Education conditional cash transfer programs may increase school attendance in part due to the information they transmit to parents about their child's attendance.
... See More + This paper presents experimental evidence that the information content of an education conditional cash transfer program, when given to parents independently of any transfer, can have a substantial effect on school attendance. The effect is as large as 75 percent of the effect of a conditional cash transfer incentivizing parents, and not significantly different from it. In contrast, a conditional transfer program incentivizing children instead of parents is nearly twice as effective as an "information only" treatment providing the same information to parents about their child's attendance. Taken together, these results suggest that children have substantial agency in their schooling decisions. The paper replicates the findings from most evaluations of conditional cash transfers that gains in attendance achieved by incentivizing parents financially do not translate into gains in test scores. But it finds that both the information only treatment and the alternative intervention incentivizing children substantially improve math test scores.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8476 JUN 14, 2018
De Walque,Damien B. C. M.; Valente,ChristineDisclosed
This book provides users an understanding of key social protection concepts and measurement metrics and introduces them to the ADePT SP software, which is used to conduct social protection performance analysis.
... See More + It presents the main concepts of social protection, including the typology of programs and their objectives. Because these objectives often include poverty and inequality, the concepts of poverty and inequality are also discussed in relation to social protection with the appropriate reference to the ADePT Poverty and Inequality software and book (Foster and others 2013). This manual describes methodologies for assessing social protection and discusses how measurement metrics, such as the poverty impact, require understanding the underlying mechanisms and often use multiple indicators. Attention is therefore given to a holistic approach of analysis so that the relationship between indicators can be better understood, as well as ways to use this analysis to improve policies and programs to maximize outcomes. This book is arranged as follows: Following Introduction, Chapters 2 and 3 guide the reader to a deeper comprehension of the main concepts and the methods for measurement; and Chapters 4 and 5 then explain how to generate and interpret the indicators and extrapolate the possible implications for social protection policy and particular programs.
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Almost half the population remain poor, but the proportion has increased in rural areas and decreased in urban areas. Poverty stands at 48.6 percent nationally and almost 70 percent in rural areas; 21.3 percent are extreme poor, rising to 32.2 percent in rural areas5.
... See More + The poverty rate hasn’t changed much in five years. The poor rely heavily on subsistence agriculture for income generation, while informal jobs are predominant in urban areas. The population is growing quickly, moving from rural to urban areas, and an increasing share of young people are suffering from unemployment or underemployment. Emigration rates are also exceptionally high, providing remittances but draining the country's future economic potential. The Government has recognized the importance of coupling growth with social protection to reduce poverty. The Government’s National Development Plan (NDP) recognizes that economic stabilization and growth must be accompanied by an investment in the Gambian people in order to reach its development goals: to build the requisite human capital, improve living standards and power the economy. Social protection can support the poorest to participate in inclusive growth and economic development. A strong set of social protection guiding documents have been prepared. A National Social Protection Policy (NSPP) (2015-25) was developed by the Government of the Gambia with the support of development partners through a participatory process. It defines the Government’s SP vision and agenda, and proposes a set of priority actions to guide the gradual establishment of an integrated and inclusive social protection system in The Gambia. The NSPP is supported by a Social Protection Implementation Plan (SPIP) (2015-20), which defines a set of activities to implement the policy over the medium-term. However, the Implementation Plan is not accompanied by a financing plan to show how various activities will be funded nor does it articulate who is responsible for implementing the various activities. A minimum SP intervention package6 was defined in 2015, identifying several social protection focus areas, aligned with the life-cycle approach. These cover the life stages with the most at-risk vulnerabilities: cash transfers for pregnant women and infants; school meals; youth empowerment; and social pension for the elderly.
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