Limited research has been conducted on migrants' decision making factors in transit and this is an important area of investigation that goes beyond the origin-destination country dichotomy most commonly represented in migrant decision making. This paper examines the decision making factors for onwards migration or stay of migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria in Greece and Turkey. This paper is based on a unique dataset of surveys collected with 1056 migrants in Athens and Istanbul from May-July 2015. The decision for onwards migration or stay is examined through a probit regression analysis. Four categories of influencing variables are discussed: the country of origin, current conditions in the transit country, the initial migration destination choice and previous onwards migration attempts. The results demonstrate that first; the majority of respondents in both countries seek to migrate onwards (75% in Greece and 63% in Turkey) and that conditions in the transit country are highly significant in influencing onwards migrate decisions including their current subjective living conditions, employment, experiences of abuse, and speaking the local language. This paper contextualizes the findings and highlight the complexity of factors influencing migrants' decision making in Greece and Turkey. ARTICLE HISTORY

This paper empirically evaluates the wellbeing of elderly individuals 'left behind' by their adult migrant children in Moldova. Using data from a nationally representative household survey conducted in - in Moldova, the wellbeing outcomes of elderly individuals aged  and older with and without adult children living abroad are compared (N = ,). A multi-dimensional wellbeing index is constructed on the basis of seven indicators within four dimensions of wellbeing: physical health, housing, social wellbeing and emotional wellbeing. Probit regressions are used to predict the probability of an elderly individual being considered well in each indicator and then on total index level. The results reveal that elderly persons with an adult migrant child have a higher probability of being well in one physical health indicator. Following correction for the selectivity of migration using an instrumental variable approach, however, the migration of an adult child is no longer found to predict significantly the wellbeing of their elderly parents in any dimension, suggesting that migration bears limited consequences for elderly wellbeing.

Using household survey data collected between September 2011 and December 2012 from Moldova and Georgia, this paper measures and compares the multidimensional well-being of children with and without parents abroad. While a growing body of literature has addressed the effects of migration for children ‘left behind’, relatively few studies have empirically analysed if and to what extent migration implies different well-being outcomes for children, and fewer still have conducted comparisons across countries. To compare the outcomes of children in current- and non-migrant households, this paper defines a multidimensional well-being index comprised of six dimensions of wellness: education, physical health, housing conditions, protection, communication access, and emotional health. This paper challenges conventional wisdom that parental migration is harmful for child well-being: while in Moldova migration does not appear to correspond to any positive or negative well-being outcomes, in Georgia migration was linked to higher probabilities of children attaining well-being in the domains of communication access, housing, and combined well-being index. The different relationship between migration and child well-being in Moldova and Georgia likely reflects different migration trajectories, mobility patterns, and levels of maturity of each migration stream.

Large numbers of South Africans receive social grants (public transfers) or remittances (private transfers), and yet one in four South Africans is food insecure. The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: do social grants and remittances improve food security and nutritional outcomes? If so, do these impacts differ between public and private transfers? Drawing on the National Income Dynamic Survey (NIDS), South Africa's first nationally representative survey that follows more than 28,000 individuals over time, we found significant and positive impacts of the Older Person's Grant and of remittances on the dietary diversity index, but not of the Child Support Grant. Moreover, we found no effect on food expenditure or on anthropometry (BMI) by the Older Person's Grant, or remittances. However, some positive effects were found on children's BMI from the Child Support Grant. We discuss why we observe different effects from different transfers, as well as giving several reasons why income transfers are failing to close the nutritional deficits in South Africa.

Background HIV testing remains low among adolescents. Making public health services more adolescent-friendly is one strategy used to encourage testing. However, it remains unclear whether government-led initiatives have a meaningfully impact. Methods The current study is observational and utilizes two sources of data (health-facility and adolescent-level) from one round of data collection of an on-going, longitudinal impact evaluation of a pilot cash plus program targeting adolescents. This study linked data from adolescent surveys (n = 2191) to data collected from nearby government-run health facilities (n = 91) in two rural regions of Tanzania. We used log binomial regression models to estimate the association between specific adolescent-friendly health service (AFHS) characteristics and adolescents’ uptake of 1) HIV testing and 2) visiting a health care facility in the past year for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Results Most adolescents (67%) lived in a village with a health facility, and all offered HIV services. We find, however, that AFHS have not been fully implemented. For example, less than 40% of facilities reported that they had guidelines for adolescent care. Only 12% of facilities had a system in place for referral and follow-up with adolescent clients, yet this was an important predictor of both past-year HIV testing (RR = 1.28, p < 0.1) and SRH visits (RR = 1.44, p < 0.05). Less than half (44%) offered services for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), a significant predictor of past-year HIV testing (RR = 1.20, p < 0.05) and SRH visits (RR = 1.41, p < 0.01) among sexually-active adolescents. Conclusions We find that national guidelines on AFHS have not been fully translated into practice at the local level. We highlight particular gaps in adolescent referral systems and GBV services. Scaling up these two essential services could encourage greater HIV testing among a high-risk population, in addition to providing much needed support for survivors of violence.

