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Reducing Child Poverty with Cash Transfers: A Sure Thing?
Abstract
Children are disproportionately represented among the income-poor, many suffer from severe deprivation, and their poverty and vulnerability have cumulative and long-term consequences. This article provides a comparative examination of the poverty-reduction effectiveness of cash transfer programmes targeting children, focusing on three types of such programmes: the Child Support Grant in South Africa, family allowances in transition countries, and targeted conditional cash transfer programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean. It finds that, despite differences in design, cash transfer programmes targeting children in poor households are an effective way of reducing poverty. Copyright 2006 Overseas Development Institute.
... Women's employment by agri-food companies can increase the share of women's income in total household income. Evidence suggests that the share of women's income can strengthen women's financial autonomy and bargaining position in intra-household decision-making (Barrientos & DeJong, 2006). In addition, women's employment may create opportunities for women to interact with others and maintain networks outside of the household, thereby enabling them to exchange ideas and experiences (Atkin, 2009). ...
... Such exposure can be associated with certain aspects of women's empowerment, such as developing negotiation skills, building self-confidence, and adopting lessons learnt from others. Women's empowerment can lead to higher investments in child nutrition and health and positive nutritional outcomes (Glick, 2002;Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Gillespie & van den Bold, 2017;Quisumbing & Doss, 2021). ...
... A larger relative contribution to household income likely increases female financial autonomy and intra-household bargaining power. In general, higher female financial autonomy can lead to positive child nutrition effects (Glick, 2002;Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Gillespie & van den Bold, 2017;Quisumbing & Doss, 2021). However, here this potential positive partial effect on child nutrition seems to be outweighed by the negative partial effect through less maternal time available for childcare and domestic work. ...
In many low-and middle-income countries, agri-food supply chains are transforming rapidly. One important feature of this transformation is growth in certain high-value agricultural subsectors, such as horticulture and cut-flowers for export. Growth in high-value agriculture often creates new employment opportunities, especially for women. More employment can lead to higher rural incomes, but the broader implications for social welfare are not yet sufficiently understood. Here, we use survey data from Ethiopia to investigate the effects of women's employment in floriculture on child nutrition, focusing on children aged 0-5 years. We develop and estimate endogenous switching regressions to account for possible endogeneity. Our results suggest that maternal employment in floriculture negatively affects child height-forage and weight-forage z-scores (HAZ and WAZ). Exploration of the underlying mechanisms reveals that floriculture employment may influence time allocation, dietary quality, income, and female financial autonomy. Maternal employment is negatively associated with time spent on childcare and consumption of animal-sourced foods.
... In order to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people, businesses, and the economy, the government has implemented a series of economic stimulus measures, both fiscal and non-fiscal, totalling more than Table 1 shows various government stimulus measures for 2020. Most studies found that cash transfer has desired impacts on aspects such as health (Lagarde, Haines, & Palmer, 2009;Paes-Sousa, Santos, & Miazaki, 2011;Rasella, Aquino, Santos, Paes-Sousa, & Barreto, 2013;Shei, 2013), food security (Miller, Tsoka, & Reichert, 2011;Paes-Sousa et al., 2011), income smoothing (Standing, 2008), poverty reduction (Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Draeger, 2021;Ferro, Kassouf, & Levison, 2010;Levine, Van Der Berg, & Yu, 2011;Paes-Sousa et al., 2011;Shei, 2013), social protection (Paes-Sousa et al., 2011), and increased school enrolment (Draeger, 2021;Ferro et al., 2010;Oosterbeek, Ponce, & Schady, 2008;Paes-Sousa et al., 2011). ...
... Cash transfer programs were preferred because of extensive empirical evidence of their effectiveness in h elping low-income households. It is estimated that approximately 700 million to one billion people benefit from cash transfers worldwide (Barrientos & DeJong, 2006). This has led to more research on the effectiveness of assistance programs from various socioeconomic aspects. ...
... Financial assistance programs have been proven to have positive effects on household's income, health, standard of living, and social interaction. In terms of the effect of financial assistance programs on income and poverty, Barrientos and DeJong (2006) found that cash assistance programs have provided low-income households with a consistent source of income and effectively reduced their poverty. Similarly, a study by Standing (2008) also found that in developing countries, various types of cash assistance function as a source of family income, and further reduce family poverty. ...
This study aims to investigate the effects of government assistance programs on the well-being of urban low-income households during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on Malaysians’ well-being, affecting a variety of factors such as income, health, and standard of living. To address the repercussions of the pandemic, the government has implemented diverse economic stimulus packages. Household well-being is assessed using four indicators: income, health, cost of living, and social relations. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in six regions of Malaysia. Data from 706 respondents was analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The main findings reveal that government assistance programs enhance household well-being by reducing the cost of living, increasing income, improving health, and fostering social interactions. Specifically, among the four focused aspects, the programs have the most significant impact on improving the health of low-income households. These programs have the least effect on enhancing well-being through the reduction of the cost of living. Consequently, these findings provide valuable information to policymakers in understanding the effectiveness of government assistance programs during the crisis period. This nationwide evidence-based analysis will contribute additional insights to the formulation of future assistance programs aimed at improving the well-being of low-income households.
... Since poverty is not confined to money metrics alone, we examine the efficiency of targeted welfare programs from multidimensional poverty (MDP) and monetary poverty perspectives. While MDP analysis is being widely used in academic studies analysing poverty (Burchi et al. 2022;Pham, Mukhopadhaya, and Vu 2020), its application in measuring the effects of social protection programs remains understudied (Barrientos and DeJong 2006;Kilburn et al. 2020). Our study focuses on the post-reform outcomes and provides insights into policy improvement directions. ...
... Despite the extant evidence on social transfers' positive impact on several individual aspects of wellbeing (Barrientos and DeJong 2006;Kilburn et al. 2020;Yu and Li 2021), the effects of social protection interventions on multidimensional poverty remain understudied. Among the few studies that analyse the impact of interventions on multidimensional outcomes, Kilburn et al. (2020) use a multidimensional poverty framework to assess the effects of conditional cash transfer intervention for young girls in South Africa. ...
... The authors find that social protection interventions increase empowerment by affecting their independence, relationships, and mental and emotional health. Barrientos and DeJong (2006) find that overall, cash transfers positively impact childhood poverty across different settings (Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and transition economies). Evidence from higher-income countries in the EU shows considerable effects of cash transfers on household-level material deprivation (Notten and Guio 2016). ...
... Women's employment by agri-food companies can increase the share of women's income in total household income. Evidence suggests that the share of women's income can strengthen women's financial autonomy and bargaining position in intra-household decision-making (Barrientos & DeJong, 2006). In addition, women's employment may create opportunities for women to interact with others and maintain networks outside of the household, thereby enabling them to exchange ideas and experiences (Atkin, 2009). ...
... Such exposure can be associated with certain aspects of women's empowerment, such as developing negotiation skills, building self-confidence, and adopting lessons learnt by others. Women's empowerment can lead to higher investments in child nutrition and health and positive nutritional outcomes (Glick, 2002;Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Gillespie & van den Bold, 2017;Quisumbing & Doss, 2021). ...
... A larger relative contribution to household income likely increases female financial autonomy and intra-household bargaining power. In general, higher female financial autonomy can lead to positive child nutrition effects (Glick, 2002;Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Gillespie & van den Bold, 2017;Quisumbing & Doss, 2021). However, here this potential positive partial effect on child nutrition seems to be outweighed by the negative partial effect through less maternal time available for childcare and domestic work. ...
In many countries of the Global South, agri-food supply chains are transforming rapidly. One important feature of this transformation is growth in certain high-value agricultural subsectors, such as horticulture and cut-flowers for export. Growth in high-value agriculture often creates new employment opportunities, especially for women. More employment can lead to higher rural incomes, but the broader implications for social welfare are not yet sufficiently understood. Here, we use survey data from Ethiopia to investigate the effects of women’s employment in floriculture on child nutrition, focusing on children aged 0-5 years. We develop and estimate endogenous switching regressions to account for possible endogeneity. Our results suggest that maternal employment in floriculture negatively affects child height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores (HAZ and WAZ). Exploration of the underlying mechanisms reveals that floriculture employment may influence time allocation, dietary quality, income, and female financial autonomy. Maternal employment is negatively associated with time spent on childcare and consumption of animal-sourced foods.
... The challenges of widespread poverty, child mortality, hunger and deprivation in most developing countries, including South Africa, put pressure on policy makers to take imaginative and bold steps to transform their nations (Taylor, 2008). The provision of cash transfers is a critical component of policy instruments for various goals: poverty reduction (Barrientos and De Jong, 2006); the promotion of household well-being and support of critical economic objectives (Samson, Mac Quene, and Van Niekerk, 2006); and the promotion of political stability, social harmony and social control (Williams, 2005). developmental/generative; protective; preventive and promotive/transformative (Smith and Subbarao, 2003;Samson, Mac Quene, and Van Niekerk, 2006;Taylor, 2008). ...
... Source: (Smith and Subbarao, 2003;EPRI, 2006;Taylor, 2008) The provision of social assistance to support coping strategies, to deal with risks, to protect the poor against shocks, tackle deep poverty and promote development are critical to a developmental state (Holzmann and Jorgensen, 2002;Smith and Subbarao, 2003;Barrientos and De Jong, 2006). ...
... The present government is making sure that the poor black South Africans also get a share of national revenues; that is why I am able to receive my pension This democratic government provides social grants to those who pass the means test, regardless of their colour. Here, redistribution plays a role in reducing poverty (Barrientos and De Jong, 2006). Woolard and Leibbrandt (2010:4) confirm the redistributive nature of social grants, as they are financed from general tax revenue. ...
This study explores the extent to which South Africa’s social assistance programme can constitute a building block of a developmental state. Using a critical research approach and Taylor’s conceptual framework (2002) that draws on Sen’s understanding of development as freedom, I explore the impact of cash transfers on households, on access to socio-economic opportunities and to the overall development of local democracy. Sen’s capability approach and theoretical analysis of development helps to link different dimensions of poverty with human and institutional capabilities. There are five research objectives: examining whether a cash transfer has a developmental impact on the people who receive it; establishing whether cash transfers improve opportunities for households to take part in socio-economic activities; investigating how cash transfers promote civic participation and local democracy; ascertaining ways in which cash transfers promote development; and ascertaining the extent to which a cash transfer could be a significant feature of a developmental state.
The findings are in two parts. The first is a review of the relevant literature. Previous studies have found that social grants can lead to poverty reduction, help to send dependents to school and enable respondents to get loans to start their own businesses.
The second part consists of new findings, based on interviews from a purposive sample of 160 men and women from Khayelitsha and Graafwater in the Western Cape who received a social grant. The respondents perceived the cash transfer as opening up socio-economic opportunities for them, such as skills training. Social grants also reportedly enabled women to break free of abusive relationships and function independently, which they described as restoring their human dignity and freedom. Further, 46% indicated that the social grant income assisted them to become active citizens. A minority of respondents, especially those with small businesses or employment, perceive the grants as a backup in case of business failure or retrenchment. My assumption of cash transfers having a developmental impact has been confirmed.
