Can Conditional Cash Transfers Improve Education and Nutrition Outcomes for Poor Children in Bangladesh? Evidence from a Pilot Project

Ferre, Celine ; Sharif, Iffath

World Bank Group, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY;    ACCESS TO FACILITIES;    ACUTE MALNUTRITION;    AGED;    AGRICULTURAL LABORER;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7077
RP-ID  :  WPS7077

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

There is an increasing recognition thatinvestment in human development at an earlier age can have asignificant impact on the lifetime earnings capacity of anindividual. This notion is the basis for the popularity ofconditional cash transfer programs to help boost childhealth and education outcomes. The evidence on the impact ofconditional cash transfers on health and education outcomes,however, is mixed. This paper uses panel data from a pilotproject and evaluates the impact of conditional cashtransfers on consumption, education, and nutrition outcomesamong poor rural families in Bangladesh. Givenimplementation challenges the intervention was not able toimprove school attendance. However the analysis shows thatthe pilot had a significant impact on the incidence ofwasting among children who were 10-22 months old when theprogram started, reducing the share of children withweight-for-height below two standard deviations from theWorld Health Organization benchmark by 40 percent. The pilotwas also able to improve nutrition knowledge: there was asignificant increase in the proportion of beneficiarymothers who knew about the importance of exclusivelybreastfeeding infants until the age of six months.Theresults also suggest a significant positive impact on foodconsumption, especially consumption of food with highprotein content.