The Impacts of Safety Nets in Africa : What Are We Learning?

Ralston, Laura ; Andrews, Colin ; Hsiao, Allan

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: SOCIAL ASSISTANCE;    SAFETY NET;    CASH TRANSFERS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8255
RP-ID  :  WPS8255

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Safety nets in Africa are a popularpolicy instrument to address the widespread chronic povertyand encourage human capital investments in the education andhealth of children. Although there have been considerableanalyses on the impacts of safety nets globally,particularly in Latin America, less been done onsynthesizing results across Sub-Saharan African programs.This study fills this gap by systematically extracting andstandardizing the results across impact evaluations forbetter understanding of what has been achieved using thispolicy instrument in the continent. The study finds thatthese programs on average have significant positive impactson total and food consumption. The programs show promisingresults on asset accumulation, such as livestock ownership.However, there is substantial heterogeneity in the impactsachieved across programs for some development outcomes.Through exploring this heterogeneity in impacts, the studyputs forward several suggestions for better targetingvarious development outcomes through modifications in thedesign and implementation of safety net programs.