In conclusion, the thesis expands the theoretical and policy understanding of social assistance beyond its impacts on income poverty and provides new insights on the multiple ways through which cash transfers enable poor household members to participate in enterprise development and in building local democracy. Based on the findings, recommendations are offered to government and stakeholders.
... Para ter uma ideia, no Brasil, em 2019, 46,9% das crianças encontravam-se em situação de pobreza e 21,6% em extrema pobreza. Verifica-se, dessa forma, que a pobreza infantil se configura como uma temática extremamente relevante, pois interfere no tempo de duração e na qualidade de vida das crianças (BARRIENTOS, DEJONG, 2004). Além disso, está diretamente relacionada à desnutrição: crianças podem ter seu desenvolvimento físico e cognitivo prejudicado (RUIZ-RUIZ, 2018). ...
... O referido ciclo ocorre através da transmissão intergeracional da pobreza, que é um importante efeito da pobreza infantil, pois, além de determinar o êxito das gerações futuras, impacta na qualidade de vida das crianças. Consequentemente, indivíduos que vivenciam a pobreza na infância têm mais chances de se tornarem pobres crônicos, ou seja, permanecerem pobres durante toda a vida (MAKHALIMA et al., 2014;BARRIENTOS;DEJONG, 2004). ...
... O referido ciclo ocorre através da transmissão intergeracional da pobreza, que é um importante efeito da pobreza infantil, pois, além de determinar o êxito das gerações futuras, impacta na qualidade de vida das crianças. Consequentemente, indivíduos que vivenciam a pobreza na infância têm mais chances de se tornarem pobres crônicos, ou seja, permanecerem pobres durante toda a vida (MAKHALIMA et al., 2014;BARRIENTOS;DEJONG, 2004). ...
A pobreza impacta negativamente a vida das crianças, sendo que seus efeitos podem repercutir na idade adulta e, inclusive, nas próximas gerações. No Brasil, em 2019, 46,9% das crianças encontravam-se em estado de quadro torna-se extremamente relevante e é objeto deste estudo, que contribui com a escassa literatura existente. Para mensurar os níveis de pobreza e extrema pobreza de crianças com idade entre 0 e 13 anos de idade no Brasil e em suas distintas macrorregiões, foram utilizados os índices de Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT), além do modelo Logit, com o objetivo de analisar os fatores relacionados aos referidos níveis de incidência. Os resultados demons-tram que tanto a proporção (P0) como o hiato de renda média (P1) e severidade (P2) da pobreza e extrema pobreza são mais elevados nas regiões Norte e Nordeste do país. Além disso, nas supracitadas regiões, o fato de o (a) chefe de domicílio possuir maior nível de escolaridade diminui de forma mais acentuada as chances de que a criança seja pobre em relação a essa probabilidade nas demais regiões brasileiras.
... Cash-based programs may or may not include conditions; that is, the payment may either be unconditional or contingent on the beneficiary meeting certain conditions. These conditionalities include various requirements, such as attending prenatal appointments, participating in health promotion activities, ensuring school attendance for children and adolescents, and mandatory vaccinations for children (Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Department for International Development, 2015). Each country has adopted distinct designs regarding target population selection processes, types of benefits offered, age eligibility for benefits, and monitoring of conditionalities, among others. ...
... Benefits depend on family composition and compliance with conditionalities (for the conditional ones), utilizing assessment and monitoring systems, and creating incentives for service demand. Cash-based programs can also be implemented in conjunction with other programs, such as early childhood development coaching programs, community activities, and skill training (Barrientos & DeJong, 2006). ...
There is a strong, bidirectional association between social disadvantage and poor mental health. The risk of experiencing mental health problems is particularly enhanced by factors associated with living in poverty. Thus, economic interventions may be effective in reducing the burden of mental health issues in these populations. This article explores the evidence based on one specific type of economic intervention on mental health, that is, supplementing household income through cash transfers. This narrative evidence is supplemented by an in-depth analysis of one of the world’s largest national cash transfer programs, the Bolsa Família program, in Brazil. We report that evidence from multiple contexts clearly demonstrates that cash transfers are highly effective in reducing the burden of mental health issues and reducing mental health disparities. We then consider the specific mechanisms through which cash transfers influence mental health. Finally, we discuss the need for these interventions and, referring to the Brazilian case study, explore potential strategies for their implementation at scale and the implications for research and policy.
... In the last two decades, child-sensitive social protection (CSSP) became a widely adopted strategy to address poverty, based on the premise that interventions during childhood could interrupt cycles of intergenerational reproduction of poverty (Barrientos and DeJong 2006;Minujin et al. 2017). The appeal for CSSP was supported by research demonstrating the lasting impact of monetary and food deprivation on child development, presenting childhood as a crucial juncture for investments in future human capital (Heckman 2000;Jones and Sumner 2011). ...
... Social protection programmes targeted particularly rural families, who are overrepresented among the global poor (Fotta and Balen 2018;Hanlon et al. 2010). These programmes' attention to household dynamics allowed them to reach children at an unprecedented scale, but also led to an oversight of the structural drivers of families' economic vulnerability (Barrientos and DeJong 2006;Devereux and McGregor 2014). Many well-known drivers of rural poverty-such as quality of soil and water, exposure to disasters and health hazards-are connected to the overarching political issue of land use and distribution (Devereux 2001;Scoones 2021). ...
Child-sensitive social protection (CSSP) is heralded as an investment in future human capital, based on the premise that changing poor families' behaviours can interrupt cycles of poverty reproduction. However, funding for CSSP may come from extractive activities with high environmental costs for the same families that social programmes aim to support. Reflecting on this contradiction in Peruvian Amazonia, the study explores the tensions between State and parental under-standings of impoverishment in an Indigenous village impacted by oil extraction. The findings are twofold: (i) although families are sceptical of CSSP's potential to enhance children's prospects, they embrace it as a form of compensation for resource dispossession. (ii) CSSP may fail to lift children out of poverty if it overlooks how environmental degradation engenders intergenerational impoverishment. The article makes a case for the adoption of an environmental justice lens into CSPP, emphasising the need for a more holistic understanding of intergenerational poverty.
... There are primary policies and interventions in many countries to reduce the negative effect of poverty on children by providing material resources (e.g. food, clothing, and school materials) to children who are materially deprived, or by distributing in-cash assistance to their families to help them overcome the challenges of material deprivation (e.g., Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Zimmerman et al., 2021). However, such policies and intervention approaches do not seem to be effective in reducing the negative influence of poverty on children (e.g., Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Zimmerman et al., 2021). ...
... food, clothing, and school materials) to children who are materially deprived, or by distributing in-cash assistance to their families to help them overcome the challenges of material deprivation (e.g., Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Zimmerman et al., 2021). However, such policies and intervention approaches do not seem to be effective in reducing the negative influence of poverty on children (e.g., Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Zimmerman et al., 2021). Our findings suggest paying more attention to the mediating effects of children's social relationships. ...
Material deprivation is often hypothesized to be directly linked with children's school bullying victimization and their subjective well-being. However, studies do not consistently support this hypothesis. Furthermore, the quality of children's social relationships with family, peers, and teachers have been suggested as potential mediators of material deprivation, school bullying victimization, and subjective well-being. However, studies supporting such proposition are lacking. Using a global sample of 73,182 children aged 10 and 12 years from 25 countries/regions in the third wave of an International Survey of Children's Well-Being, the present study examined a model of how quality of family-child, peer, and teacher-child relationships mediate the association of material deprivation with school bullying victimization and subjective well-being. The results show that the proposed model is applicable to each country and to different sex and age groups globally. It is also consistently found that among all countries, the family-child relationship is the strongest mediator between material deprivation and subjective well-being, while peer relationship is the strongest mediator between material deprivation and school victimization. These findings imply that although each country has different cultural, political, and economic backgrounds and social welfare systems, once children experience material deprivation, regardless of the country where they live, the quality of their relationships with family, peers, and teachers is likely to be deteriorated, which in turn reduces their subjective well-being and increases their risk of being bullied at school. In particular , children would most likely to experience low levels of subjective well-being through poor family-child relationships and most likely to experience school victimization through poor peer relationships. Our findings provide evidence for policymakers and practitioners worldwide, supporting efforts to improve the quality of social relationships among economically deprived children in order to reduce negative effects of material deprivation on children's school bullying victimization and subjective well-being.
... Armando Barrientos and Jocelyn DeJong ( 2006) found the fact that comparative studies on 3 (three) main types of cash transfers carried out with children targeted at poor households are effective instruments in reducing the amount of poverty because of the correlation between childhood and poverty. Soares, FV et al (2006) using up to 7 (seven) types of assistance data and found that with the right cash transfer target, cash transfers could increase 4.6% of total family income. ...
... Armando Barrientos and Jocelyn DeJong (2006) conducted a study entitled Reducing Child Poverty with Cash Transfers: A Sure Thing, where the study was divided into 3 parts, first focusing on issues relating to the design of targeted cash transfers for children consisting of reduction efficiency poverty by categorizing cash transfers, distribution of resources in the household, and consumption effects due to the cash transfe, the second discusses three main types of programs that identify the above issues which consist of cash transfers to children in south africa, family income in economic transition, and cash tarsnfer is stipulated in Latin America, and the three conclusions arising from the comparative study are finding the fact that comparative studies on 3 (three) main types of cash transfers that are targeted at children in poor households are effective instruments in reducing poverty due to a correlation between childhood and poverty. ...
p> This research aims to generate empirical evidence on the impact of cash transfers on Poverty on households in Indonesia, using the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) panel data in 2007 and 2014, and the method of Difference-in-differences with propensity score matching. This study estimates the impact of relief and benefits that do not receive assistance on Poverty. Results are expected to find that the provision of assistance (cash transfers) has a significant impact on poverty in terms of beneficiaries and who does not receive assistance, or viewed from a total of two (beneficiaries and who are not receiving assistance). It is found that the provision of assistance to the people who were targeted as shown to improve the welfare of beneficiaries, but have not been able to exceed the group that did not receive aid.
JEL Classification: I31, I32, I38
Keywords : Cash transfer, Difference-in-differences, Poverty, Propensity Score Matching </p
... On the costs beneficiaries have to bear as a result of abiding to conditionalities, the respondent's views were strongly aligned with those of Garcia and Moore (2011) and Barrientos and DeJong (2006) that organisations should cover this expenditure. RESP2 and RESP6 in their own programmes would compensate beneficiaries who take public transport to attend school, a medical checkup or other approved support activity. ...
The views of humanitarian practitioners in Somalia, South Sudan, Tigray and Yemen are gathered to enlarge understanding on the extent to which multi-purpose cash transfers (CTs) are superseding in-kind assistance in meeting the needs of beneficiaries. The reasons for the choice between the two forms of assistance are exposed together with the identification of the constraints faced when planning and delivering aid in the context of on-going conflict. Key areas of concern for agencies are identified on achieving effective targeting, ensuring internal arrangements support cash transfers, maximising coordination between agencies, upholding human dignity and enhancing the role of women as beneficiaries. Overall, the findings suggest that multi-purpose cash transfers can be an effective form of assistance in conflict zones, and recommendations are made for agencies as they contemplate an expansion of this form of assistance.
