scholarly journals The Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer on Multidimensional Deprivation of Young Women: Evidence from South Africa’s HTPN 068

2020 ◽  
Vol 151 (3) ◽  
pp. 865-895
Author(s):  
Kelly Kilburn ◽  
Lucia Ferrone ◽  
Audrey Pettifor ◽  
Ryan Wagner ◽  
F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé ◽  
...  

Abstract Despite the growing popularity of multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis, its use to measure the impact of social protection programs remains scarce. Using primary data collected for the evaluation of HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 068, a randomized, conditional cash transfer intervention for young girls in South Africa that ran from 2011 to 2015, we construct an individual-level measure of multidimensional poverty, a major departure from standard indices that use the household as the unit of analysis. We construct our measure by aggregating multiple deprivation indicators across six dimensions and using a system of nested weights where each domain is weighted equally. Our findings show that the cash transfer consistently reduces deprivations among girls, in particular through the domains of economic agency, violence, and relationships. These results show how social protection interventions can improve the lives of young women beyond single domains and demonstrate the potential for social protection to simultaneously address multiple targets of the SDGs.

Author(s):  
Mauricio Lima Barreto ◽  
Maria Yuri Ichihara ◽  
Bethania de Araujo Almeida ◽  
Marcos Ennes Barreto ◽  
Liliana Cabral ◽  
...  

The Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health (CIDACS) was created in 2016 in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil). This paper aims to present a profile of CIDACS, including its current databases. CIDACS aims to conduct interdisciplinary studies and research, develop new scientific methodology and promote professional training using linked large-scale databases and high-performance computational resources in a secure environment. Administrative data is at the core of the activities conducted by CIDACS. The advantages of administrative data include significantly larger sample sizes, an inherent longitudinal structure and high-quality information. The center’s research projects are primarily focused on enhancing the understanding surrounding the impact of social protection policies (e.g., public cash-transfer and housing programs) on health outcomes in low-income populations throughout Brazil. CIDACS’ primary data source is citizens who register with the Cadastro Único program, which encompasses individuals eligible to receive benefits from over 20 governmental social programs. CIDACS has two separate environments for data handling: 1) Data Production Center, a secure room housing the computational infrastructure for ingesting, storing, cleaning, processing and linking original databases, as well as extracting research-ready datasets and 2) Data Analysis Environment, a computational infrastructure based on data safe haven principles, which allows researchers to access and process requested datasets. Brazil has a large public health community that uses national health and social databases for research programs, and the linkage of different databases has been a widely employed practice in the country. CIDACS is the result of efforts by researchers, policymakers and public health officials to use and improve the quality of Brazilian health databases. CIDACS is expected to be an important resource for researchers and policymakers interested in improving the evidence base in different aspects of health, as well as with regard to the social determinants of health and the effects of social and environmental policies on health in general.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Carter ◽  
Rhian Daniel ◽  
Ana W. Torrens ◽  
Mauro N. Sanchez ◽  
Ethel L. N. Maciel ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundSocial vulnerability is strongly associated with tuberculosis (TB) indicators like cure rate. By addressing key social determinants, social protection policies such as Brazil’s Bolsa Família Programme (BFP), a governmental conditional cash transfer, may play a role in TB control. Evidence is consolidating around a positive effect of social protection on TB outcomes, however methodological limitations prevent strong conclusions. This paper uses a quasi-experimental approach to more rigorously evaluate the effect of BFP on TB cure rate.Methods & FindingsThe data source was Brazil’s TB notification system (SINAN), linked to the national registry of those in poverty (CadUnico) and the BFP payroll. Propensity scores (PSs) were estimated from a complete-case logistic regression using covariates from this linked dataset, informed by a directed acyclic graph. Control patients were matched to exposed patients on the PS and the average effect of treatment on the treated (ATT) was estimated as the difference in TB cure rate between matched groups (n = 2167). The ATT was estimated as 10·58 (95% CIs: 4·39, 16·77). This suggests that 10·58% of the TB patients receiving BFP who were cured would not have been cured had they not received BFP. The direction of this effect was robust to sensitivity analyses performed and the PS matching broadly improved balance, although missing data limited the sample size.ConclusionsThis work is the first quasi-experimental evaluation of social protection in wide-scale practice on TB outcomes. It demonstrates a positive effect of conditional cash transfers on TB cure rate consistent with existing work, suggesting changes to policy and future research on increasing access to social protection for TB patients who remain uncovered by the programme.


