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We use a set of randomized experiments to examine the impact of a group business development program implemented by the Tanzanian government, along with a set of complementary training and cash transfer interventions. In contrast with much of the recent literature, we find little effect of the business development program. While most enterprises remain operative three years after formation, even our highest estimates of effective wage rates suggest returns roughly equivalent to the opportunity cost of time. Trainings on business skills and group transparency did not improve outcomes, although they appear to have exerted a redistributive effect. Unconditional and unanticipated lump-sum cash transfers to randomly selected members of these groups induce all members to invest more in the enterprise, with seemingly little to no return on these marginal investments. Our results emphasize the importance of profitability as the key motivation for asset transfer-based social protection programs.

Economic assistance --- Poverty --- Prevention.

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As of 2007, 29 developing countries had some type of conditional cash transfer program in place, with many others planning or piloting one. However, the evidence base needed by a government to decide how to design a new conditional cash transfer program is severely limited in a number of critical dimensions. This paper presents one-year schooling impacts from a conditional cash transfer experiment among teenage girls and young women in Malawi, which was designed to address these shortcomings: conditionality status, size of separate transfers to the schoolgirl and the parent, and village-level saturation of treatment were all independently randomized. The authors find that the program had large impacts on school attendance: the re-enrollment rate among those who had already dropped out of school before the start of the program increased by two and a half times and the dropout rate among those in school at baseline decreased from 11 to 6 percent. These impacts were, on average, similar in the conditional and the unconditional treatment arms. Although most schooling outcomes examined here were unresponsive to variation in the size of the transfer to the parents, higher transfers given directly to the schoolgirls were associated with significantly improved school attendance and progress - but only if the transfers were conditional on school attendance. There were no spillover effects within treatment communities after the first year of program implementation. Policymakers looking to design cost-effective cash transfer programs targeted toward young women should note the relative insensitivity of these short-term program impacts with respect to conditionality and total transfer size.

Dropout from school --- Dropout rate --- Education --- Education for All --- Enrollment rate --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Literacy --- Low educational attainment --- Lower levels of education --- Number of dropouts --- Population Policies --- Poverty Monitoring and Analysis --- Primary Education --- Primary level --- Reading --- Rural Education --- School attendance --- School children --- School dropouts --- School enrollment --- School fees --- School girls --- School year --- Schooling --- Schools --- Secondary school --- Tertiary Education

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Despite their explicit focus on reaching the poor, many community driven development (CDD) projects have been found to be only mildly pro-poor in their funding allocations. This paper presents evidence of an explanation that has been overlooked in the CDD literature to date: the requirement that beneficiaries must apply for projects in order to receive support. The authors first examine data on the universe of project applications and funding under Tanzania's flagship CDD program, Tanzania's Social Action Fund, and then use a census of 100 program villages to examine the determinants of both program awareness and program participation at the household level. The data paint a consistent picture at both levels: wealth, access to information, and political capital are important correlates of the ability to navigate the application process successfully. The centrally dictated features of this decentralized program appear to be the most effective mechanisms in directing funds to the poor. The results suggest that unless demand-driven projects can develop ways of soliciting engagement from a broader cross-section of the population, they are unlikely to achieve truly progressive targeting.

Community Driven Development --- Elite Capture --- Housing & Human Habitats --- Poverty --- Poverty Monitoring & Analysis --- Poverty Reduction --- Regional Economic Development --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Services & Transfers to Poor --- Social Development --- Targeting

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In this paper, the authors investigate the effect of positive income shocks on the mental health of adolescent girls using experimental evidence from a cash transfer program in Malawi. They find that the provision of monthly cash transfers had a strong beneficial impact on the mental health of school-age girls during the two-year intervention. Among baseline schoolgirls who were offered unconditional cash transfers, the likelihood of suffering from psychological distress was 38 percent lower than the control group, while the same figure was 17 percent if the cash transfers offers were made conditional on regular school attendance. The authors find no impact on the mental health of girls who had already dropped out of school at baseline. The beneficial effects of cash transfers were limited to the intervention period and dissipated quickly after the program ended.

Adolescent Girls --- Cash Transfers --- Disease Control & Prevention --- Health Monitoring & Evaluation --- Health Systems Development & Reform --- Mental Health --- Population Policies --- Poverty Reduction --- Randomized Intervention

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As of 2007, 29 developing countries had some type of conditional cash transfer program in place, with many others planning or piloting one. However, the evidence base needed by a government to decide how to design a new conditional cash transfer program is severely limited in a number of critical dimensions. This paper presents one-year schooling impacts from a conditional cash transfer experiment among teenage girls and young women in Malawi, which was designed to address these shortcomings: conditionality status, size of separate transfers to the schoolgirl and the parent, and village-level saturation of treatment were all independently randomized. The authors find that the program had large impacts on school attendance: the re-enrollment rate among those who had already dropped out of school before the start of the program increased by two and a half times and the dropout rate among those in school at baseline decreased from 11 to 6 percent. These impacts were, on average, similar in the conditional and the unconditional treatment arms. Although most schooling outcomes examined here were unresponsive to variation in the size of the transfer to the parents, higher transfers given directly to the schoolgirls were associated with significantly improved school attendance and progress - but only if the transfers were conditional on school attendance. There were no spillover effects within treatment communities after the first year of program implementation. Policymakers looking to design cost-effective cash transfer programs targeted toward young women should note the relative insensitivity of these short-term program impacts with respect to conditionality and total transfer size.

Dropout from school --- Dropout rate --- Education --- Education for All --- Enrollment rate --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Literacy --- Low educational attainment --- Lower levels of education --- Number of dropouts --- Population Policies --- Poverty Monitoring and Analysis --- Primary Education --- Primary level --- Reading --- Rural Education --- School attendance --- School children --- School dropouts --- School enrollment --- School fees --- School girls --- School year --- Schooling --- Schools --- Secondary school --- Tertiary Education