Using cash transfers to improve child health in low- and middle-income countries [1]

Read "Using cash transfers to improve child health in low- and middle-income countries," a J-PAL Policy Insight, here [2].

Children in low-income countries are twelve times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children in high-income countries. In this VoxDevTalk, Anupama Dathan discusses how evidence from 13 low- and middle-income countries shows that cash transfer programmes conditional on the use of health products and services such as preventive care visits and immunisation generally increase uptake and improve child health outcomes in the short term and can improve cognition and educational outcomes in the longer term. Cash transfers without these conditions are spent according to their current household priorities, which may not necessarily include preventive child health. While such transfers can have important non-health benefits, their effect on child health depends on the context and is typically smaller than that of conditional transfers.

 

Standfirst: 
Conditional cash transfers improve child health outcomes in the short term and can improve educational outcomes in the longer term
Interviewee: 
adathan [3]
Date Published: 
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Tags: 
conditional cash transfers [4]
child health [5]
educational outcomes [6]
Cover Image: 
Topic: 
Health & Education [7]
Related Content: 
Cash transfers and the wider economy: Evidence from Kenya [8]
The long-term effects of cash transfers: Mexico’s Progresa [9]
Complementing cash with information to reduce malnutrition: Evidence from Nepal [10]
Designing more effective interventions to prevent childhood stunting: Evidence from Nigeria [11]
What works when for early-childhood interventions? Evidence from Nigeria [12]
Embed Source: 
https://embeds.audioboom.com/posts/8107062/embed/v4
Photo Credit: 
© EC/ECHO/Anouk Delafortrie