Author(s):  
Daskyes Y. Gulleng ◽  
Plangshak M. Suchi

Poverty and unemployment are on the increase in Nigeria. In recognition of this situation, the Federal Government in 2016 introduced four key social investment programmes which include the Conditional Cash Transfer, N-Power, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, and the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme to reduce the poverty level and promote inclusiveness. However, there are questions about the adequacy and transformative capacity of the programmes because they are alleged to be shrouded in controversies of politics, corruption, and defective implementation strategies. Against this backdrop, the essay examined the impact of these programmes on poverty and youth employment in Plateau State. Secondary and primary data were obtained from the State office of the social investment programme and two major markets in the Jos North and South Local Government areas respectively. Findings revealed inconsistencies in the implementation as it was characterised by fraudulent and sharp practices on the part of officers in charge of disbursement of funds; cumbersome bank process in accessing the Marketmoni component of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and non-involvement of market officials for adequate flow of information. The study recommends less cumbersome and more transparent processes to check corrupt practices and other excesses of officials.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. e003621
Author(s):  
James Manley ◽  
Yarlini Balarajan ◽  
Shahira Malm ◽  
Luke Harman ◽  
Jessica Owens ◽  
...  

BackgroundCash transfer (CT) programmes are implemented widely to alleviate poverty and provide safety nets to vulnerable households with children. However, evidence on the effects of CTs on child health and nutrition outcomes has been mixed. We systematically reviewed evidence of the impact of CTs on child nutritional status and selected proximate determinants.MethodsWe searched articles published between January 1997 and September 2018 using Agris, Econlit, Eldis, IBSS, IDEAS, IFPRI, Google Scholar, PubMed and World Bank databases. We included studies using quantitative impact evaluation methods of CTs with sample sizes over 300, targeted to households with children under 5 years old conducted in countries with gross domestic product per capita below US$10 000 at baseline. We conducted meta-analysis using random-effects models to assess the impact of CT programmes on selected child nutrition outcomes and meta-regression analysis to examine the association of programme characteristics with effect sizes.ResultsOut of 2862 articles identified, 74 articles were eligible for inclusion. We find that CTs have significant effects of 0.03±0.03 on height-for-age z-scores (p<0.03) and a decrease of 2.1% in stunting (95% CI −3.5% to −0.7%); consumption of animal-source foods (4.5%, 95% CI 2.9% to 6.0%); dietary diversity (0.73, 95% CI 0.28 to 1.19) and diarrhoea incidence (−2.7%, 95% CI −5.4% to −0.0%; p<0.05). The effects of CTs on weight-for-age z-scores and wasting were not significant (0.02, 95% CI −0.03 to 0.08; p<0.42) and (1.2%, 95% CI: −0.1% to 2.5%; p<0.07), respectively. We found that specific programme characteristics differentially modified the effect on the nutrition outcomes studied.ConclusionWe found that CT programmes targeted to households with young children improved linear growth and contributed to reduced stunting. We found that the likely pathways were through increased dietary diversity, including through the increased consumption of animal-source foods and reduced incidence of diarrhoea. With heightened interest in nutrition-responsive social protection programmes to improve child nutrition, we make recommendations to inform the design and implementation of future programmes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Layana Costa Alves ◽  
Mauro Niskier Sanchez ◽  
Thomas Hone ◽  
Luiz Felipe Pinto ◽  
Joilda Silva Nery ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Malaria causes 400 thousand deaths worldwide annually. In 2018, 25% (187,693) of the total malaria cases in the Americas were in Brazil, with nearly all (99%) Brazilian cases in the Amazon region. The Bolsa Família Programme (BFP) is a conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme launched in 2003 to reduce poverty and has led to improvements in health outcomes. CCT programmes may reduce the burden of malaria by alleviating poverty and by promoting access to healthcare, however this relationship is underexplored. This study investigated the association between BFP coverage and malaria incidence in Brazil. Methods A longitudinal panel study was conducted of 807 municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon between 2004 and 2015. Negative binomial regression models adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic covariates and time trends were employed with fixed effects specifications. Results A one percentage point increase in municipal BFP coverage was associated with a 0.3% decrease in the incidence of malaria (RR = 0.997; 95% CI = 0.994–0.998). The average municipal BFP coverage increased 24 percentage points over the period 2004–2015 corresponding to be a reduction of 7.2% in the malaria incidence. Conclusions Higher coverage of the BFP was associated with a reduction in the incidence of malaria. CCT programmes should be encouraged in endemic regions for malaria in order to mitigate the impact of disease and poverty itself in these settings.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alhassan Abdul-Wakeel Karakara ◽  
Ernest Amoabeng Ortsin