Poverty is a structural driver of risky sexual behaviors. While cash transfers can mitigate some of this risk, complementary interventions have been posited as a way to further reduce multidimensional vulnerability. We examine the impacts of a multicomponent intervention targeted to Tanzanian adolescents on their sexual behaviors and reproductive health. The intervention comprised livelihood and life skills training, mentoring, and health facilities’ strengthening. Data come from a cluster randomized controlled trial, where one study arm received the intervention and the other was randomized to control, but both arms participated in a government cash transfer program. Among 1,933 adolescents interviewed over three rounds, we found increases in contraceptive and HIV knowledge. The program also increased health seeking and HIV testing among boys, but slightly reduced age at sexual debut among girls. There were no impacts on contraceptive use, number of sexual partners, or pregnancy. Findings support the value of an adolescent intervention, and the fact that it was delivered within a social protection platform suggests a potential for scalability. Additional efforts are required to delay sexual debut and reduce the number of sexual partners and pregnancy, possibly through addressing supply‐side barriers and social norms, or through additional linkages to economic opportunities.

Do remittances and social assistance have different impacts on household expenditure patterns? While two separate strands of literature have looked at how social assistance or remittances have been spent, few studies have compared them directly. Using data from a nationally representative household survey conducted in Moldova in 2011, this paper assesses the impact both types of transfers have on household expenditure patterns. Contrary to the common assumption that money is fungible, we find that social assistance and remittances have different impacts on expenditure patterns (having controlled for potential endogeneity). This research highlights that income source matters and that different incomes may have different poverty impacts. In our sample, the two types of transfers are received by different, but to some extent overlapping population groups. The fact that the two transfers are spent in different ways means that, to some extent, social assistance and remittances are complements rather than substitutes.

Background Ethiopia piloted community-based health insurance in 2011, and as of 2019, the programme was operating in 770 districts nationwide, covering approximately 7 million households. Enrolment in participating districts reached 50%, holding promise to achieve the goal of Universal Health Coverage in the country. Despite the government’s efforts to expand community-based health insurance to all districts, evidence is lacking on how enrolment in the programme nudges health seeking behaviour among the most vulnerable rural households. This study aims to examine the effect of community-based health insurance enrolment among the most vulnerable and extremely poor households participating in Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme on the utilisation of healthcare services in the Amhara region. Methods Data for this study came from Amhara pilot integrated safety net programme baseline survey in Ethiopia and were collected between December 2018 and February 2019 from 5,398 households. We used propensity score matching method to estimate the impacts of enrolment in community-based health insurance on outpatient, maternal, and child preventive and curative healthcare services utilisation. Results Results show that membership in community-based health insurance increases the probabilities of visiting health facilities for curative care in the past month by 8.2 percentage points (95% CI 5.3 to 11.1), seeking care from a health professional by 8.4 percentage points (95% CI 5.5 to 11.3), and visiting a health facility to seek any medical assistance for illness and check-ups in the past 12 months by 13.9 percentage points (95% CI 10.5 to 17.4). Insurance also increases the annual household per capita health facility visits by 0.84 (95% CI 0.64 to 1.04). However, we find no significant effects of community-based health insurance membership on utilisation of maternal and child healthcare services. Conclusions Findings that community-based health insurance increased outpatient services utilisation implies that it could also contribute towards universal health coverage and health equity in rural and informal sectors. The absence of significant effects on maternal and child healthcare services may be due to the free availability of such services for everyone at the public health facilities, regardless of insurance membership. Outpatient services use among insured households is still not universal, and understanding of the barriers to use, including supply-side constraints, will help improve universal health coverage.