... Other models of CCTs are being implemented and evaluated worldwide. Promising results have been found, especially in developing countries with lower baseline indicators, particularly in programs complemented by the provision of basic services targeting child well-being [51]. In high-income countries, CCTs based on behavioral change (e.g., work, health, education) are also being implemented with inconsistent results, as developmental gains for children are not fully established and long-term effects are unknown [45,52]. ...
Objectives: This study aimed to examine the effects of poverty on child well-being and family functioning among low-income families. Specifically, it explored the role of parental stress, family dynamics, and contextual strain on children’s behavioral and emotional outcomes. Using a sample of families receiving welfare support, the research sought to assess the impact of conditional cash transfer programs and the involvement of Child Protective Services on child development and family well-being. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 99 children aged 8–12 from low-income, welfare-assisted families recruited from the Porto Metropolitan Area. Parental stress, parenting attitudes, family functioning, and child outcomes were assessed using standardized questionnaires. Families with and without Child Protective Services involvement were compared, and a cumulative index of contextual strain was developed to measure the multidimensional impact of stressors on child outcomes. Results: The results revealed that 53% of children exhibited clinical or borderline internalizing behaviors, 47% showed externalizing behaviors, and 39% experienced low psychological well-being. High levels of parental stress, low parenting competence, and significant contextual strain were associated with poorer child outcomes. Families involved with Child Protective Services showed no significant differences in parent or family characteristics, but children from these families exhibited fewer behavioral problems. Conclusions: The study highlights the pervasive impact of poverty and contextual strain on child development, emphasizing the need for more comprehensive interventions. Family functioning and parental stress are critical factors influencing child well-being, pointing to the importance of addressing these areas through targeted welfare and support programs to reduce the intergenerational transmission of poverty and improve child outcomes.
... Children from poor families suffer from deprivation and their experiences of poverty and vulnerability have cumulative and long-term negative consequences. Cash transfer of various designs have proven to be an effective way to reduce deprivations and reduce family poverty (Barrientos and DeJong 2006). The findings also showed that accommodation is a significant factor with students staying with their parents in rented houses with fewer rooms being negatively affected in learning. ...
BOOK REVIEW: Educational Philosophy of Madan Mohan Malaviya
Mudasir Rehman and Mohammad Amin Dar
... Children from poor families suffer from deprivation and their experiences of poverty and vulnerability have cumulative and long-term negative consequences. Cash transfer of various designs have proven to be an effective way to reduce deprivations and reduce family poverty (Barrientos and DeJong 2006). The findings also showed that accommodation is a significant factor with students staying with their parents in rented houses with fewer rooms being negatively affected in learning. ...
Learning poverty has negative implications for human capital formation and progress of human development. A case study in two urban areas of Meghalaya-Shillong and Jowai found that learning poverty is prevalent among the sample data of female students. 15 schools were randomly selected and three tests were administered to classes nine and 10 students focusing on Mathematics, English reading and basic scientific and technological concepts. The study found that students coming from low-income households scored lesser marks by-9.65,-3.73 and-1.87 in Mathematics, English reading and Picture Vocabulary tests respectively, in relation to students from the relatively higher incomes households, keeping other things constant. Other family related variables are also significantly related to learning outcomes. Human development of a society can be improved foremost if the young generation are learning effectively and efficiently, thereby, policy-makers should address the factors that affect learning whether in school or at home.
... Despite the implementation of social protection programmes, poverty persists in Tanzania (NBS, 2012). Given the persistence of poverty, some social science researchers argue that social protection programmes do not reduce poverty, while others contend that SP reduces intergenerational poverty (Barrientos and DeJong, 2006;Gentilini and Omamo, 2011), promoting and enforcing social protection policies in SSA brings rights based approach to African governments (Ludick, 2021), it also enhances implementation of No-one left behind of the Sustainable Development Goal 2030. ...
The purpose of this article is to ascertain the theory of change that by providing income assistance, consumption transfers and empowerment interventions, the poor and vulnerable groups overcome risks of falling into extreme poverty. This article adopted a cross-sectional descriptive survey research design to assess the effect of social protection on outcome variables. Both probability and non-probability sampling techniques were used. A random selection of regions, districts and households was conducted for obtaining quantitative data. Whereas, non-probability sampling techniques of purposeful sampling was used for selecting key informants to provide qualitative and rich information on the studied social protection programmes. The sample size was 204 distributed into on-programme (102 households) and non-programme (102 households) in Tanga and Mtwara regions. Triangulation methods includes use of both quantitative and qualitative methods in data collection and analysis of before and after interventions to determine net effect of social protection policy. Productive Social Safety Net is a Tanzania social protection policy intervention to overcome poverty to poor households. It provides cash transfers to increase households’ income, health insurance to increase access to health services and economic empowerment to increase employment and income generating opportunities. The study results indicate positive significant (r=.159*, P<.05) relationship between Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) and poverty reduction in Tanzania, results also proved positive significant (r = -.284**, p<=01) relationship between health insurance and poverty. This means implementing social protection policies reduces intergenerational poverty in the Sub-Saharan Africa. These are triangulated with qualitative voices saying “ our group, we are able to buy equipment when we get funds from Economic empowerment, we buy hall and chairs. This enables us to get income. I use for food in my family “. As for NHIF, it helps when I go to hospital I see the doctor, I get medical treatment”. However, no single social protection intervention can reduce poverty because poverty is multi-dimensional. While economic empowerment reduces income poverty through enabling job creation, income generation activities and asset building, productive social safety net enhances social capital to overcome intergenerational poverty through conditional cash-transfers on child education attendance and improved nutritional status. The article implies that multiple social protection interventions produce effect on poverty reduction based on the PSSN, health insurance and economic empowerment interventions in Tanzania.
... Another strand of the literature describes the challenges that governments face when implementing conditionalities and the negative consequences conditionalities can have on the most vulnerable populations (Álvarez et al., 2008;Cecchini & Madariaga, 2011;Cookson, 2018;Filgueira & Rossel, 2017;Fiszbein & Schady, 2009;Rossel et al., 2014;Schüring, 2010). For instance, territorial barriers and geographical distance may prevent families from procuring the services associated with the conditionalities (Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Lund, 2011). 3 Also, documentation requirements, changes in the criteria used to sanction non-compliers, and communication deficits contribute to excluding the most vulnerable groups among the intended beneficiaries (Álvarez et al., 2008;Rossel & Straschnoy, 2020). ...
To what extent have Latin America's Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs adopted different forms of conditionality? What are the main features of this variation, if any? In this article, we show that conditionalities vary across Latin America's CCTs and across time within programs. Drawing on existing conceptualizations of welfare conditionality and a novel, purpose-built dataset covering 16 countries from 1997 to 2019, we analyze the evolution and variation in the design of welfare conditionality in the region. We find that conditionalities among Latin America's CCTs exhibit many different types and also vary significantly in how the program's main attributes—behavioral requirements, monitoring, and sanctioning rules—combine and evolve across time in each program. These combinations show that governments do not consistently produce “pure” CCT models but instead use conditionality features in many different ways and also adjust them over time, frequently to make more explicit what they expect from CCT recipients.
... For instance, the PROGRESA/Oportunidades conditional cash transfer in Mexico had positive long-term effects on schooling for children in the families that received the transfer [6,30]. Cash transfers have also been found to reduce school dropout rates [31], improve youth mental health [32,33], reduce illness rates [34], reduce the likelihood of anemia, help youth grow more quickly [34], reduce child poverty [35], lengthen life spans [36], increase schooling [36], reduce the likelihood of being underweight [36], increase the likelihood of enrolling in school [37], reduce child labor [37,38], increase psychosocial well-being [39], reduced exposure to violence [40], and increase incomes in adulthood [36]. Studies have shown that these effects are strongest for youth in families with the lowest incomes [37]. ...
We conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether an after-school program paired with a cash transfer (a conditional cash transfer) or a cash transfer alone (an unconditional cash transfer) can help improve health and economic outcomes for young men between the ages of 14 and 17 whose parents have low incomes and who live in neighborhoods with high crime rates. We find that receiving the cash transfer alone was associated with an increase in healthy behaviors (one of our primary outcome composite measures) and that the cash transfer paired with after-school programming was associated with an improvement in the financial health of participants (one of our secondary outcome composite measures). We find no differences in spending on alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, or other drugs between either the treatment group and the control group. Neither the cash transfer alone nor the programming plus cash transfer had statistically significant effects on our other primary composite measures (physical and mental health or school attendance and disciplinary actions), or our other secondary composite measures (criminal justice engagement or social supports) but in most cases, confidence intervals were too large to rule out meaningful effects. Results suggest that cash transfers hold promise to improve the health of youth without any indication of any adverse effects.
... Furthermore, the quality of health and education services also matters in determining any substitution effect. Low quality, irregularity or even unavailability of health and education services would restrict recipient spending on conditioned goods (Barrientos and de Jong, 2006). Hartarto, Wardani, and Azizurrohman (2021) provide contextual evidence on the importance of the conditions and monitoring imposed by FHP. ...
Research has shown that the Indonesian Family Hope CCT Program aimed at improving children’s health and education of poor households, has had significant impacts. Using different data, we assess whether it changed recipients’ behaviour along other metrics. Despite checks and constraints on how transfers can be spent, low-income families can still spend some of their extra cash on frivolous goods, rather than health and education as intended. Our results show that the program leads recipients to mildly decrease their levels of frivolous consumption and increase their share of spending on education (not for health) when compared to non-participants.
... These programmes can have conditionalities (conditional cash transfer -CCT), or not (unconditional cash transfer -UCT). Conditionalities may require attendance at prenatal appointments and health promotion activities, school attendance for children and adolescents, and mandatory vaccinations for children (Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Fiszbein & Schady, 2009). ...
... Some also assessed various social programs aiming to reduce child labour. Barrientos and DeJong (2006) found cash transfers to be an effective way of reducing child labour. ...
Child labour remains widespread in the urban slums of Bangladesh. Empirical studies indicate that various local-level factors drive poor families and children to engage in child labour. However, the role of structural factors and environmental realities is underrepresented in the current scholarship. This investigation examined the role of these factors in normalizing child labour in the slum communities of Dhaka. The researcher adapted a socio-ecological model to develop a conceptual framework for collecting qualitative data from the slum communities of two recently urbanized areas of the city: Hazaribagh and Matuail. A five-month fieldwork project was carried out to conduct 40 semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions with parents and community members. The data analysis resulted in the following findings. A lack of access to schooling pushed many children into labour. The opportunities for children’s employment in the informal sector remained abundant, and the absence of documents complicated law enforcement. Due to inconsistent adult income, many families are involved in child labour to increase their household income. Local employers chose children over adults for certain occupations due to their low wages and easy-to-control nature. Natural disasters, climate change, and family difficulties drove a large number of families to these slums, and informal employment opportunities for both adults and children drew them there. The shortage of playgrounds and specialized schooling shaped children’s tendency to work more. All together, child labour has become a cultural reality. Policies and interventions aiming to reduce child labour must influence these structural factors and provide support to families and children.
