Cash transfers and children

From Wikiprogress.org

About

Cash transfers are social protection initiatives, designed to provide financial assistance to socio economically disadvantaged families and individuals. The funds are intended to be expended in a way that improves well-being through poverty alleviation and increasing access to health and education services.

Child health is directly linked to the environment in which children grow up. Children in poor households are more likely to die, experience irreversible effects from poor nutrition, have poor or no education, and are less likely to benefit from even a well functioning health-care system than children from well-off families.^[1]

How they assist children

Cash transfers provide a steady stream of income and help mitigate the impacts of unemployment, catastrophic illness, and other sudden income shocks on poor households.^[2]

In view of their increased vulnerability compared to adults, cash transfer social protection initiatives are particularly relevant to children, given the role they can play in addressing disadvantage by way of ensuring adequate nutrition, utilization of, and access to social services and, by buffering shocks.^[3] Reduced maternal stress brought about by this financial support may also positively impact on birth outcomes.^[4]

How they work

Many cash transfer programmes in the world are conditional whereby households are required to fulfill conditions linked to both educational attainment by children and regular health check-ups. ^[5] Their application is widespread throughout the world. A World Bank study estimates that at least 24 developing countries have a conditional cash transfer program in place, and many others have programs that transfer cash without conditions. In many cases, including in Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, and South Africa, the cash transfer program is the biggest safety net program in the country.^[6]

Most commonly transfers are made to women. There is some evidence that income controlled by women is spent in a way that benefits children more so than income controlled by men who spend less on nutritional food, health, and education services. By directing the money to women, it can also assist to empower their situation within the household.^[7]

How they are allocated

Household and individual eligibility to receive cash transfers is established using either poverty targeting, based on assessments of income, expenditure and asset ownership, or social categorisation, where households are deemed eligible if they are part of a particular social or demographic group. Within the latter option, everyone within the social category is deemed eligible and the approach is commonly termed universal. Some strategies combine poverty targeting and social categorisation and focus on the poor within each group. In general, universal programmes are rare, and where they exist in low income countries, they are limited to specific population groups, age groups, most commonly the elderly and children.^[8]

Results

Emerging data from cash transfer programmes, conditional or unconditional, largely dispel the counter arguments that these programmes prevent adults from seeking work or create dependency on assistance which perpetuates intergenerational poverty. On the contrary, evidence shows that children—especially girls—from households given cash transfers are more likely to be in education, are in school for longer, and have higher incomes as adults.^[9]

The effectiveness of cash transfers at addressing disadvantage in the early years have life long benefits. Early interventions, and in particular those in utero, have the potential to be particularly cost-effective because their benefits extend over a longer period of time and due to the possibility that they permanently affect the path of individual physiological and cognitive development.^[10]

• One study estimates that without family allowances child poverty in Hungary would have been 85 per cent higher, while in Poland it would have been a third higher.^[11]
• Mexico’s Progresa programme, which provided a range of cash benefits to poor households, is estimated to have reduced the poverty gap by 36 %, reduced child stunting and rates of adult and childhood illness in participating households, and increased school enrolments, particularly among girls and at secondary school.
•Brazil’s child labour eradication programme (PETI), which provides cash supplements to households where former child workers attend school at least 85 per cent of the time, achieved a significant reduction in the incidence of child labour and a rise in school enrolments and attainment.^[12]
• A study by the London School of Economics which focused specifically on Uruguay and children's birth outcomes found that participation in a generous cash transfer program contributed to a 15% reduction in the incidence of low birth weight ^[13].
• A study by the International Development Bank which focused on a program for young children in Nicaragua, found that cash transfers had a positive effect on child development, specifically regarding their cognitive development, and that there was no 'fade out' of impacts 2 years after the program and the transfers stopped ^[14]. Within this project no evidence was found to suggest that child development outcomes were better for households who received larger transfers, however other factors such as the social awareness marketing that accompanied the program and giving the transfers to women were deemed to have significantly contributed to the positive outcomes ^[15].

Measurement of results

Evaluations of cash transfer and conditional cash transfer programmes commonly measure recipients’ compliance with conditions (when applied) as well as changes in target areas comparing results pre and post intervention. Such areas include early childhood development indicators (Social-personal, language, fine motor, and gross motor skills) ^[16] education and health outcomes, housing conditions For example, an evaluation of a Chilean programme, Chile Solidario, measured changes in child school enrolment, child work (changes in hours worked an work intensity) and child enrolment in the public health system ^[17]

See also

Social Cohesion

References

1. ↑ [Yablonski J, O'Donnell M, 2009, Lasting Benefits: The role of cash transfers in tackling child mortality, Save the Children UK]
2. ↑ [The World Bank, 2009, Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty, World Bank Policy Research Report]
3. ↑ [UNICEF IRC 2012, Innovative Features in Conditional Cash Transfers: An Impact Evaluation of Chile Solidario on Households and Children, Innocenti Working Papers]
4. ↑ [Amarante V et al 2011, Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Social Security and Program Data, London School of Economics]
5. ↑ [UNICEF IRC 2012, Innovative Features in Conditional Cash Transfers: An Impact Evaluation of Chile Solidario on Households and Children, Innocenti Working Papers]
6. ↑ [Macours K et al (2008) Cash Transfers, Behavioural Changes, and the Cognitive Development of Young Children: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment, International Development Bank]
7. ↑ [Macours K et al (2008) Cash Transfers, Behavioural Changes, and the Cognitive Development of Young Children: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment, International Development Bank]
8. ↑ [Slater R, Farrington J, 2009, Cash transfers: targeting, Overseas Development Institute, Project Briefing, No 27 November 2009]
9. ↑ [Yablonski J, O'Donnell M, 2009, Lasting Benefits: The role of cash transfers in tackling child mortality, Save the Children UK]
10. ↑ [ Amarante V et al (2011) Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Social Security and Program Data, London School of Economics]
11. ↑ [Barrientos A, DeJong Jocelyn 2004, Child Poverty and Cash Transfers, Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre]
12. ↑ [Barrientos A, DeJong Jocelyn 2004, Child Poverty and Cash Transfers, Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre]
13. ↑ [Macours K et al (2008) Cash Transfers, Behavioural Changes, and the Cognitive Development of Young Children: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment, International Development Bank]
14. ↑ [Macours K et al (2008) Cash Transfers, Behavioural Changes, and the Cognitive Development of Young Children: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment, International Development Bank]
15. ↑ [Macours K et al (2008) Cash Transfers, Behavioural Changes, and the Cognitive Development of Young Children: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment, International Development Bank]
16. ↑ [Macours K et al (2008) Cash Transfers, Behavioural Changes, and the Cognitive Development of Young Children: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment, International Development Bank]
17. ↑ [UNICEF IRC 2012, Innovative Features in Conditional Cash Transfers: An Impact Evaluation of Chile Solidario on Households and Children, Innocenti Working Papers]