The impact of unconditional cash transfer on fuel choices among ultra-poor in Pakistan: Quasi-experimental evidence from the Benazir Income Support Program

Energy Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 111535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saima Nawaz ◽  
Nasir Iqbal
BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e044263
Author(s):  
Elizabeth K Kirkwood ◽  
Michael John Dibley ◽  
John Frederick Hoddinott ◽  
Tanvir Huda ◽  
Tracey Lea Laba ◽  
...  

IntroductionThere is growing interest in assessing the impact of health interventions, particularly when women are the focus of the intervention, on women’s empowerment. Globally, research has shown that interventions targeting nutrition, health and economic development can affect women’s empowerment. Evidence suggests that women’s empowerment is also an underlying determinant of nutrition outcomes. Depending on the focus of the intervention, different domains of women’s empowerment will be influenced, for example, an increase in nutritional knowledge, or greater control over income and access to resources.ObjectiveThis study evaluates the impact of the Shonjibon Cash and Counselling (SCC) Trial that combines nutrition counselling and an unconditional cash transfer, delivered on a mobile platform, on women’s empowerment in rural Bangladesh.Methods and analysisWe will use a mixed-methods approach, combining statistical analysis of quantitative data from 2840 women in a cluster randomised controlled trial examining the impact of nutrition behaviour change communications (BCCs) and cash transfers on child undernutrition. Pregnant participants will be given a smartphone with a customised app, delivering nutrition BCC messages, and will receive nutrition counselling via a call centre and an unconditional cash transfer. This study is a component of the SCC Trial and will measure women’s empowerment using a composite indicator based on the Project-Level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, with quantitative data collection at baseline and endline. Thematic analysis of qualitative data, collected through longitudinal interviews with women, husbands and mothers-in-law, will elicit a local understanding of women’s empowerment and the linkages between the intervention and women’s empowerment outcomes. This paper describes the study protocol to evaluate women’s empowerment in a nutrition-specific and sensitive intervention using internationally validated, innovative tools and will help fill the evidence gap on pathways of impact, highlighting areas to target for future programming.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been obtained from the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (Ref. PR 17106) and The University of Sydney (Ref: 2019/840). Findings from this study will be shared in Bangladesh with dissemination sessions in-country and internationally at conferences, and will be published in peer-reviewed journals.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Juliana Londoño-Vélez ◽  
Pablo Querubín

Abstract We study the impact of money on households during theCOVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, Colombia rolled out a new unconditional cash transfer (UCT) to one million households in povertyworth $19 (PPP $55.6) and paid every 5-8 weeks. Using an RCT and linked administrative and survey data, we find the UCT had positive (albeit modest) effects on measures of household well-being (e.g., financial health, food access). Moreover, the UCT boosted support for emergency assistance to households and firms during the crisis and promoted social cooperation. Finally, we explore the bottlenecks in expanding mobile money during a pandemic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. e001029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J Carter ◽  
Rhian Daniel ◽  
Ana W Torrens ◽  
Mauro N Sanchez ◽  
Ethel Leonor N Maciel ◽  
...  

BackgroundEvidence suggests that social protection policies such as Brazil’s Bolsa Família Programme (BFP), a governmental conditional cash transfer, may play a role in tuberculosis (TB) elimination. However, study limitations hamper conclusions. This paper uses a quasi-experimental approach to more rigorously evaluate the effect of BFP on TB treatment success rate.MethodsPropensity scores were estimated from a complete-case logistic regression using covariates from a linked data set, including the Brazil’s TB notification system (SINAN), linked to the national registry of those in poverty (CadUnico) and the BFP payroll.ResultsThe average effect of treatment on the treated was estimated as the difference in TB treatment success rate between matched groups (ie, the control and exposed patients, n=2167). Patients with TB receiving BFP showed a treatment success rate of 10.58 percentage points higher (95% CI 4.39 to 16.77) than patients with TB not receiving BFP. This association was robust to sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsThis study further confirms a positive relationship between the provision of conditional cash transfers and TB treatment success rate. Further research is needed to understand how to enhance access to social protection so to optimise public health impact.


Author(s):  
Ali Akbar Khomaini

Cash transfer programs have become the main poverty-alleviating policy in several developing countries. This study analyzes the perceived impact of Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) as an Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) program in Indonesia by examining beneficiary households’ subjective wellbeing. Two rounds of Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) panel data from 2007 (IFLS-4) and 2015 (IFLS-5) are used, from which this study take the subjective wellbeing indicators. Three main categories of subjective wellbeing components are developed using Principle Component Analysis (PCA): family satisfaction, future perception, and children. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and fixed effect methods are used to determine the impact of UCT program on subjective wellbeing. The Indonesian UCT program is negatively correlated or has no impact on improving recipients’ subjective wellbeing compared to that of non-recipients. Out of the three subjective wellbeing components, family satisfaction appears to have received significant and positive impact from the UCT program. UCT may also help beneficiaries maintain stable consumption level during short-term economic shocks, but future perception and children’s wellbeing perception are not found to be affected.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 784-798
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Aizawa

Abstract Malnutrition due to persistent food insecurity has been a serious public health issue in Kenya. An unconditional cash transfer programme, the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP), was launched in 2009 in northern Kenya to reduce extreme poverty and to mitigate food insecurity. This study investigates the impact of the HSNP, on expenditure on food, types of food consumed and nutritional intake. Focusing on nutritional intake as well as spending and consumption is important because an unconditional cash transfer, which does not specify how the transferred money must be used, does not guarantee nutritional intake improvement. Converting food consumption data to caloric intake and nutrient content using food consumption databases, we calculate the intake of five macro-nutrients, seven vitamins and seven minerals and then estimate the impacts on nutritional intake 12 and 24 months after treatment exposure. This study finds the increased total expenditure on food items. Specifically, the beneficiary households increased their expenditure on milk and milk products and that on sugar after 12 months and expenditure on roots and tubers after 24 months. For consumption amounts, however, the HSNP did not show significant increases in all food categories except sugar. On the other hand, the HSNP improved the nutritional intakes of some macro- and micro-nutrients. The results show that beneficiary households substantially increased their intake of fat by 25.2% after 24 months and their intake of vitamin B12 by 36.6% and calcium by 34.9% after 12 months. The result does not yield sufficiently strong evidence that poorer households significantly enjoy greater improvements than other households.


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