... However, those researchers generally used poverty approaches far from being multidimensional, and they most of the time focused on different types of social expenditures. The literature mainly contains studies that compared different types of social expenditures (government or private, in kind or in cash, etc.) (Chen et al., 2017;Gibson et al., 2011;Khera, 2014;Lusk and Weaver, 2017;Maitra and Ray, 2003;Miller and Neanidis, 2015;Mitrut and Wolff, 2011;Nikolov and Bonci, 2020;Olinto and Nielsen, 2007;Payne, 1998), analyzed the impacts of social expenditures on a specific area (Barrientos and DeJong, 2006;Gertler, 2000;Ozturk and Kose, 2019;Sadoulet et al., 2001), or analyzed the impacts of social expenditures on values calculated through one-dimensional poverty approaches (van de Berg and Cuong, 2011;Ertekin and Hayat, 2022;Jalan and Ravallion, 2000;Lloyd-Sherlock, 2006;Sarisoy and Koç, 2010). Notwithstanding a large amount of literature about the impact of social expenditures on poverty, relatively little attention has been paid to studying the new methods of poverty measurement. ...
Reducing poverty is a critical priority for developing countries. Despite the government allocating approximately 13% of the GDP to social support expenditures, poverty affects around 15% of the population in Turkey. However, there is a need for more research that measures the effects of social expenditures, which is a fundamental tool in the fight against poverty, while also considering the current developments in poverty measurement methods. This study aims to measure the impact of social support expenditures on poverty in Turkey. The study compares a multidimensional poverty approach to a one-dimensional approach. The effects of social support expenditures on households in Turkey were analyzed using econometric methods. The study finds that multidimensional poverty values are approximately 2.5 times higher than one-dimensional values. Government spending was found to have no impact on multidimensional poverty, while private expenditure had a relatively minor impact. The paper concludes by discussing the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of government social expenditures in Turkey.
... In primo luogo, la presenza di minori nei nuclei familiari in condizioni di povertà non viene considerata appieno nella sua complessità quando i legislatori fissano i criteri di calcolo del reddito minimo. In secondo luogo, il ruolo e l'implicazione dei percettori del reddito, ovvero dei genitori o comunque degli adulti, nel garantire che la disponibilità del sostegno monetario si traduca in un investimento educativo, culturale e di benessere per i figli sono troppo poco definiti e non sempre oggetto di progetti e patti di inclusione sociale (Barrientos, DeJong, 2006). In terzo luogo, spesso i progetti e i patti proposti alle famiglie con minori percettrici del reddito minimo riguardano i casi di abbandono scolastico o di evidenti problemi di apprendimento segnalati dalle istituzioni scolastiche. ...
Dibattito pubblico e senso comune associano erroneamente la povertà educativa ai soli paesi in via di sviluppo, mentre è invece molto diffusa anche in un paese avanzato come l’Italia, dove si riproduce per via intergenerazionale, colpisce persino i diplomati e include una quota consistente di adulti. Nel nostro paese molti hanno smesso di “imparare a imparare” e hanno sovente dimenticato ciò che hanno appreso a scuola. Mentre la politica si limita a fare della scuola il capro espiatorio, nessuno si preoccupa di comprendere come in realtà sia il contesto culturale extrascolastico ad alimentare il fenomeno. Il volume, che raccoglie e integra ricerche empiriche sulle competenze di base non solo degli studenti ma dell’intera popolazione italiana, spiega che cos’è la povertà educativa, come se ne misurano l’intensità e la diffusione, quali fattori ne influenzano la riproduzione, dove si nascondono le sue molteplici cause e in quali ambiti se ne osservano gli effetti più sfavorevoli. Ne emerge un panorama allarmante, a fronte del quale i decisori politici dovrebbero reagire con interventi di ampio respiro, di lungo periodo e rivolti alla fetta più ampia possibile della popolazione
... The current research ndings suggest that poorer South African regions continue to have lower levels of public service provision, such as WASH infrastructure, but are well targeted by means-tested cash grants (32,35,36). South Africa's cash grant system has been found to be critical in reducing child poverty and food insecurity (37). ...
Background: Orphanhood and parental absence are both associated with a range of childhood socioeconomic disadvantages. However, their separate effects on child health are not adequately understood. Absence limits parents’ psychosocial investment in children. In the case of orphans, reduced resource flows to children add an additional layer to the disadvantage. Social protection and extended family networks can compensate for material and psychosocial disadvantages. This paper studies the case of South Africa, where high rates of parental absence, orphanhood and child stunting co-exist. These disadvantages are geographically concentrated in the former homelands, impoverished areas affected by a range of apartheid-era discriminatory legislation. Homelands households typically form around the elderly who take care of children on behalf of absent migrant worker parents, or who adopt orphaned children.
Methods: This paper firstly maps the geography of single orphanhood and child nutrition, establishing whether various disadvantages are concentrated in the same regions. Spatial econometric models accounting for regional spill-over are used to estimate associations between child nutrition, parental absence, orphanhood, state support and household resources.
Results: There are strong overlapping regional inequalities in child nutrition and orphanhood. Disadvantages are concentrated in former homelands. Father absence and paternal orphanhood rates have similar positive associations with local stunting rates. Household resources and access to social services do not moderate this association. By contrast, maternal absence and maternal orphanhood are insignificantly correlated with stunting. However, maternal absence is negatively correlated with child underweight.
Conclusions: Father presence is more strongly associated with child outcomes than material resources, suggesting that fathers also make non-material or psychosocial contributions to child health. Maternal absence and orphanhood rates have smaller associations with chronic health outcomes. In fact, our results support the hypothesis that absent working mothers who migrate to urban areas remit incomes to benefit the acute nutrition status of children. Addressing regional inequalities in orphanhood and child nutrition requires more than the local expansion of public social safety nets in areas of high vulnerability. Rather, the bigger challenge of addressing father presence will make a large contribution to improving children’s health outcomes.
... Payments to single parent households are evaluated in Van Lancker et al. (2014) and Chzhen and in Bradshaw (2012), finding the possibility of significant reductions in child poverty rates and that targets focussed specifically on single parents produce the most efficient results. Barrientos and DeJong (2006) investigate cash transfers as an option in developing countries (South Africa & Latin America), with results similar to the European studies in that they prove to be an effective means of combating child poverty. Kumara and Pfau (2011) find some additional benefits in developing countries of cash transfers, such as an increase in school attendance. ...
In 2017 the Scottish Government passed the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act with the commitment to significantly reduce the relative child poverty rate from the current prevailing level of around 25% to 10% by 2030/31. In response, the government introduced the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) that provides a direct transfer to households at a fixed rate per eligible child – currently £25 per week. In this paper we explore, using a micro to macro modelling approach, the effectiveness of using the SCP to achieve the Scottish child poverty targets. While we find that the ambitious child poverty targets can technically be met solely using the SCP, the necessary payment of £165 per week amounting to a total government cost of £3 billion per year, makes the political and economy-wide barriers significant. A key issue with only using the SCP is the non-linearity in the response to the payment; as the payment increases, the marginal gain in the reduction of child poverty decreases – this is particularly evident after payments of £80 per week. A ‘policy-mix’ option combining the SCP, targeted cash transfers and other policy levels (such as childcare provision) seems the most promising approach to reaching the child poverty targets.
... Therefore, along with educational policies, anti-poverty minimum income schemes may contribute to reduce educational poverty and its transmissivity from adult to younger generations, but provided that those schemes are effectively designed to meet four crucial issues. Firstly, the extent of any correlation between the presence of children and the likelihood of the households being poor; secondly, the role and implication of household arrangements in ensuring that cash transfers actually is helpful to the children; thirdly, the extent to which the use of conditionalities in entitlements adds to the effectiveness in poverty-reduction of such programmes (Barrientos and DeJong 2006). Furthermore, the design and implementation of minimum income schemes should provide and make sure that a significant investment in the provision of professional social services is dedicated to ensuring that non-cash interventions are deemed to imply specific educational activities for both adult and children. ...
In this paper we present the main outcomes from a research-study highlighting and discussing the analyses of children educational poverty according to the perspective of the
intergenerational transmission and lifelong persistence of multidimensional poverty. Along the paper, we define educational poverty and measure its diffusion and intensity among
Greek, Italian and Spanish early adolescents to question the potentials of anti-poverty policies on reducing and preventing the phenomenon. A general index of educational poverty is then introduced to understand the varying degrees of intensity of such cultural deprivation among early adolescents in the three countries. Conclusions report a series of policy remarks to redirect anti-poverty minimum income schemes policies towards effectiveness in breaking the chains of intergenerational transmission of educational poverty, in the light of the different intensity in Greece, Italy and Spain.
... Literature on such programs is now sizable. Conditional cash transfers have been shown to increase school enrolment and attendance (Baird et al. 2013); improve health and nutritional outcomes (Segura-Pérez et al. 2016); and reduce child poverty (Barrientos and DeJong 2006). Pilot projects and programs featuring the variant of basic income offered unconditionally (i.e. ...
In 2020, the government of Ontario, Canada, introduced Building a Strong Foundation for Success: Reducing Poverty in Ontario (2020 Ontario. 2020. “Building a Strong Foundation for Success: Reducing Poverty in Ontario (2020-2025).” https://www.ontario.ca/page/building-strong-foundation-success-reducing-poverty-ontario-2020-2025 (accessed 4 May 2021). [Google Scholar]-2025), the province’s third poverty reduction strategy. This study employs Critical Discourse Analysis to explore the discourses that emerge in this strategy and examine instances of intertextuality between it and previous strategy iterations. Several discourses (re)emerge suggesting that people living in poverty, and disabled people specifically, must ‘realize their potential’ by becoming more ‘resilient’ and work towards ‘life stabilization’. The ‘self-sufficiency’ discourse in prior poverty reduction strategies, recast as ‘independence’ in this newest rendition, anchors the strategy to problematic understandings of ‘dependency’. The systemic causes of poverty are negated, as is a rights-based framework for poverty alleviation. The Ontario government does not define the poverty reduction strategy’s success in terms of poverty reduction, but as mere social assistance caseload reductions, and as such, has built ‘a strong foundation for its lackluster success’.
• Points of Interest
• In 2020, the government of Ontario, Canada released its third poverty strategy, entitled Building a Strong Foundation for Success: Reducing Poverty in Ontario (2020 Ontario. 2020. “Building a Strong Foundation for Success: Reducing Poverty in Ontario (2020-2025).” https://www.ontario.ca/page/building-strong-foundation-success-reducing-poverty-ontario-2020-2025 (accessed 4 May 2021). [Google Scholar]-2025).
