Schooling impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program in Mali

Schooling impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program in Mali
Author: Sessou, Eric
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2022-10-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

In rural West Africa, the rate of out-of-school children is high and delayed entry to primary school is common, particularly for girls. Using the randomized roll-out of an unconditional cash transfer program (Jigisemejiri) in Mali, we examine its impact on child schooling by age and sex. The program leads to significant improvements in schooling outcomes for girls, but not boys. Improvements among girls are especially salient among younger (ages 6–9) and older (ages 15–18) girls. Pathway analysis reveals that the program reduces the time younger girls spend in agricultural work at home and the time older girls spend in domestic work as well as self-employment. Households in the program also spend more on education for older girls in terms of school fees, materials, and transport.

Cash Transfers and School Enrolment

Cash Transfers and School Enrolment
Author: Eric Sessou
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

Using a randomized experiment in Mali, this study investigates whether Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) targeted to men and intended to reduce poverty and food insecurity impact children's schooling. Although the school-aged children are not the primary target of the program, we look to see if the transfers have any impact on the children's school enrolment. Results indicate that the transfers have no significant effect on school enrolment for children age 7-16. However, disaggregating by gender and age, results show the program increases girl’s school enrolment at primary school by 8 percentage points and by 6 percentage points for primary school and low secondary school. There is so significant effect on boys' school enrolment. We provide potential mechanisms through which the UCT impacts school enrolment.

Designing Cost-Effective Cash Transfer Programs to Boost Schooling Among Young Women in Sub-Saharan Africa

Designing Cost-Effective Cash Transfer Programs to Boost Schooling Among Young Women in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Sarah Baird
Publisher:
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

As of 2007, 29 developing countries had some type of conditional cash transfer program in place, with many others planning or piloting one. However, the evidence base needed by a government to decide how to design a new conditional cash transfer program is severely limited in a number of critical dimensions. This paper presents one-year schooling impacts from a conditional cash transfer experiment among teenage girls and young women in Malawi, which was designed to address these shortcomings: Conditionality status, size of separate transfers to the schoolgirl and the parent, and village-level saturation of treatment were all independently randomized. The authors find that the program had large impacts on school attendance: The re-enrollment rate among those who had already dropped out of school before the start of the program increased by two and a half times and the dropout rate among those in school at baseline decreased from 11 to 6 percent. These impacts were, on average, similar in the conditional and the unconditional treatment arms. Although most schooling outcomes examined here were unresponsive to variation in the size of the transfer to the parents, higher transfers given directly to the schoolgirls were associated with significantly improved school attendance and progress - but only if the transfers were conditional on school attendance. There were no spillover effects within treatment communities after the first year of program implementation. Policymakers looking to design cost-effective cash transfer programs targeted toward young women should note the relative insensitivity of these short-term program impacts with respect to conditionality and total transfer size.

The Impact of Cash Transfers on School Enrollment: Evidence from Ecuador

The Impact of Cash Transfers on School Enrollment: Evidence from Ecuador
Author: Juan Ponce, Hessel Oosterbeek, Norbert Schady
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2008
Genre: Cash transfer programs
ISBN:

Abstract: This paper presents evidence about the impact on school enrollment of a program in Ecuador that gives cash transfers to the 40 percent poorest families. The evaluation design consists of a randomized experiment for families around the first quintile of the poverty index and of a regression discontinuity design for families around the second quintile of this index, which is the program's eligibility threshold. This allows us to compare results from two different credible identification methods, and to investigate whether the impact varies with families' poverty level. Around the first quintile of the poverty index the impact is positive while it is equal to zero around the second quintile. This suggests that for the poorest families the program lifts a credit constraint while this is not the case for families close to the eligibility threshold.

Evaluating the impacts of the FAO’s Cash+ Programme in Mali

Evaluating the impacts of the FAO’s Cash+ Programme in Mali
Author: Dao, T.H., Daidone, S., Kangasniemi, M.
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 61
Release: 2021-05-27
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9251343101

This report presents findings from a study of the economic and food security impacts of the FAO project "Productive safety nets as a tool to reinforce the resilience in the Sahel" (hereinafter referred to as the project/programme Cash+) that took place from April 2015 to February 2017. The project aimed to strengthen the resilience of households vulnerable to shocks and heavily affected by food insecurity and was carried out in two countries: Mali and Mauritania. Unconditional in-cash and in-kind transfers were distributed to the most vulnerable households, which also benefited from other training and technical activities which aimed to strengthen their productive capacity. This report focuses on Mali, where the FAO Cash+ project targeted 36 villages in the Nioro Cercle (“Cercle de Nioro du Sahel”) of Kayes region. Two sets of intervention of equal financial value have been provided to the beneficiaries: i) one called "Cash Only" consisting primarily of a cash transfer and ii) another called "Cash+" associating a cash transfer with distribution of goats, training on good practices of livestock breeding and raising awareness of children's nutrition. The main objective of this report is evaluating the impacts of the FAO’s Cash+ programme in Mali and investigating eventual heterogenous effects of the two types of treatment. Using data collected nine months after the project ended, we analyse its lasting impacts across various livelihood aspects, namely food security, dietary diversity, hygiene practices, food and non-food expenditures, livestock production, non-farm activities, aspirations and expectations.