Assets for Alimentation? The Nutritional Impact of Assets-based Programming in Niger

Brück, Tilman; Botía, Oscar Mauricio Díaz; Ferguson, Neil T. N.; Ouédraogo, Jérôme; Ziegelhöfer, Zacharias

doi:10.1080/00220388.2019.1687876

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Transfers appear to raise off-farm labour participation, but the transfer modality does not change the impact. However, unlike de Hoop, Groppo, and Handa (2017) and Brück, Díaz Botía, Ferguson, Ouédraogo, and Ziegelhöfer (2019), the study did not find that transfers increase labour participation by children. These results should, however, be interpreted with caution because the timing of the survey impedes the ability to disentangle transfer impacts from the effect of the start of the school year.…”

Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 81%

Comparing the Productive Effects of Cash and Food Transfers in a Crisis Setting: Evidence from a Randomised Experiment in Yemen

Schwab

2019

The Journal of Development Studies

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The productive impacts of transfer programmes have been receiving increased attention. However, little is known about such effects in emergency and crisis settings. Even less is known about whether transfer typea food basket or a cash grantinfluences the productive potential of such transfers. Theory suggests that cash transfers can relieve liquidity constraints associated with investments, but subsidised food provision, by acting as a form of insurance, may prevent households from retreating to conservative income-generating strategies during volatile periods. This report contrasts the effects of transfer modality during a randomised field experiment in Yemen. The results demonstrate a modest productive impact of both modalities and suggest a role for liquidity and price risk channels. Cash transfer recipients invested relatively more in activities with higher liquidity requirements (livestock), while food recipients incorporated higher-return crops into their agricultural portfolios.

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Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 81%

Comparing the Productive Effects of Cash and Food Transfers in a Crisis Setting: Evidence from a Randomised Experiment in Yemen

Schwab

2019

The Journal of Development Studies

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“…Moreover, impacts on welfare and behaviour are often assumed rather than tested and quantified, and systematic learning for programme design and modalities is rare (Martin-Shields & Stojetz, 2019;Brück et al, 2019b). We are aware of only a handful of studies of food security interventions based on credible counterfactuals in conflict-affected settings, none of them from Syria (Aurino et al, 2019;Brück et al, 2019c;Ecker et al, 2019;Schwab 2019;Tranchant et al, 2019;Vallet et al, 2021). How and if a complex agricultural intervention improves food and nutritional security, and how it strengthens the resilience of households against recurring shocks remains broadly understudied.…”

Section: Contribution To the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Seeds for recovery: The long-term impacts of a complex agricultural intervention on welfare, behaviour and stability in Syria (SEEDS)

Baliki¹,

Weiffen²,

Daccache³

et al. 2023

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There is scarce evidence on whether and how assistance in humanitarian emergencies and conflict settings impacts household well-being and behaviour. Conducting rigorous impact evaluations in such settings poses multiple challenges in design and data collection. In SEEDS, we evaluate the impact of a complex large-scale multi-arm agricultural intervention on productivity, food security, and resilience in the context of an on-going humanitarian crisis in Syria. Specifically, we identify the causal impacts of agricultural asset transfers over various time horizons (the short-, medium-, and long-run), and across different conditions and subgroups (gender and conflict intensity) at the household-level. We evaluate the effectiveness of irrigation rehabilitation separately at the community-level. We use and combine various data sources, including a unique survey panel dataset collected over a period of four years from multiple governorates in Syria, satellite remote-sensing data, and publicly available violent conflict incidence and weather data. Our findings from using cutting-edge machine and deep learning approaches together with innovative balancing and analytical methods can be summarised as follows: For average treatment effects at the household-level, we find that the provision of agricultural asset support leads to significant improvements in food security in the short- and long-term, three years after the intervention. The positive and significant effect on food security is driven mainly by the increased consumption of healthy food items such as vegetables. In the long-run, livestock support reduces the use of harmful coping strategies households employ to deal with food shortages. Interestingly, we find that households who received vegetable kits are not just less likely to sell their productive assets in the long-term but also are less likely to marry off their young daughters or send their children to work. Overall, we find that both agricultural and livestock asset support is key to improving households’ resilience in the long-term. The irrigation rehabilitation interventions at the community-level positively affected agricultural productivity compared to the pre-intervention and pre-conflict periods. However, these effects were only significantly pronounced in the spring season. As for the heterogeneity analysis, we find that female-headed households benefit remarkably more in terms of food security in the medium-term compared to male-headed families. Moreover, households residing in areas that are moderately affected by violent conflict show stronger food security improvements compared to households from peaceful or conflict-intense settings. Overall, we draw three overarching lessons from our findings in SEEDS: First, agricultural support in protracted conflict settings effectively improves the long-term welfare and resilience of vulnerable households. In fact, the presence of an ongoing humanitarian operation acts as a social safety net if circumstances deteriorate suddenly. Second, not all interventions are equally effective, and not all households equally benefit, underscoring the need to design and implement inclusive context-specific interventions with detailed targeting. Third, methodologically, using multiple remote data sources and machine learning methods help overcome challenges in conducting rigorous impact evaluations in hard-to-reach humanitarian emergency settings.

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How to Target Households in Adaptive Social Protection Systems? Evidence from Humanitarian and Development Approaches in Niger

Schnitzer

2019

The Journal of Development Studies

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The methods used to identify the beneficiaries of programmes aiming to address persistent poverty and shocks are subject to frequent policy debates. Relying on panel data from Niger, this report simulates the performance of various targeting methods that are widely used by development and humanitarian actors. The methods include proxy-means testing (PMT), household economy analysis (HEA), geographical targeting, and combined methods. Results show that PMT performs more effectively in identifying persistently poor households, while HEA shows superior performance in identifying transiently food insecure households. Geographical targeting is particularly efficient in responding to food crises, which tend to be largely covariate. Combinations of geographical, PMT, and HEA approaches may be used as part of an efficient and scalable adaptive social protection system. Results motivate the consolidation of data across programmes, which can support the application of alternative targeting methods tailored to programme-specific objectives.

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Assets for Alimentation? The Nutritional Impact of Assets-based Programming in Niger

Cited by 7 publications

References 47 publications

Comparing the Productive Effects of Cash and Food Transfers in a Crisis Setting: Evidence from a Randomised Experiment in Yemen

Comparing the Productive Effects of Cash and Food Transfers in a Crisis Setting: Evidence from a Randomised Experiment in Yemen

Seeds for recovery: The long-term impacts of a complex agricultural intervention on welfare, behaviour and stability in Syria (SEEDS)

How to Target Households in Adaptive Social Protection Systems? Evidence from Humanitarian and Development Approaches in Niger

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