• A way of doing research called Critical Discourse Analysis was adopted by the authors to explore how language was used in the poverty strategy to identify how people living in poverty, and disabled people specifically, should behave in order for them to be considered successful.
• We discuss several discourses (themes in the language of the poverty strategy) in our analysis related to the need for people on social assistance, including disabled people, to ‘realize their potential’ by becoming more ‘resilient’, ‘independent’, and work towards ‘life stabilization’
• Recent actions by the government to outsource its employment supports to private companies, and the hiring of fraud investigators to question the authenticity of people’s claims to disability income supports, are worrying trends.
... Uprisings and conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa have prevented around 13 million children from going to school (United Nations Children's Fund, 2015). Poverty and vulnerability faced by children have cumulative and long-term consequences (Barrientos and DeJong, 2006;Yaqub, 2002). Children, in particular, stand at a pivotal node of intervention since investment in their human capital can contribute to breaking the transmission of intergenerational poverty. ...
This paper evaluates the impact of multi-purpose cash assistance on Syrian refugee children living in Lebanon. Using a sharp multidimensional regression discontinuity design, we estimate the program impact of varying cash assistance durations measured over two waves of household survey data collected in 2019. The novel research design enables us to make pairwise comparisons between children from discontinued recipient households (received cash for 12 months then got discontinued in the next cash cycle), short-run cash recipient households (up to 10 months), long-term recipient households (between 16 and 22 months) and non-beneficiary eligible households. Results show that children of any MPC recipient group are transitioning from non-formal to formal schooling while also shifting away from child labor. Cash transfers improve health outcomes for pre-primary and school-aged children and reduce the likelihood of early marriage for girls aged 15–19 years.
... tos yDeJong, 2004; Subbarao, Bonnerjee, Carvalho et al., 1997;De Sena, 2016), financiados e impulsados por los OMC(Alvarez Leguizamón, 2005, Aguilar, 2010. ...
En este artículo se problematizan desde el bienestar los Programas de Transferencias Condicionadas de Ingresos (PTCI) que, en tanto políticas sociales, impactan diferencialmente en los procesos de configuración de las desigualdades. Los PTCI se han posicionado como los modos extendidos de abordaje de las pobrezas en Latinoamérica, con una presencia en Argentina desde principios del siglo XXI. Estos modos de intervención, si bien transfieren ingresos a los hogares afectando en alguna medida el bienestar de las familias, anclan ciertos comportamientos de las mujeres-madres en términos de responsabilización por los cuidados a partir de las condicionalidades exigidas. De allí que a partir del análisis documental de los PTCI implementados en la primer década del siglo XXI en Argentina, se concluya que si por un lado transfieren ingresos monetarios a los hogares en condición de pobreza, por otro, producen y reproducen modelos de sociedad donde los cuidados sociales son desigualmente atribuidos en función de una supuesta división sexual de los mismos. Este tipo de intervenciones estatales privilegian una división sexual del trabajo que delimita las funciones reproductivas de las mujeres en su calidad de madres, posicionándolas como elementos clave para gestionar los PTCI al interior de los hogares.
... This suggests that in our large and diverse sample, increases in family income, in general, were associated with increases in access to resources and decreases in exposure to adversity. Previous studies have attempted small scale interventions in which the household income of families is supplemented and found relative improvement in the allocation and use of economic resources (Rojas et al., 2020; for a review see Barrientos and DeJong, 2006). We found that income was closely tied to other proximal measures that also showed their unique associations with measures of development. ...
While low socioeconomic status (SES) introduces risk for developmental outcomes among children, there are an array of proximal processes that determine the ecologies and thus the lived experiences of children. This study examined interrelations between 22 proximal measures in the economic, psychosocial, physiological, and perinatal ecologies of children, in association with brain structure and cognitive performance in a diverse sample of 8,158 9-10-year-old children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. SES was measured by the income-to-needs ratio (INR), a measure used by federal poverty guidelines. Within the ABCD study, in what is one of the largest and most diverse cohorts of children studied in the United States, we replicate associations of low SES with lower total cortical surface area and worse cognitive performance. Associations between low SES (<200% INR) and measures of development showed the steepest increases with INR, with apparent increases still visible beyond the level of economic disadvantage in the range of 200-400% INR. Notably, we found three latent factors encompassing positive ecologies for children across the areas of economic, psychosocial, physiological, and perinatal well-being in association with better cognitive performance and the higher total cortical surface area beyond the effects of SES. Specifically, latent factors encompassing youth perceived social support and perinatal well-being were positive predictors of developmental measures for all children, regardless of SES. Further, we found a general latent factor that explained relationships between 20 of the proximal measures and encompassed a joint ecology of higher social and economic resources relative to low adversity across psychosocial, physiological, and perinatal domains. The association between the resource-to-adversity latent factor and cognitive performance was moderated by SES, such that for children in higher SES households, cognitive performance progressively increased with these latent factor scores, while for lower SES, cognitive performance increased only among children with the highest latent factor scores. Our findings suggest that both positive ecologies of increased access to resources and lower adversity are mutually critical for promoting better cognitive development in children from low SES households. Our findings inform future studies aiming to examine positive factors that influence healthier development in children.
... Social protection programmes have received increased attention in developing countries. In the past two decades, cash transfer programmes have been extensively used as policy interventions to achieve myriad development goals (Angeles et al., 2019;Barrera-Osorio et al., 2019;Barrientos & DeJong, 2006;Daidone et al., 2019;Fiszbein & Schady, 2009;Galiani & McEwan, 2013;Glewwe & Kassouf, 2012). The programmes can typically take one of two designs: conditional cash transfers (CCTs) or UCTs. ...
We examine the impact of unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) on child labour and educational outcomes. We first develop a simple theoretical model where we explore how government transfers financed by labour income taxation affect household decisions on child labour and education. We then empirically examine the impact of Pakistan's Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), which is the largest cash transfer program in South Asia, on child labour and school outcomes. We employ a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to estimate the average effect of the UCTs on child labour and school outcomes, and find that UCTs have a positive and statistically significant impact on enrolment and grade promotion, but no impact on school dropout rates in the short run. The BISP intervention increases grade promotion among boys but not among girls. With regards to child labour, we find that the BISP intervention has no impact on child labour in the short run; but in the medium to long run, cash transfers help to reduce child labour among boys as well as girls. These findings are consistent with our theoretical predictions and also robust to a series of robustness and sensitivity checks.
... Social assistance cash transfers include social pensions that address the older-person pensions gender gap (ILO, 2017b), child/family benefits commonly paid to the female primary care provider in a household (Barrientos and DeJong, 2007) and cash-for-care transfers that acknowledge care contingencies and the costs associated with bringing up children and caring for other family members (ILO, 2018b), and other income support schemes with varying degrees of means-testing and conditionality. ...
A growing literature discusses the implications for social protection of the ‘future of work’. How does the rise in non-standard employment and the persistence of informality affect social protection provision and sustainability? What challenges and opportunities do developments in technology and automation present? How does the labour market
impact of recent and predicted trends in migration and demographic change matter?
This paper examines such questions from a gender perspective. It discusses social protection reform options available to governments for addressing work-related gender policy gaps and inequalities in the context of the 'future of work'.
... These findings suggest that a specific policy focused on school-bound girls who are relatively older and those who are married would help to reduce school dropout rates among the indigenous group. Paired with an effective awareness strategy, a conditional cash transfer programme aimed at Dalit children is found to make an important headway in reducing poverty (Barrientos & DeJong, 2006) and then disparities in educational participation and outcomes (Vaidya et al., 2010;Wagle, 2015). ...
Reducing school dropout rates has been a challenging policy problem in an effort to improve educational participation and attainment in developing countries. This paper examines the differences in school dropout rates among the 5–20-year olds across three major caste/ethnic groups in Nepal using nationally representative survey data. Findings suggest sizeable differences witnessed by the indigenous and especially lower-caste Dalit groups when compared to the historically privileged Hindu groups. The use of Fairlie’s non-linear regression-based decomposition technique helps ascertain the major sources of these differences. Parental occupations, age, marital status and mountains, hills and far-western regions of residence are found to help explain such differences. The paper underscores the role of public policies on affirmative action and area-based, conditional cash transfer initiatives as well as effective public awareness campaigns to improve the educational participation of these otherwise historically disadvantaged caste/ethnic groups in Nepal.
... Findings have also shown that the South African CSG is effective in reducing childhood poverty (Barnes et al. 2017). In a review of the effect of cash transfers on childhood poverty across different settings (Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and transition economies), Barrientos and DeJong (2006) find that overall, cash transfers have a positive impact, regardless of whether they are conditional or unconditional cash transfers. ...
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.
... Evidencia empírica expresada en mediciones vía scanner, señalaron los cambios cerebrales que experimentó un conjunto de voluntarios sometidos al test después de una caminata en un parque, donde disminuyó el flujo de sangre en la corteza cerebral sugenual, lo que es una demostración de tranquilidad. Dicho de otra manera, la prevalencia repetitiva de pensamientos desagradables -de fracaso o pesimistas-disminuye significativamente (Bratman, (Barrientos y DeJong 2006), la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS 2005) la define como "la percepción individual de la posición en la vida en el contexto de la cultura y el sistema de valores en el cual se vive y su relación con las metas, expectativas, estándares e intereses". Al aceptar las definiciones de los autores antes mencionados, la calidad de vida para los residentes de ciudades urbanizadas corresponde a su percepción, mediada por contenidos culturales, sociales y políticos, del entorno con el cual interactúan en su cotidianidad (Lefley y Hatfield 1999). ...
Este artículo aborda el incremento de la población urbana y la prevalencia del malestar psicosocial, con la finalidad de contribuir al mejoramiento de la calidad de vida desde el diseño de los espacios de uso público, considerando su rol en la vida social de los habitantes. Se realiza un recorrido conceptual sobre la calidad de vida en la ciudad desde la integración social y el bienestar psicosocial, poniendo énfasis en una aproximación conceptual transdisciplinar. El resultado debe corresponder a los usos, motivaciones e intenciones de quienes utilizarán el espacio público contribuyendo a su calidad de vida y lo que entienden por ello. Aventuramos una definición de calidad de vida que incluye un conjunto de descriptores especificados para el posterior proceso de diseño.
This paper addresses urban population growth and the prevalence of psychosocial discomfort in order to use the design of public spaces to help improve the quality of life of people, considering the role of public spaces in community life. There is a conceptual journey covering the quality of life in the city, looking at social integration and psychosocial wellbeing and putting an emphasis on a transdisciplinary conceptual approach. The result must match the uses, motivations, and intentions of those who use public spaces, helping to improve their quality of life and the way they understand it. We venture a definition of quality of life including a set of descriptors specified for the subsequent design process.