Purpose Ghana has implemented different kinds of pro-poor program and policies since its independence to reduce poverty. The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) is one of such program. LEAP is a social cash transfer program and its implementation has been under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection since 2008. It provides direct cash and health insurance coverage for extremely poor households across the country to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development. This paper examines the LEAP program in terms of how it has achieved its aim and the opportunities for improvement.Design/methodology/approach Primary data were obtained from interviews of 110 beneficiaries of the program. The study proposes a conceptual framework that links poverty reduction and social policies to assist researchers analyze pro-poor or social cash transfer program.Findings The findings show that the program is challenged with administrative bureaucracies, irregular inflow of funds, perceived political interferences, inconsistent implementation strategies and low value of the cash transfer (which results in little or no impact on consumption). However, the data also show that LEAP has positive impacts on nonconsumption spending like children's schooling. The program' exit strategy does not impact much on beneficiaries to allow them exit without the tendency of being poor.Practical implications This paper discussed the LEAP program as a social cash transfer to the poor in Ghana. The study constructed a conceptual framework to help researchers and practitioners analyze the implementation of pro-poor interventions. This conceptualization allows for cash transfer program to empower beneficiaries and exits them to allow for other beneficiaries to enroll, ensuring reduction in poverty over time. Generally, the beneficiaries have benefited from the LEAP in the areas of consumption, education and healthcare with few beneficiaries being able to accumulate some few assets. The LEAP program has no exit plan.Originality/value This study adds to literature by offering a conceptual framework to help researchers and policy makers in dealing with social assistance policies to the poor. The study also gave an insight into how pro-poor policy strategies could be crafted.


Author(s):  
Robespierre Pita ◽  
Clicia Pinto ◽  
Marcos Barreto ◽  
Samila Sena ◽  
Rosemeire Fiaccone ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBackground and aimsA cooperation Brazil-UK was set in mid-2013 aiming at to build a huge cohort comprised by individuals registered in CadastroÚnico (CADU), a socioeconomic database used in social programmes of the Brazilian government. Epidemiologists and statisticians wish to assess the impact of Bolsa Família (PBF), a conditional cash transfer programme, on the incidence of several diseases (tuberculosis, leprosy, HIV etc). The cohort must contain all individuals who received at least one payment from PBF between 2007 and 2012, which results in a 100-million records according to our preliminary analysis. These individuals must be probabilistically linked with databases from the Unified Health System (SUS), such as hospitalization (SIH), notifiable diseases (SINAN), mortality (SIM), live births (SINASC), to produce data marts (domain-specific data) to the proposed studies. Within this cooperation, our first goal was to design and evaluate probabilistic methods to routine link the cohort, PBF, and SUS outcomes. ApproachWe implemented two probabilistic linkage methods: a full probabilistic, based on the Dice similarity (Sorensen index) of Bloom filters; and an hybrid approach, based on rules to deterministic and probabilistic matching. We performed linkages involving CADU (2011 extraction) and SUS outcomes (SIH, SINAN, and SIM) with samples from 3 states (Sergipe, Santa Catarina and Bahia) with an increasing size (from 1,447,512 to 12,036,010). ResultsUsing a Dice between 0.90 and 0.92, our methods retrieved more than 95% of true positive pairs amongst the linked pairs. For Sergipe, we obtained as <linked pairs,true positives>: <23,22>, <315,300>, <32,32>, respectively for SIH, SINAN, and SIM. For Bahia: <771,593>, <2677,2626>, <208,207>. Another linkage between CADU (1,447,512 records) and SINAN (624 records), for tuberculosis in Sergipe, returned 397 (full probabilistic) and 311 (hybrid) linked pairs, being 306 and 300 true positives. Another execution considering CADU (1,988,599 records) and SINAN (2,094 records), for tuberculosis in Santa Catarina, returned 791 (full probabilistic) and 500 (hybrid) linked pairs, with 667 and 472 true positives. Linking CADU (1.685,697 records) and SIM, for mortality of children under-4, returned 18 linked pairs, all of them true positives, for a Dice between 0.90 and 0.92 and with 100% of sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value. ConclusionDue to the absence of gold standards, we use samples with increasing sizes and manual review when adequate. Our results are quite accurate, although obtained with an unique extraction of CADU. We are starting to run linkages with the entire cohort.


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