Social Protection in 11 Ethiopian villages

Targeting of Social Protection in 11 Ethiopian villages

AUTHOR(S)
Elsa Valli

Published: 2018 Innocenti Working Papers
Social protection in Ethiopia is primarily allocated through community-based targeting. The few studies that have analysed the efficacy of aid targeting in Ethiopia have revealed targeting biases in regard to demography, geography and political affiliations. With the introduction in Ethiopia in 2005 of the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), a major social protection programme, various administrative guidelines were introduced (and subsequently periodically revised) with the aim of improving targeting. This paper uses data from the last two rounds of the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey to investigate whether PSNP implementation resulted in changes in both targeting determinants and amount received for public works (a component of PSNP) and emergency aid between 2004 and 2009 in 11 rural villages. In general, public works appear to have been allocated on the basis of observable poverty-related characteristics, and emergency aid according to household demographics. In addition, the results suggest that, for both public works and emergency aid beneficiaries, political connections were significant in determining the receipt of aid in 2004 but that this was no longer the case by 2009, indicating an improvement in the channeling of social protection to its intended target groups. However, a household’s experience of recent shocks was found to bear no relationship to receipt of support, which suggests that a more flexible and shock-responsive implementation could improve targeting for transitory needs.
Evidence on Social Protection in Contexts of Fragility and Forced Displacement

Evidence on Social Protection in Contexts of Fragility and Forced Displacement

AUTHOR(S)
Amber Peterman; Jacobus de Hoop; Jose Cuesta; Alexandra Yuster

Published: 2018 Innocenti Research Briefs
Rigorous research in humanitarian settings is possible when researchers and programmers work together, particularly in the early stages when responses to humanitarian challenges are designed. Six new rigorous research studies from five countries: Ecuador, Mali, Niger, Lebanon and Yemen illustrate this point.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 7 | Thematic area: Social Policies | Tags: social protection
‘Cash Plus’: Linking Cash Transfers to Services and Sectors

‘Cash Plus’: Linking Cash Transfers to Services and Sectors

AUTHOR(S)
Tia Palermo; Leah Prencipe

Published: 2018 Innocenti Research Briefs

Cash transfers have been successful in reducing food insecurity, increasing consumption, building resiliency against economic shocks, improving productivity and increasing school enrolment. Despite the many successes of cash transfer programmes, they can also fall short of achieving longer-term and second-order impacts related to nutrition, learning and health outcomes. A recent study highlights how so-called ‘Cash Plus’ programmes, which offer additional components or linkages to existing services on top of regular cash payments, may help address such shortcomings.

Commitment to Equity for Children, CEQ4C: Fiscal Policy, Multidimensional Poverty, and Equity in Uganda

Commitment to Equity for Children, CEQ4C: Fiscal Policy, Multidimensional Poverty, and Equity in Uganda

AUTHOR(S)
Jose Cuesta; Jon Jellema; Yekaterina Chzhen; Lucia Ferrone

Published: 2018 Innocenti Working Papers

Fiscal incidence analysis is the most widely used methodology to assess the distributional effects of fiscal policies. However, for 40 years, it has lacked a child lens. A child focus on the redistributive capacity of fiscal policy is increasingly important due to the disproportionate incidence of poverty among children globally. This paper provides a child-dedicated focus on fiscal incidence analysis by tracking child-relevant benefits, turning children the unit of analysis, and using multidimensional child poverty metrics. The analysis—Commitment to Equity for Children, or CEQ4C—integrates three analytical frameworks, namely, public finance, fiscal incidence analysis, and multidimensional child poverty analysis. The paper develops a proof of concept for Uganda that includes measurement, diagnostics, and a policy simulation package replicable across diverse contexts. The proof of concept confirms that CEQ4C provides a higher-resolution fiscal incidence analysis for children than the traditional fiscal incidence analysis.