Child nutrition, health and development are closely tied to maternal nutrition, health and well-being. The underlying drivers of poor maternal and child nutritional outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa are structural in nature. These risks include social, economic, and environmental factors that together compound vulnerability to poor outcomes. Poverty, as a driver of poor maternal and child health outcomes, is an important determinant that is both a cause and a consequence of malnutrition. The United Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s conceptual model for determinants of maternal and child nutrition outcomes released in 2020, is the agency’s latest iteration of child nutrition frameworks. The model identifies the underlying causes of malnutrition as extending beyond food and diets, to include household level dynamics, maternal factors, and the external environment. The manuscript discusses UNICEF’s conceptual model and its applicability in sub-Saharan Africa. It also considers the evidence on interventions aimed at addressing maternal and child nutrition in the region and the location of social protection among these policy tools, with a special focus on the extent to which these resonate with the conceptual model. It concludes by considering the conditions required for social protection instruments to work in the region and similar settings in the Global South. In this way, the manuscript provides a critical reflection about the role of social protection as a nutrition-sensitive instrument in sub-Saharan Africa, in the context of maternal and child nutrition outcomes.
Economic growth is commonly seen as the main driver of poverty reduction in a global perspective, but its impact varies substantially across cases. Meanwhile, the literature has been relatively silent regarding the role of social policy in explaining this variation. In light of an emerging attention to redistribution and social protection in promoting inclusive growth, this article analyses how government cash transfer systems moderate the effect of economic growth on both relative and absolute child poverty across low- and middle-income countries. The empirical analyses compare trends within 16 countries, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), by means of descriptive analyses and multivariate regression techniques. Findings show that both economic growth and the expansion of government transfer schemes were associated with falling absolute child poverty rates. While the association between growth and relative child poverty was on average more muted, the analyses found growth to be related to reductions in relative child poverty when combined with sufficiently extensive government transfers, while the opposite effect was found in the face of inadequate levels of transfers. The study provides a framework for studying interrelated effects of national institutions and economic processes, with the findings highlighting the fruitfulness of including indicators on social protection policies when inquiring about enabling conditions for inclusive growth in a development context.
We examine the impact of unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) on fertility. We develop a theoretical model that demonstrates how UCTs affect fertility decisions, time allocations for leisure, labor and childrearing, and child health through health spending. We then empirically examine the impact of UCTs on fertility in Pakistan. Our theoretical model suggests that under certain conditions, UCTs are likely to increase fertility if UCTs increase child health regardless of how they affect parental leisure, labor and childrearing time. The empirical results suggest that UCTs have a positive effect on fertility.
Neoliberalism is often studied as a political ideology, a government program, and even as a pattern of cultural identities. However, less attention is paid to the specific institutional resources employed by neoliberal administrations, which have resulted in the configuration of a neoliberal state model. This accessible volume compiles original essays on the neoliberal era in Latin America and Spain, exploring subjects such as neoliberal public policies, power strategies, institutional resources, popular support, and social protest. The book focuses on neoliberalism as a state model: a configuration of public power designed to implement radical policy proposals. This is the third volume in the State and Nation Making in Latin America and Spain series, which aims to complete and advance research and knowledge about national states in Latin America and Spain.
Background
Unconditional cash transfers (UCTs; provided without obligation) for reducing poverty and vulnerabilities (e.g. orphanhood, old age, or HIV infection) are a social protection intervention addressing a key social determinant of health (income) in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). The relative effectiveness of UCTs compared with conditional cash transfers (CCTs; provided only if recipients follow prescribed behaviours, e.g. use a health service or attend school) is unknown.
Objectives
To assess the effects of UCTs on health services use and health outcomes in children and adults in LMICs. Secondary objectives are to assess the effects of UCTs on social determinants of health and healthcare expenditure, and to compare the effects of UCTs versus CCTs.
Search methods
For this update, we searched 15 electronic academic databases, including CENTRAL, MEDLINE and EconLit, in September 2021. We also searched four electronic grey literature databases, websites of key organisations and reference lists of previous systematic reviews, key journals and included study records.
Selection criteria
We included both parallel‐group and cluster‐randomised controlled trials (C‐RCTs), quasi‐RCTs, cohort studies, controlled before‐and‐after studies (CBAs), and interrupted time series studies of UCT interventions in children (0 to 17 years) and adults (≥ 18 years) in LMICs. Comparison groups received either no UCT, a smaller UCT or a CCT. Our primary outcomes were any health services use or health outcome.
Data collection and analysis
Two review authors independently screened potentially relevant records for inclusion, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. We obtained missing data from study authors if feasible. For C‐RCTs, we generally calculated risk ratios for dichotomous outcomes from crude frequency measures in approximately correct analyses. Meta‐analyses applied the inverse variance or Mantel‐Haenszel method using a random‐effects model. Where meta‐analysis was impossible, we synthesised results using vote counting based on effect direction. We assessed the certainty of the evidence using GRADE.
Main results
We included 34 studies (25 studies of 20 C‐RCTs, six CBAs, and three cohort studies) involving 1,140,385 participants (45,538 children, 1,094,847 adults) and 50,095 households in Africa, the Americas and South‐East Asia in our meta‐analyses and narrative syntheses. These analysed 29 independent data sets. The 24 UCTs identified, including one basic universal income intervention, were pilot or established government programmes or research experiments. The cash value was equivalent to 1.3% to 81.9% of the annualised gross domestic product per capita. All studies compared a UCT with no UCT; three studies also compared a UCT with a CCT. Most studies carried an overall high risk of bias (i.e. often selection or performance bias, or both). Most studies were funded by national governments or international organisations, or both.
Throughout the review, we use the words 'probably' to indicate moderate‐certainty evidence, 'may/maybe' for low‐certainty evidence, and 'uncertain' for very low‐certainty evidence.
Health services use
We assumed greater use of any health services to be beneficial. UCTs may not have impacted the likelihood of having used any health service in the previous 1 to 12 months, when participants were followed up between 12 and 24 months into the intervention (risk ratio (RR) 1.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00 to 1.09; I2 = 2%; 5 C‐RCTs, 4972 participants; low‐certainty evidence).
Health outcomes
At one to two years, UCTs probably led to a clinically meaningful, very large reduction in the likelihood of having had any illness in the previous two weeks to three months (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.92; I2 = 53%; 6 C‐RCTs, 9367 participants; moderate‐certainty evidence). UCTs may have increased the likelihood of having been food secure over the previous month, at 13 to 36 months into the intervention (RR 1.25, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.45; I2 = 85%; 5 C‐RCTs, 2687 participants; low‐certainty evidence). UCTs may have increased participants' level of dietary diversity over the previous week, when assessed with the Household Dietary Diversity Score and followed up 24 months into the intervention (mean difference (MD) 0.59 food categories, 95% CI 0.18 to 1.01; I2 = 79%; 4 C‐RCTs, 9347 participants; low‐certainty evidence). Despite several studies providing relevant evidence, the effects of UCTs on the likelihood of being moderately stunted and on the level of depression remain uncertain. We found no study on the effect of UCTs on mortality risk.
Social determinants of health
UCTs probably led to a clinically meaningful, moderate increase in the likelihood of currently attending school, when assessed at 12 to 24 months into the intervention (RR 1.06, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.09; I2 = 0%; 8 C‐RCTs, 7136 participants; moderate‐certainty evidence). UCTs may have reduced the likelihood of households being extremely poor, at 12 to 36 months into the intervention (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.87 to 0.97; I2 = 63%; 6 C‐RCTs, 3805 participants; low‐certainty evidence). The evidence was uncertain for whether UCTs impacted livestock ownership, participation in labour, and parenting quality.
Healthcare expenditure
Evidence from eight cluster‐RCTs on healthcare expenditure was too inconsistent to be combined in a meta‐analysis, but it suggested that UCTs may have increased the amount of money spent on health care at 7 to 36 months into the intervention (low‐certainty evidence).
Equity, harms and comparison with CCTs
The effects of UCTs on health equity (or unfair and remedial health inequalities) were very uncertain. We did not identify any harms from UCTs. Three cluster‐RCTs compared UCTs versus CCTs with regard to the likelihood of having used any health services or had any illness, or the level of dietary diversity, but evidence was limited to one study per outcome and was very uncertain for all three.
Authors' conclusions
This body of evidence suggests that unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) may not impact a summary measure of health service use in children and adults in LMICs. However, UCTs probably or may improve some health outcomes (i.e. the likelihood of having had any illness, the likelihood of having been food secure, and the level of dietary diversity), two social determinants of health (i.e. the likelihoods of attending school and being extremely poor), and healthcare expenditure. The evidence on the relative effectiveness of UCTs and CCTs remains very uncertain.
This paper addresses a humanitarian logistics problem connected with the Syrian refugee crisis. The ongoing conflict in Syria has caused displacement of millions of people. Cash-based interventions play an important role in aiding people in the post-crisis period to enhance their well-being in the medium and longer term. The paper presents a study on how to design a network of administrative facilities to support the roll-out of cash-based interventions. The resulting multi-level network consists of a central registration facility, local temporary facilities, mobile facilities and vehicles for door-to-door visits. The goal is to reach the maximum number of eligible beneficiaries within a specified time period while minimizing logistics costs, subject to a limit on total security risk exposure. A mixed integer programming model is formulated to optimize the inter-related facility location and routing decisions under multiple objectives. The authors develop a hierarchical multi-objective metaheuristic algorithm to obtain efficient solutions. An application of the model and the solution algorithm to real data from a region in the southeast of Turkey is presented, with associated managerial insights.
We examine the impact of unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) on child labour and educational outcomes. We first develop a simple theoretical model where we explore how government transfers financed by labour income taxation affect household decisions on child labour and education. We then empirically examine the impact of Pakistan’s Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), which is the largest cash transfer program in South Asia, on child labour and school outcomes. We employ a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to estimate the average effect of the UCTs on child labour and school outcomes, and find that UCTs have a positive and statistically significant impact on school enrolment and grade promotion, but no impact on school dropout rates in the short run. The BISP policy intervention increases grade promotion among boys but not among girls. In the short run, the BISP substantially reduces dropout for boys but increases substantially for girls. With regards to child labour, we find that the BISP policy intervention has no impact on child labour in the short run; but in the medium to long run, cash transfers help to reduce child labour among boys as well as girls. In the short run, however, the BISP increases child labour among girls but not boys. These findings are largely consistent with our theoretical predictions and also robust to a series of robustness and sensitivity checks.
