Transfers, Diversification and Household Risk Strategies: Experimental Evidence with Lessons for Climate Change Adaptation

Macours, Karen; Premand, Patrick; Vakis, Renos

doi:10.1596/1813-9450-6053

Cited by 97 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…More recent impact evaluations of skills training for self employment and business development targeted at vulnerable individuals in Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, for instance, found generally positive effects on psycho-social well-being but mixed results in labor market outcomes (Cho et al 2012;Blattman et al, 2012;Casey et al, 2011, respectively). The complexity increases as the training programs combine other financial and advisory support especially for social assistance beneficiaries (Almeida and Galasso, 2009;Carneiro et al, 2009;Macours et al, 2012). And even the seemingly similar programs have heterogeneous results in different places (in Peru, business training programs from Karlan and Valdiva, 2011;in Tanzania, Berge et al 2011;in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bruhn and Zia, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entrepreneurship Programs in Developing Countries: A Meta Regression Analysis

Cho¹,

Honorati²

2013

Policy Research Working Papers

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entrepreneurship Programs in Developing Countries: A Meta Regression Analysis

Cho¹,

Honorati²

2013

Policy Research Working Papers

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“…Crop diversification is shown to help farmers deal with droughts in Nigeria (Mortimore and Adams 2001) and other shocks leading to crop failure in Ethiopia (Di Falco and Chavas 2009;Cavatassi et al 2011), while income and livelihood diversification are shown to help households deal with weather shocks in Zimbabwe and Nicaragua (Ersado 2003;Macours et al 2012). This chapter contributes to this literature with two case studies based on nationally representative data as well as high resolution historical data on climatic shocks.…”

Section: How Does Climate Change Enter the Picture?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversification as Part of a CSA Strategy: The Cases of Zambia and Malawi

Arslan

Asfaw

Cavatassi

et al. 2017

Climate Smart Agriculture

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Climate variability, associated with farm-income variability, is recognized as one of the main drivers of livelihood diversification strategies in developing countries. In this chapter, we present a synthesis of two comprehensive studies from Zambia and Malawi on the drivers of diversification and its impacts on selected welfare outcomes with a specific attention to climatic variables and institutions. We use geo-referenced farm-household-level data merged with data on historical rainfall and temperature as well as with administrative data on relevant institutions. The two case studies demonstrate that diversification is clearly an adaptation response, as long term trends in climatic shocks have a significant effect on livelihood diversification, albeit with different implications. Whereas the long term variation in growing period rainfall is associated with increased crop, labour and income diversification in Malawi, it is only associated with increased livestock diversification in Zambia. With regard to institutions, we find that access to extension agents positively and significantly correlates with crop diversification in both countries, underlining the role of extension in promoting more resilient farming systems in rural Zambia and Malawi. Fertilizer subsidies are among the most important agricultural policies in both countries, where they significantly affect incentives for income diversification -though in opposing ways -providing important policy implications. The two case studies document distinct ways in which incentives for livelihood diversification (measured along different dimensions) are shaped by increased variability in rainfall and rural institutions. The results also demonstrate that diversification can be an effective adaptation response and the risk-return trade-offs are not as pronounced as might be expected.

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“…Similarly, there is some evidence that cash payments from PES programs have an increasing role in landholders' risk management strategy because fixed, regular and predictable payments can help to reduce income fluctuation when returns on crop production vary with weather and market conditions (Pagiola 2008). Macours et al (2012) provide evidence from Nicaragua that combining CCT with complementary training and productive interventions can help households manage short-term risks and protect food consumption against weather shocks, and create the ability to undertake longer term adaptive practices.…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The experience of conditional cash transfers: Lessons for REDD+ benefit sharing

Wong¹

2014

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• Conditionality is a key element of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs and its use has broad political and social appeal. The use of intermediate indicators for ease of implementing conditionality and monitoring (e.g. school enrollment or visits to the clinic) may not fully capture the desired long-term outcomes (e.g. learning achievement or health indicators). The parallel for REDD+ is in choosing between simpler input-based conditionality indicators (e.g. number of trees planted, number of monitoring surveys carried out) or long-term outcome-based indicators (e.g. forest cover maintained, amount of carbon emissions reduced).• Conditionalities can create substantive costs and there is mixed evidence on their effect. Their relevance and feasibility depend on contextual factors such as politics, and the feasibility, desirability and capacity of countries to set and monitor conditions. • CCT programs often experience tension between efficiency and equity, where more complex eligibility criteria to ensure equity outcomes will entail higher costs to implement and to monitor. There is a similar tension for REDD+ in realizing objectives for effectiveness (e.g. households who are eligible based on their expected deforestation behavior) and equity (e.g. reaching the poorest households).• Additionality is an important component of CCT programs, and there is some evidence of positive spillovers on the behavior and consumption of households that do not receive the transfer. The magnitude of these spillovers depends on uptake rates, counterfactual compliance and distribution of the opportunity costs of compliance. For REDD+, there is a risk of negative spillovers if targeting is perceived as unfair, particularly by those who may be non-eligible because of the non-additionality of their behavior before payments (e.g. forest stewards).• The effect of additional cash inflows into a household economy has in some cases led to changes in consumption preferences that can have a negative impact on the environment, and in the case of REDD+, this could result in displacement of forest degradation activities elsewhere.• Evidence from CCT programs suggests that packaging complementary measures may be an effective way to address multiple goals of improved health and education outcomes with poverty alleviation and resilience to risks. The potential for linking REDD+ with social measures is an attractive solution to avoid over-burdening the REDD+ agenda.

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Transfers, Diversification and Household Risk Strategies: Experimental Evidence with Lessons for Climate Change Adaptation

Cited by 97 publications

References 35 publications

Entrepreneurship Programs in Developing Countries: A Meta Regression Analysis

Entrepreneurship Programs in Developing Countries: A Meta Regression Analysis

Diversification as Part of a CSA Strategy: The Cases of Zambia and Malawi

The experience of conditional cash transfers: Lessons for REDD+ benefit sharing

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