The Household and Individual‐Level Productive Impacts of Cash Transfer Programs in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract Cash transfer programs are rapidly becoming a key component of the social safety net of many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The primary aim of these programs is to help households improve their food security and to smooth consumption during periods of economic duress. However, beneficiary households have also been shown to use these programs to expand their microentrepreneurial activities. Cluster-randomized trials carried out during the rollout of large-scale programs in Malawi and Zambia show that children may increase their work in the household enterprise through such programs. Both programs increased forms of work that may be detrimental to children, such as activities that expose children to hazards in Malawi and excessive working hours in Zambia. However, both programs also induced positive changes in other child well-being domains, such as school attendance and material well-being, leading to a mixed and inconclusive picture of the implications of these programs for children.

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A cost-benefit framework for evaluating conditional cash-transfer programs

Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis ◽

10.1515/jbca-2012-0014 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 159-180 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Robert J. Brent

Keyword(s):

Cost Benefit Analysis ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Conditional Cash Transfer ◽

Cash Transfer ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Vulnerable Children ◽

Orphans And Vulnerable Children ◽

Transfer Programs ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Comprehensive Framework

Following the prototype of Mexico’s Progresa program, a number of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have initiated conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. More recently, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have followed suit. However, no comprehensive framework to carry out a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) exists. This paper presents such a CBA framework for CCTs which enables design features such as targeting and conditionality to be separately evaluated. The framework is applied to an evaluation of a CCT program for orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya. The role of conditionality in SSA and the need for distribution weights is discussed.

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Transactional Sex in Malawi

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199915248.013.7 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah Baird ◽

Berk Özler

Keyword(s):

Sex Work ◽

Risky Sexual Behavior ◽

Safety Net ◽

Transactional Sex ◽

Cash Transfer ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Commercial Sex Work ◽

Never Married ◽

Transfer Programs ◽

Sub Saharan

This chapter examines transactional sex as a distinctive feature of traditional “dating” in Malawi. It begins with a review of the existing literature on transactional sex in sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on the distinction between commercial sex work, informal sex work, and transactional sex. It then analyzes transactional sex among a sample of 13- to 22-year-old, initially never-married females in southern Malawi. It also considers the role that cash-transfer programs in particular and social safety-net programs in general might play in mitigating transactional sex. The findings suggest that cash-transfer programs that focus on adolescent girls can allow them to steer away from “relationships of need” toward “relationships of want,” reduce risky sexual behavior as a result, and thus reduce their subsequent risk of HIV infection.

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