Yoksulluk, genel olarak insanlığın ve toplumların hayatlarının devamı için bulunması gereken kaynaklara erişimde karşılaşılan sorunlar ile meydana gelir. Çocuk yoksulluğu, beraber yaşanılan ailenin yoksulluğu sebebiyle çocuğun; fiziksel, ruhsal ve sosyal gelişimi ve ilerlemesi için gerekli imkanlara erişilememesi veya kısıtlı bir şekilde erişilmesi durumudur. Yoksulluk türlerinin etnik özellikler dalında incelenen bir tür de Roman yoksulluğudur. Roman adı ile bilinen topluluk, başlangıcının Hindistan’a dayandığı bir geçmişe sahiptir. Günümüzde Roman ismi ile adlandırılmalarının yanında Çingene ismi ile de çağırılmaktadırlar. Toplum tarafından dışlanarak, bir takım sosyal ortamlardan izole edilen ve ötekileştirilmeleri sonucunda, çalışma hayatında da aktif rol alamayan Roman topluluğu, yoksulluğa itilen bir topluluk şeklini almıştır. Sahip olunan kültürel özelliklerin sonucunda toplum tarafından dışlanma ile yoksul bırakılan roman ailenin çocuğu yoksulluğu daha farklı yaşamaktadır. Bu çalışma, Roman çocuğun içinde bulunduğu yoksul durumu ve bunun neticesinde ihtiyaçlarına erişememe durumunun nedenleri ve sonuçlarını incelemek amacıyla gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma sahasında mevcut bulunan yoksulluk durumunun bireysel ve toplumsal nedenleri mülakat yapılarak incelenmiştir. İncelemede, hanede bulunan aile büyükleri ile mülakat yapılmış ve mülakatlar NVIVO12 nitel veri yöntemi ile analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda Roman çocuk yoksulluğunun bireysel nedenlerle birlikte toplumsal nedenlere de bağlı olduğu anlaşılmıştır. Yoksulluğun bireysel nedeninin, sahip olunan etnik ve kültürel özelliklerden kaynaklandığı, toplumsal nedeninin ise kapitalizm ve küreselleşme sonucunda iş piyasalarındaki değişiklikler neticesinde işsiz kalındığı sonucuna varılmıştır.
This chapter presents the context of social policies in Latin America, within which the CCTs and their main characteristics were generated. In the first place, a brief definition of the programs is presented and then the socio-economic and political context in which they arise is explained. Next section seeks to provide an overview of the CCTs in the region, showing their development and the characteristics that explain their relevance. Likewise, the two initial and emblematic cases, Oportunidades from Mexico and Bolsa Família from Brazil, are discussed, which are essential to understand the diffusion of CCTs in the region. Finally, the existing arguments in the literature about the diffusion of the CCTs of the region, and the questions that emerge for the development of this research are addressed.
Poverty has significant and lasting adverse impacts on child development. In recent decades, Cash transfer (CT) programs are widely used to address child poverty, and have become one of the most important social-protection programs for improving welfare outcomes of children. This study evaluates the effects of the rural-China School Subsidy Program (SSP) on compulsory student academic, cognitive achievement, and enrollment outcomes. Instituted in 2006, the program targets students from poor families in rural areas, who receive cash transfers of about 1000 yuan (US$150) per year, or 15% of the average per capita disposable rural income. Our sample is drawn from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), and includes 3552 compulsory students in rural China. In the data analysis, we employed the difference-in-differences model with propensity score matching (PSM-DID), and the logit model. Our results show that the program significantly increases student enrollment, but has no effect on academic performance or cognitive achievement. Further, the positive enrollment effects of the program are greater for students with less-educated fathers. The results are robust across alternative matching methods. Our findings suggest that the program results in partial improvement to student enrollment in rural areas, but that more support is needed for improving overall student welfare. One concern in implementing the SSP is that due to the lack of effective supervision, teachers are more likely to offer subsidies to students with high academic standing. This will reduce the welfare improvement effect of SSP.
Targeting of Transfers in Developing Countries: Review of Lessons and Experience reviews the lessons learned from 122 antipoverty interventions in 47 transition and developing countries to quantify targeting outcomes and their determinants and to inform the design and implementation of common targeting methods. In addition to providing co mparative quantitative analysis on targeting outcomes and their determinants, the authors provide a qualitative treatment of common targeting methods. In each case, they review international experiences: how the methods work, what determines how well they work, what costs are likely to be incurred, and what are appropriate circumstances for use. The authors also provide a brief review of targeting, discussing the benefits and costs of targeting, methods for assessing targeting performance, and a taxonomy of targeting methods. The findings include the following: • Targeting has the po tential to increase the effectiveness of these interventions; the median program transfers 25 percent more to the poor than a universal or random allocation. However, targeting is not assured to work: about 25 percent of targeted programs actually delivered to the poor less than a universal or random allocation would have. • No sing le preferred method has emerged for all types of programs or all country contexts. Indeed, of all variation observed in targeting outcomes, only 20 percent was accounted for by the choice of targeting method. Means testing, geographic targeting, and self-selection based on a work requirement are the most robustly progressive methods. Proxy means testing, community-based targeting, and demographic targeting to young children can be progressive but demonstrate large variability in outcomes. Demographic targeting to the elderly, subsidization of food commodities, and community bidding for projects show limited potential for good outcomes. • Successful outcomes are critically dependent on the method of implementation.
Governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland implemented reforms of family benefits in the mid-1990s. What were the common features of those reforms and what were the possible effects on child poverty? Based on household micro data, trends in poverty among children, large families and single parents are presented for two data points: one before and one after the restrictive reforms in family policies. The focus of the analysis is on changes in the effectiveness of benefits on child poverty reduction. Child poverty increased during the observed period in all three countries, despite the efforts of governments to smooth the harmful effects of the economic downturn. Large differences in poverty levels and patterns between the three countries persisted. A relative worsening of the income position of children was accompanied by an increased level of targeting, reflected in general attempts to exclude higher-income groups from the benefit regimes. The results in the paper suggest that social transfers in general, and family benefits in particular, contributed to reduce significantly child poverty in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. However, reduction rates decreased between the early and the later 1990s. Current and future reform considerations should therefore include the objective to reverse this trend.
South Africa's social insurance system presently reaches the top half of the income distribution, i.e. most formally employed, but the magnitude of the benefits still leaves much of the labour force inadequately protected. Some of the poor are reached by social assistance measures, but such spending is already high for a developing country and fiscal constraints place limits on its expansion. Schemes for expanding social security thus need to be realistic and incremental. Using poverty dominance analysis and cumulative density curves, poverty was found to be much worse for young children (0–6), older children (7–14), discouraged work seekers and members of female‐headed households than for the population as a whole. Three areas were identified that‐would seem to hold some promise for incrementally expanding social security: expanding coverage of social insurance, expanding social assistance (particularly child support grants) and low‐wage public employment schemes. Whilst unemployment is rampant, it will remain difficult to plug all holes in the social safety net. Sustained economic growth remains the necessary, albeit insufficient, condition for substantial poverty reduction.
The paper lists estimates of chronic poverty incidences in 25 countries. Research reveals its 'patterns' and socio-economic 'correlates', but hardly 'explanations'. The patterns are three (economic insecurity, short-range mobility and path dependency) and the correlates are four (spatial, demographics and household type, human capital and labour, and physical assets). Important similarities are observed between developing and affluent countries in such patterns and correlates. In countries of vastly differing wealth, apparently people face some similar problems in fully participating and the burden of poverty is unequally shared over time, i.e. chronic poverty. Recognizing this, the paper draws on research in affluent countries centred more closely on life experiences. Such 'lifefull' approaches to chronic poverty contrast with present 'lifeless' approaches in developing countries. Useful explanations should understand the reversibility of chronic poverty, timeliness of reversals and relevance of outcomes.
Incl. bibl., abstract. During the past decade, the use of conditional cash transfer programs to increase investment in human capital has generated considerable excitement in both research and policy forums. This article surveys the existing literature, which suggests that most conditional cash transfer programs are used for essentially one of two purposes: restoring efficiency when externalities exist or improving equity by targeting resources to poor households. The programs often meet their stated objectives, but in some instances there is tension between the efficiency and equity objectives. The overall impact of a program depends on the gains and losses associated with each objective.
The paper estimates the impact on school attendance and child labor of conditional cash payments to poor families in Brazil. It describes Brazil's transfer programs and presents statistics on school attendance and child labor. In the second half of the 1990s, many municipalities had adopted the "Bolsa Escola" (a cash transfer conditional on school attendance) and/or the federal minimum income program (in place during 1999 and 2000 and replaced by the "Bolsa Escola Federal" in 2001). Although conditional cash transfer programs in Brazil have been in place since 1996, studies on their ex-post impact are very few. Micro household level data from the 2000 Census allows the use of propensity score methods to estimate the impact of income transfers on child labor and school attendance. The paper finds that income transfer programs had no significant effect on child labor but a positive and significant impact on school attendance. These preliminary results suggest that these programs have not been effective in fighting child labor in Brazil. They increase the chance of a poor child going to school but do not reduce her labor activity perhaps because she prefers to combine school and labor, considering that the transfers are too small to provide an incentive to forgo the labor income.
Much attention has been paid to the relative vulnerability of two well-defined household groups during the transition. Some observers argue that old-age pensioner households have been relatively protected because of a less steep decline in real pensions compared with wages in most transition economies. By contrast, households with young children are believed to have experienced a substantial decline in living standards under reform and show strikingly higher rates of measured poverty than pensioner households. But others argue that the elderly have suffered more than the young during the transition. Can these conflicting viewpoints about the relatively poverty of old and young households be arbitrated? The authors show that strong (though implicit) assumptions underpin certain poverty comparisons. Notably, using a per capita measure of individual welfare assume that there are no economies of scale in household consumption, in the sense that the per capita cost of reaching a specific level of welfare does not fall as household size increases. Relaxing that assumption could affect comparisons, showing higher poverty rates among the elderly because their households tend to be smaller than the households containing children. Even the nature of the transition has implications for economies of scale. The relative cost of housing and other goods and services with at least some public-good characteristics has risen rapidly. These relative price shifts hit small households particularly hard, because a greater share of their expenditures goes to public and quasi-public goods. But transition economies have also experienced big increases in the relative prices of goods and services consumed largely by children, such as kindergarten and other education services. These increases affect younger households more. Since there is no accepted way to establish the true extent of economies of scale in a given country, the question can't be answered exactly. But clearly a small departure from a per capita measure may be enough in some cases to overturn the conventional relative ranking of poverty headcounts: poverty among the elderly may then turn out to be worse than among children.
This paper examines the reach and impact of the South African Child Support Grant, using longitudinal data collected through the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies. The grant is being taken up for a third of all age-eligible resident children, and appears to be reaching those children living in the poorer households of the demographic surveillance area (DSA). Children who received the grant are significantly more likely to be enrolled in school in the years following grant receipt than are equally poor children of the same age. However, older brothers and sisters of grant recipients, when they were observed at younger ages, were less likely than other children to be enrolled in school - perhaps reflecting the greater poverty in grant-receiving households. Thus the grant appears to help overcome the impact of poverty on school enrolment.
During the past decade, the use of conditional cash transfer programs to increase investment in human capital has generated considerable excitement in both research and policy forums. This article surveys the existing literature, which suggests that most conditional cash transfer programs are used for essentially one of two purposes: restoring efficiency when externalities exist or improving equity by targeting resources to poor households. The programs often meet their stated objectives, but in some instances there is tension between the efficiency and equity objectives. The overall impact of a program depends on the gains and losses associated with each objective. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.
