R4D Social Protection

ELLA Policy Brief: Implementing CCTs: Lessons from Latin America

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:25 GMT

Document Type: Briefing
Creator: Jaramillo, M.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Jaramillo, M. ELLA Policy Brief: Implementing CCTs: Lessons from Latin America. ELLA, Practical Action Consulting, Lima, Peru (2011) 5 pp.

Summary:

CCT programmes have had proven success in improving education and health outcomes, but that success depends on the quality and adequacy of implementation. Effective implementation must take into account each country’s context and the opportunities - and limits - of its own institutional capacity. It must consider technical, operational and socio-political factors, as all of these can influence the programme’s effectiveness. This Brief presents four main steps in implementing a successful CCT programme, and in each, draws on the Latin American experience to highlight key issues policymakers should consider when creating an implementation strategy in other contexts.

Key Lessons:

The Latin American experience shows a core set of considerations countries should keep in mind as they decide how best to adapt implementation strategies to reflect their local context.
Within each of the four key implementation steps identified, different considerations become important, from available technology and financial systems, to quality of services and the structure of the conditionality. Capacity and availability of quality information are important to consider across all of the four steps.

ELLA Policy Brief: Improving Health and Education Through CCTs.

Wed, 16 May 2012 05:02 GMT

Document Type: Briefing
Creator: Jaramillo, M.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Jaramillo, M. ELLA Policy Brief: Improving Health and Education Through CCTs. ELLA, Practical Action Consulting, Lima, Peru (2011) 5 pp.

Summary:

One of the worst characteristics of poverty is its tendency to self-perpetuate, with poor families often being forced to under-invest in their children's health and education. In Latin America, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes have been effective in ensuring higher school attendance and greater health services use, both of which are valuable inputs for human capital development and future productivity. However, CCT evaluations have had a harder time identifying effects on health and education impacts. This brief describes how Latin American countries have used CCTs to improve health and education, the results achieved, and lessons learned for improving health and education in other settings.

Key Lessons:

CCTs have proven to be effective in increasing school attendance and access to health services.
However, it has been more difficult to identify improvements in education and health outcomes and long-term impacts.
Supply side interventions are important to assure that increasing service use has an impact on education and health outcomes.

ELLA Policy Brief: Designing an Effective CCT.

Wed, 16 May 2012 04:08 GMT

Document Type: Briefing
Creator: Jaramillo, M.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Jaramillo, M. ELLA Policy Brief: Designing an Effective CCT. Practical Action Consulting, Lima, Peru (2011) 5 pp.

Summary:

Latin American countries have used specific CCT design elements – like amount of cash transfer or particular conditionalities like attending school or health check-ups – to foster investment in children’s development to reduce future poverty. But CCTs' effectiveness depends on the quality of the programme’s design, and in particular, the synergy between the chosen design and the desired objective. This brief analyses the most important CCT design elements from the Latin American experience - the target population, incentives and conditionalities, and entry and exit rules - to help other countries as they make design decisions to adapt CCTs to their own contexts.

Key Lessons:

Be specific about the problem to be solved and design the CCT accordingly. All design decisions must come back to the objective.
Good information is key, both about the local context and about families' constraints in investing in human capital. From there, creative use of design elements will help a CCT best reflect a country's specific experience and ultimately make it more successful.

ELLA Guide: CCT programmes: An overview to the Latin American experience

Wed, 16 May 2012 02:06 GMT

Document Type: Briefing
Creator: Jaramillo, M.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Jaramillo, M. ELLA Guide: CCT programmes: An overview to the Latin American experience. ELLA, Practical Action Consulting, Lima, Peru (2011) 7 pp.

Summary:

Born in Latin America, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes target poor families, offering cash subsidies in exchange for a commitment by households to invest in the human capital of their children. Backed up by country examples, this guide provides an overview to CCT programmes in Latin America, including their history, objectives and use, evidence of their impact, and finally, the main lessons coming out of Latin America that can be useful for policymakers considering implementing CCTs in their own countries.

Key Lessons:

Although cash transfers help families confront short-term poverty, it is the establishment of conditionalities that motivate human capital investments - CCTs' principal innovation - that can help beneficiary households escape long-term poverty.
Latin American experience suggests that it is possible and indeed necessary to adapt the programmes to a country's particular context in order to be successful.
Including rigorous impact evaluations as part of CCT implementation is an effective way to assess programme effectiveness, make improvements and promote CCTs worldwide.

Protocol - What are the economic impacts of Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes: a Systematic Review of the Evidence

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:55 GMT

Document Type: Protocol
Creator: Kabeer, N.; Piza, C.; Taylor, L.

