The Impacts of Safety Nets in Africa

Safety nets in Africa are a popular policy instrument to address the widespread chronic poverty and encourage human capital investments in the education and health of children. Although there have been considerable analyses on the impacts of safety nets globally, particularly in Latin America, less been done on synthesizing results across Sub-Saharan African programs. This study fills this gap by systematically extracting and standardizing the results across impact evaluations for better understanding of what has been achieved using this policy instrument in the continent. The study finds that these programs on average have significant positive impacts on total and food consumption. The programs show promising results on asset accumulation, such as livestock ownership. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in the impacts achieved across programs for some development outcomes. Through exploring this heterogeneity in impacts, the study puts forward several suggestions for better targeting various development outcomes through modifications in the design and implementation of safety net programs.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ralston, Laura, Andrews, Colin, Hsiao, Allan
Format: Working Paper biblioteca
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2017-11
Subjects:SOCIAL ASSISTANCE, SAFETY NET, CASH TRANSFERS,
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/436571511364314467/The-impacts-of-safety-nets-in-Africa-what-are-we-learning
https://hdl.handle.net/10986/28916
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!