Cite this publication | No. of pages: 26 | Thematic area: Social Policies | Tags: child poverty, fiscal policy
Tanzania Youth Study of the Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) Evaluation: Endline Report

Tanzania Youth Study of the Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) Evaluation: Endline Report

Published: 2018 Innocenti Research Report

This report provides endline findings from an 18-month (2015-2017), mixed methods study to provide evidence on the effects that the Government of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net has had on youth well-being and the transition to adulthood. The study was led by UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti in collaboration with REPOA. Results of this evaluation can help assess what other measures or interventions are necessary to improve adolescent and youth well-being and how these can complement and provide synergies with the government’s institutionalized social protection strategy.

Cite this publication | No. of pages: 136 | Thematic area: Social Policies | Tags: social protection, social safety nets, youth
A Cash Plus Model for Safe Transitions to a Healthy and Productive Adulthood: Baseline Report

A Cash Plus Model for Safe Transitions to a Healthy and Productive Adulthood: Baseline Report

Published: 2018 Innocenti Research Report

This report presents the evaluation design and baseline findings from a 24-month, mixed methods study to provide evidence on the potential for an additional plus component targeted to youth that is layered on top of the Government of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net to improve future economic opportunities for youth and facilitate their safe transitions to adulthood. This pilot study is based on the recognition that cash alone is rarely sufficient to mitigate all risks and vulnerabilities youth face or to overcome structural barriers to education, delayed marriage and pregnancy, and other safe transitions. The model the intervention follows was informed by a workshop held in Tanzania in February 2016 with government, researchers and development partners.

A mixed-method review of cash transfers and intimate partner violence in low and middle-income countries

A mixed-method review of cash transfers and intimate partner violence in low and middle-income countries

AUTHOR(S)
Ana Maria Buller; Amber Peterman; Meghna Ranganathan; Alexandra Bleile; Melissa Hidrobo; Lori Heise

Published: 2018 Innocenti Working Papers

There is increasing evidence that cash transfer (CT) programs decrease intimate partner violence (IPV); however, little is known about how CTs achieve this impact. We conducted a mixed method review of studies in low- and middle-income countries. Fourteen quantitative and nine qualitative studies met our inclusion criteria, of which eleven and six respectively demonstrated evidence that CTs decrease IPV. We found little support for increases in IPV, with only two studies showing overall mixed or adverse impacts. Drawing on these studies, as well as related bodies of evidence, we developed a program theory proposing three pathways through which CT could impact IPV: 1) Economic security and emotional wellbeing, 2) intra-household conflict, and 3) women’s empowerment. The economic security and wellbeing pathway hypothesizes decreases in IPV, while the other two pathways have ambiguous effects depending on program design features and behavioural responses to program components. Future studies should improve IPV measurement, empirical analysis of program mechanisms, and fill regional gaps. Program framing and complementary activities, including those with the ability to shift intra-household power relations are likely to be important design features for understanding how to maximize and leverage the impact of CTs for reducing IPV, and mitigating potential adverse impacts.

The Importance of Understanding and Monitoring the Effects of Cash Transfer Programmes on Child Labour and Education: Findings from Malawi. A Policy Brief

The Importance of Understanding and Monitoring the Effects of Cash Transfer Programmes on Child Labour and Education: Findings from Malawi. A Policy Brief

Published: 2018 Innocenti Research Briefs

The Malawi Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP) has been demonstrated to have a wide range of positive effects on beneficiary households, including an expansion of household agricultural business activities. This brief summarizes the results of two studies which examine whether households rely on children to expand their agricultural businesses. The studies confirm that children support the expansion of household agricultural activities and conclude that the SCTP increases overall child engagement in economic activities. However, working hours are generally moderate and other child wellbeing indicators such as school participation and physical health improve. This suggests that the SCTP nevertheless plays a positive role in the lives of children. These findings contribute to our understanding of the impact of cash transfers on children’s wellbeing and highlight the importance of monitoring the possible impact on child labour of programmes – such as graduation strategies – that encourage the expansion of household entrepreneurial activities.