Child poverty and the well-being of children is an important policy issue throughout the industrialised world. Some 47 million children in ‘rich’ countries live in families so poor that their health and well-being are at risk. The main themes addressed in this book are: the extent and trend of child poverty in industrialised nations; outcomes for children – for example, the relationship between childhood experiences and children's health; country studies and emerging issues; and child and family policies. All the contributions underline the urgent need for a comprehensive policy to reduce child poverty rates and to improve the well-being of children. Findings are clearly presented and key focus points are identified for policy makers to consider.
This revised edition includes a new foreword and an updated introduction and conclusion providing insights into the key issues. The book's contributors are all leading experts in their fields, and have studied the extent of child poverty, its consequences for children and the effectiveness of policies of prevention.
The family is a remarkable institution. And a complex one. Indeed, so complex that much of economic theory proceeds as if no such thing exists. In the standard theory of prices and equilibrium (the most elegant version of which is to be found in the theory of general equilibrium), individuals and firms are visible, but definitely no families. The individual owns resources, sells them, earns an income, buys goods and services, and has utilities. The firm buys resources, makes commodities, sells them, makes profits, and gives incomes to individual owners. So the story runs, with no family in sight – and children neither heard nor seen.
Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Developing Countries Lawrence Haddad. John Hoddinott. and Harold Alderman. eds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the author(s) and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations or to members of its Board of Executive Directors or the countries they represent. Social Safety Net Primer Series The World Bank Social Safety Nets Primer is intended to provide a practical resource for those engaged in the design and implementation of safety net programs around the world. Readers will find information on good practices for a variety of types of interventions, country contexts, themes and target groups, as well as current thinking of specialists and practitioners on the role of social safety nets in the broader development agenda. Primer papers are designed to reflect a high standard of quality as well as a degree of consensus among the World Bank safety nets team and general practitioners on good practice and policy. Primer topics are initially reviewed by a steering committee composed of both World Bank and outside specialists, and draft papers are subject to peer review for quality control. Yet the format of the series is flexible enough to reflect important developments in the field in a timely fashion. The primer series contributes to the teaching materials covered in the annual Social Safety Nets course offered in Washington DC as well as various other Bank-sponsored courses. The Social Safety Nets Primer and the annual course are jointly supported by the Social Protection unit of the Human Development Network and by the World Bank Institute. The World Bank Institute also offers customized regional courses through Distance Learning on a regular basis. For more information on the primer paper series and papers on other safety nets topics, please contact
The need for social safety nets has become a key component of poverty reduction strategies. Over the past three decades several developing countries have launched a variety of programs, including cash transfers, subsidies in-kind, public works, and income-generation programs. However, there is little guidance on appropriate program design, and few studies have synthesized the lessons from widely differing country experiences. This report fills that gap. It reviews the conceptual issues in the choice of programs, synthesizes cross-country experience, and analyzes how country- and region-specific constraints can explain why different approaches are successful in different countries.
In this paper, we explore the conditions of childhood that can lead to poverty throughout the lifecourse and affect transfers of poverty to the next generation. The largely inconclusive evidence base surrounding lifecourse and intergenerational poverty transmission is reviewed before a discussion of the key social processes and contexts that impact on childhood, lifecourse and intergenerational poverty. Prioritized issues––nutrition, childcare and guidance, education, child work, and aspirations and attitudes––are explored within the context of UNICEF’s basic framework of survival, protection, development and participation. The paper concludes with an analysis of elements of the wider environment, critical to enabling action in childhood to break poverty cycles.
The Welfare State is a key policy issue of the 1990s. The essays in this book depart from much of the recent economic debate in emphasising the positive contributions of the Welfare State, and in assessing its efficiency in relation to the objectives which it is intended to achieve. These objectives are not just the alleviation of poverty but more broadly the provision of security and the redistribution of income. Part A of the book sets the current debate in the context of the current evidence about income inequality and poverty in Europe. Part B analyses the existing role of the Welfare State, with particular reference to retirement pensions and unemployment benefit. Part C investigates proposals for reform and security. What is the case for greater targeting? How can we design a social safety net? What is the future of European social protection policy?
Incl. bibl., abstract. Several developing economies have recently introduced conditional cash transfer programs, which provide money to poor families contingent on certain behavior, usually investments in human capital, such as sending children to school or bringing them to health centers. The approach is both an alternative to more traditional social assistance programs and a demand-side complement to the supply of health and education services. Unlike most development initiatives, conditional cash transfer programs have been subject to rigorous evaluations of their effectiveness using experimental or quasi-experimental methods. Evaluation results for programs launched in Colombia, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Turkey reveal successes in addressing many of the failures in delivering social assistance, such as weak poverty targeting, disincentive effects, and limited welfare impacts. There is clear evidence of success from the first generation of programs in Colombia, Mexico, and Nicaragua in increasing enrollment rates, improving preventive health care, and raising household consumption. Many questions remain unanswered, however, including the potential of conditional cash transfer programs to function well under different conditions, to address a broader range of challenges among poor and vulnerable populations, and to prevent the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
A central issue for both economic and social policies aimed at addressing poverty is the appropriate role of the state, and the interaction between public and private measures of support. One tradition in economics has been concerned that public spending will 'crowd out' private savings and private pension provision. The substantial South African programme of state assistance to elderly people presents a unique opportunity to understand the impact of state intervention. The non-contributory old age pension raises household incomes, and 'crowds in' care of the elderly and of children, enhances household security, and stimulates the formation of very small businesses, as well as local markets. The positive performance of this programme, both in poverty reduction and as a development tool, is used to raise broader questions for international social policies which are designed on increasingly outdated notions of 'households' and of 'work'. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The aim of this paper is to measure the returns to migration using non-experimental data taking both observed and unobserved characteristics into account. A significant challenge related to migration research and the issues of unobserved heterogeneity is that the standard 2stage least squares estimator (2SLS) is strictly only applicable to situations with linear and continuous treatment and outcomes, both of which are not appropriate for models of migration and many outcomes of interest. Furthermore, migration is not always a binary process given that people migrate to city or non-city locations and some migrants do return. Introducing these multinomial treatment effects means that one cannot rely on standard 2SLS methods. Using panel data from Indonesia (Indonesia Family Life Survey—IFLS) and Mexico (Mexican Family Life Survey— MxFLS) and applying non-linear instrumental variable (Heckman’s treatment effects model) and maximum simulated likelihood models, we measure the impacts of migration on a broad range of variables that include socio economic outcomes such as consumption, nutrition, health status and emotional well-being for adult household members and health and schooling outcomes for children. We find consistent results for both countries that point to significant trade-offs related to migration. We found that migration can greatly improve socio-economic status through increases in income or consumption but can also be detrimental to the health status and emotional well-being of migrants and/or their extended families.
We quantify the lasting effects of childhood health and economic circumstances on adult health, employment and socioeconomic status, using data from a birth cohort that has been followed from birth into middle age. Controlling for parental income, education and social class, children who experience poor health have significantly lower educational attainment, poorer health, and lower social status as adults. Childhood health and circumstance appear to operate both through their impact on initial adult health and economic status, and through a continuing direct effect of prenatal and childhood health in middle age. Overall, our findings suggest more attention be paid to health as a potential mechanism through which intergenerational transmission of economic status takes place: cohort members born into poorer families experienced poorer childhood health, lower investments in human capital and poorer health in early adulthood, all of which are associated with lower earnings in middle age-the years in which they themselves become parents.
This article evaluates the impact of a large cash transfer program in South Africa on children's nutritional status and investigates whether the gender of the recipient affects that impact. In the early 1990s the benefits and coverage of the South African social pension program were expanded for the black population. In 1993 the benefits were about twice the median per capita income in rural areas. More than a quarter of black South African children under age five live with a pension recipient. Estimates suggest that pensions received by women had a large impact on the anthropometric status (weight for height and height for age) of girls but little effect on that of boys. No similar effect is found for pensions received by men. This suggests that the efficiency of public transfer programs may depend on the gender of the recipient. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.
"This document synthesizes the findings contained in a series of reports prepared by IFPRI for PROGRESA between November 1998 and November 2000... PROGRESA is one of the major programs of the Mexican government aimed at developing the human capital of poor households. Targeting its benefits directly to the population in extreme poverty in rural areas, PROGRESA aims to alleviate current and future poverty levels through cash transfers to mothers in households.... One of the most important contributions of IFPRI's evaluation of PROGRESA has been the continuation of the program in spite of the historic change in the government of Mexico in the 2000 elections. The overwhelming (and unprecedented) evidence that a poverty alleviation program shows strong signs of having a significant impact on the welfare and human capital investment of poor rural families in Mexico has contributed to the decision of the Fox administration to continue with the program and to expand its coverage in the poor urban areas of the country after some improvements in the design of the program.... The majority of the improvements in the design of PROGRESA (renamed Oportunidades by the Fox administration) were based on findings of the evaluation of PROGRESA that revealed areas of needed improvements in some of the structural components and the operation of the program... Yet in spite of these improvements in the program, the evaluation findings suggest that some issues remain to be resolved." from Text
In this paper, we examine how the design of cash transfer schemes influences household welfare outcomes with particular reference to the influence of transfers on conditioned outcomes, such as schooling, health and investment. We do this by examining two innovative cash transfer schemes initiated by the Mexican government in the last decade: PROGRESA, which is a national antipoverty scheme directed at chronic rural poverty, and PROCAMPO, which is a scheme designed to compensate farmers for the negative price effects of NAFTA. The schemes differ in that PROGRESA is targeted at women and conditioned on schooling and health outcomes and PROCAMPO is generally targeted at men and conditioned on land use. The analysis of data collected for an evaluation of PROGRESA suggest that the overall effects of the programs, as measured by total and food consumption expenditure, are not different. However, PROGRESA leads to greater schooling expenditure and school attendance as well as increased health outcomes. On the other hand, PROCAMPO is found to lead to increased investment in agriculture. The results suggest that conditionality may have little effect in terms of short-term welfare outcomes, but do influence both longer-term (human capital) and medium term (productive) investment. Policy makers must consider both whether or not conditions should be placed on a program, and the type of condition, depending on what they perceive to be the desirables outcomes of the transfer scheme.
Workshop on Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes (CCTs): Operational Experiences
- Ayala Consulting
Ayala Consulting (2003) Workshop on Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes
(CCTs): Operational Experiences, Report. Quito: Ayala Consulting.
Childhood Poverty Research and Policy CentreResultados alcancados', www.mec.gov.br/bolsaescola Brazilian Court of Audit
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London: Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre. Bolsa Escola (2003) 'Resultados alcancados', www.mec.gov.br/bolsaescola Brazilian Court of Audit (2003) TCU Evaluation of the Child Labor Eradication Programme. Brasilia: SEPROG.
Policy Issues and Intrahousehold Resource Allocation: Conclusions Haddad et al
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Alderman, H., Haddad, L. and Hoddinott, J. (1997) 'Policy Issues and Intrahousehold
Resource Allocation: Conclusions', in Haddad et al.
Child Well-being, Child Poverty and Child Policy in Modern Nations: What do we know? Bristol: Policy Press Balancing Protection and Opportunity: A Strategy for Social Protection in Transition Economies
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