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Kabeer, N.; Piza, C.; Taylor, L. Protocol - What are the economic impacts of Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes: a Systematic Review of the Evidence. (2012) 12 pp.

Summary: This is the protocol for a systematic review of the evidence of the economic impacts of conditional cash transfer programmes.

Gendered Impacts of Globalization: Employment and Social Protection

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:44 GMT

Document Type: Working Paper
Creator: Razavi, S.; Arza, C.; Braunstein, E.; Cook, S.; Goulding, K.

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Razavi, S.; Arza, C.; Braunstein, E.; Cook, S.; Goulding, K. Gendered Impacts of Globalization: Employment and Social Protection. UNRISD Gender and Development Programme Papers (2012) No. 16, 101 pp.

Summary: This paper examines how globalisation affects gendered access to employment and social protection, with a particular focus on informal employment, and the implications of these connections for policy and practice. It reviews available evidence on the interconnections between policies associated with globalisation on the one hand, and gender structures within labour markets and systems of social protection, on the other. The paper reports that processes of globalization have coincided with women's increasing labour force participation, empowering some. However, it has also coincided with an increase in informal and unprotected forms of work, and unfavourable working conditions for many. Structural conditions in global production chains where women workers are concentrated have made it difficult to see improvements in wages and working conditions, and significant gender pay gaps exist. The paper also outlines some evidence on social and economic policy options to address these challenges.

A 36 pp. overview of the programme paper is also appended.

Continuity and Change in Poor Children’s Lives: Evidence from Young Lives

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 07:15 GMT

Document Type: Book Chapter
Creator: Boyden, J.; Hardgrove, A.; Knowles, C.

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Boyden, J.; Hardgrove, A.; Knowles, C. Continuity and Change in Poor Children’s Lives: Evidence from Young Lives. In: Minujin, A.; Nady, S. (Editors). Global child poverty and well-being. Measurement, concepts, policy and action. Policy Press, Bristol, UK (2012) ISBN 9781847424815

Summary: This chapter outlines some early findings from Young Lives concerning trends in child welfare and the dynamics of child poverty, in particular looking at how poverty is transmitted across generations. Based on data collected when the children were aged 5 and 12, they conclude that economic growth itself will not solve the problems associated with poverty in childhood, and in some instances can accentuate inequalities. They also conclude that the experience of deprivations in childhood cast a very long shadow for children as they grow and develop, and that properly designed social policies can have a protective effect against economic shocks (such as the global financial crisis).

Seasonality, Rural Livelihoods and Development

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:57 GMT

Document Type: Book
Creator: Devereux, S.; Sabates-Wheeler, R.; Longhurst, R. (Editors)

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Devereux, S.; Sabates-Wheeler, R.; Longhurst, R. (Editors) Seasonality, Rural Livelihoods and Development. Routledge, (2011) 334 pp. ISBN 978-1-84971-325-2 [Paperback], 978-1-84971-324-5 [Hardback]

Summary: Seasonality is a severe constraint to sustainable rural livelihoods, and a driver of poverty and hunger, particularly in the tropics. Many poor people in developing countries are ill equipped to cope with seasonal variations which can lead to drought or flood and consequences for agriculture, employment, food supply and the spread of disease. The subject has assumed increasing importance as climate change and other forms of development disrupt established seasonal patterns and variations.

This book is the first systematic study of seasonality for over twenty years, and it aims to revive academic interest and policy awareness of this crucial but neglected issue. Thematic chapters explore recent shifts with profound implications for seasonality, including climate change, HIV/AIDS, and social protection. Case study chapters explore seasonal dimensions of livelihoods in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi), Asia (Bangladesh, China, India), and Latin America (Peru). Others assess policy responses to adverse seasonality, for example through irrigation, migration and seasonally-sensitive education.

Targeting the extreme poor: Some learning from shiree

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:51 GMT

Document Type: Briefing
Creator: Marsden, H.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Marsden, H. Targeting the extreme poor: Some learning from shiree. Shiree, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2011) 4 pp. [Research for Action Brief 1]

Summary: Reviews shiree experience with different approaches to targeting the extreme poor, as well as the implications of these best practices for other livelihood and social protection programmes.

Extreme Poor Adivasis and the Problem of Accessing Social Safety Nets. Briefing Paper.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:19 GMT

Document Type: Briefing
Creator: NETZ Bangladesh

Production Year: 2011

Citation: NETZ Bangladesh. Extreme Poor Adivasis and the Problem of Accessing Social Safety Nets. Briefing Paper. (2011) 5 pp.

Summary: This Briefing Paper is based on Shiree Working Paper No. 4. It summarises the findings and recommendations from a study exploring the factors behind the extremely poor Adivasis’ (meaning indigenous people) scarce access to government-funded social safety nets (SSNs).