Child Undernourishment, Wash and Policy Synergies in Tunisia: Putting Numbers Into UNICEF’s Conceptual Framework of Nutrition

Child Undernourishment, Wash and Policy Synergies in Tunisia: Putting Numbers Into UNICEF’s Conceptual Framework of Nutrition

AUTHOR(S)
Jose Cuesta; Laura Maratou-Kolias

Published: 2017 Innocenti Working Papers

This paper develops an econometric strategy to operationalize the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF’s) conceptual framework for nutrition, estimating the effects on child stunting that additional investments in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) intervention packages have across population groups (poor and non-poor) and residence (urban and rural). Moving away from estimating single intervention marginal returns, the empirical framework is tested in Tunisia; a country with notable but uneven progress in child nutrition. A successful reduction of stunting will involve mapping the distinctive most effective intervention packages by residence and socioeconomic status, moving away from universal policies.

Cite this publication | No. of pages: 26 | Thematic area: Social Policies | Tags: drinking water, hygiene, nutrition, sanitation
Linking Social Rights to Active Citizenship for the Most Vulnerable: The role of rights and accountability in the 'making and 'shaping' of social protection

Linking Social Rights to Active Citizenship for the Most Vulnerable: The role of rights and accountability in the 'making and 'shaping' of social protection

AUTHOR(S)
Rachel Sabates-Wheeler; Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai; Nikhil Wilmink; Richard de Groot; Tayllor Spadafora

Published: 2017 Innocenti Working Papers
The rise of social protection into the limelight of social policy has opened up space for understanding how it can act as a key interface between states and citizens. This paper rethinks social protection through the lens of citizenship. It considers how the design and implementation of social protection can be shifted away from discretionary and technocratic forms, to forms which stimulate vulnerable citizens to make justice-based claims for their rights and demand accountability for the realization of those rights. It puts forward a conceptual framework for social protection with three modalities through which citizens can be engaged: as shapers and makers; as users and choosers; and as passive consumers.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 44 | Thematic area: Social Policies | Tags: citizenship, poverty, social protection
Growing Inequality and Unequal Opportunities in Rich Countries

Growing Inequality and Unequal Opportunities in Rich Countries

AUTHOR(S)
Emilia Toczydlowska; Zlata Bruckauf

Published: 2017 Innocenti Research Briefs
Inequality can have wide-ranging effects on communities, families and children. Income inequality (measured through the Gini index) was found to have an association with higher levels of peer violence in 35 countries (Elgar et al. 2009) and to influence the use of alcohol and drunkenness among 11- and 13-year olds (Elgar et al. 2005). On a macro level, countries with greater income inequality among children have lower levels of child well-being and higher levels of child poverty (Toczydlowska et al. 2016). More worrying still is that growing inequality reinforces the impact of socio-economic status (SES) on children’s outcomes, limiting social mobility. Concern about growing inequality features prominently on the current international development agenda. Goal 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls specifically to reduce inequality within and among countries, while the concept of ‘leaving no one behind’ reflects the spirit of greater fairness in society. But with a myriad of measures and definitions of inequality used in literature, the focus on children is often diluted. This brief contributes to this debate by presenting child-relevant distributional measures that reflect inequality of outcomes as well as opportunity for children in society, over time.
Exploring Women's Empowerment through Asset Ownership and Experience of Intimate Partner Violence

Exploring Women's Empowerment through Asset Ownership and Experience of Intimate Partner Violence

AUTHOR(S)
Audrey Pereira; Amber Peterman; Kathryn Yount

Published: 2017 Innocenti Research Briefs

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is widespread globally, with an estimated one-third of women aged 15 years and over experiencing physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner during their lifetimes. Economic empowerment, or the financial standing of women, is often thought to protect against IPV, signalling sufficient economic autonomy to leave abusive situations or to prevent abuse. Asset ownership is one measure of economic empowerment, and can convey substantial agency as a wealth store, especially for large productive assets, such as agricultural land or home ownership. Despite the important implications of IPV reduction for policy and programming, evidence of this relationship is scarce.We hope this research will advance our global understanding of this potential.

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