#8 POLICY LESSONS ON SOCIAL PROTECTION GENDER INNOVATION LAB FEDERATION EVIDENCE SERIES GENDER INNOVATION LAB FEDERATION The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) Federation is a World Bank community of practice coordinated by the Gender Group that brings together the Bank’s five regional GILs: Africa (AFR), East Asia and Pacific (EAP), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Middle East and North Africa (MNA), and South Asia (SAR). Together, they are conducting impact evaluations of development interventions to generate evidence and lessons on how to close gender gaps in human capital, earnings, productivity, assets, voice and agency. With over 188 impact evaluations in 66 countries completed to date, the GIL Federation is building the evidence base for governments, development organizations, and the private sector to increase uptake of effective policies that address the underlying causes of gender inequality. Several circumstances make women more activities. Bundles usually include the transfer of a large vulnerable to economic shocks than men. Women agricultural asset, a monetary stipend, training support, are more likely than men to be out of the labor force due health support, encouragement to save, and life skills to care responsibilities. When they work, women are training. A paper combining randomized controlled more likely to have low-paying jobs in the informal trials (RCTs) from six countries finds significant effects sector. Moreover, women have lower access to financial on women’s earning and economic activity (mainly services and other strategies to mitigate shocks. rising livestock),3 and a study in Bangladesh finds that effects are large at the community level and persistent Social protection systems can enable women to cope even after seven years.4 with and adapt to economic shocks.1 In particular, adaptative social protection systems can help identify The SAR GIL studied the effects of a program that the differential needs of women to prepare support offered a one-time "big-push" package to women from mechanisms and build the resilience of poor and the poorest households in Afghanistan.5 Women in the vulnerable households before, during, and after large treatment group received a package that included a cash transfer plus livestock assets, skills training, and shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic occur.2 The GIL coaching. Control households did not receive any of the Federation is generating rigorous evidence around program components. The evaluation finds that the the world to understand what works, and what does program had significant positive impacts on women’s not, in supporting women with social protection time spent working, labor participation, and interventions. This note presents evidence on four key empowerment. It also had sustained impacts on findings based on impact evaluations. household consumption, revenue, asset ownership, and psychological well-being. The Africa GIL led an RCT in Niger designed to un- FINDING 1. MULTIFACETED POVERTY bundle the effects of these multifaceted antipoverty GRADUATION PROGRAMS CAN FOSTER programs. It examined a program that provided women INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES AMONG with cash transfers from the government and a core THE POOREST WOMEN bundle of interventions (coaching, savings groups, entrepreneurship training). Participants were randomly Programs that target the poorest women in populations selected to receive either an additional capital package and provide them with a bundle of interventions show (a lump-sum cash grant), a psychosocial package promising effects on women’s income-generating (socio-emotional skills training and community sensitization on aspirations and social norms), or both number of days worked, and productive asset packages. The control group received only the ownership of participating men and women. These government cash transfers. Results show all treatment effects were sustained even after the program and took arms increased earnings derived from women-led place through different channels. Men intensified income-generating activities, particularly off-farm self- agricultural production and diversified into small employment and livestock enterprises.6 The packages manufacture activities, while women diversified into that included psychosocial interventions were the most small trade activities. However, the effects were much cost-effective. weaker for women coming from the poorest households, which indicates this type of intervention needs specific provisions for ultra-poor women. FINDING 2. CHUNKY, LESS FREQUENT CASH TRANSFERS CAN LOWER DELIVERY COSTS In Burkina Faso, mothers working on construction sites as part of an urban public works component of a youth The Africa GIL led an RCT of a cash transfer program in employment program often had to choose between Northern Nigeria to test whether the frequency of cash bringing their children with them to dangerous work transfers matters for rural women. 7 On one hand, sites or leaving them at home alone or with elderly smaller and more regular transfers may help smooth relatives or younger siblings. After consulting with consumption and may be easier to hide from others. On mothers and listening carefully to their needs, a pilot the other hand, larger and less frequent transfers have study trained selected women to provide high-quality lower administrative costs for the implementer and may childcare and equipped them to run mobile crèches foster more productive investment among recipients. that followed mothers as the public work sites Still, if households have highly irregular incomes or face changed.10 An RCT by the Africa GIL finds that the serious food insecurity, these larger, less frequent provision of mobile crèches tripled the use of childcare transfers may not be effective. centers for children up to age 6, demonstrating high unmet demand.11 Access to the crèches combined with The RCT confirms that quarterly transfers cost half as the public works program positively impacted child much as monthly transfers to administer and shows no development, as well as women’s labor force difference in impacts on recipients’ outcomes across participation, their psychological well-being, and their transfer modalities. Both types of transfers had a similar financial resilience and savings. positive impact on consumption, investment, women’s labor force participation, and other key outcomes. This means that chunkier transfers can lower the overall cost FINDING 4. SOCIAL PROTECTION CAN of delivering cash, possibly freeing up resources to REDUCE ECONOMIC STRESS FOR WOMEN, increase the number of beneficiaries and widen the impact of such programs. BUT PROGRAM DESIGN IS KEY TO REDUCING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE Recent global evidence suggests that, on average, FINDING 3. PUBLIC WORK PROGRAMS CAN cash transfer programs to households experiencing HAVE SUSTAINED IMPACTS ON WOMEN’S poverty are likely to reduce rates of intimate partner WELFARE IN FRAGILE CONTEXTS violence (IPV), primarily by reducing economic stress.12 However, program design matters. the link between the Labor-intensive public works programs are a popular provision of social safety nets and a reduction in IPV is policy intended to provide temporary employment not automatic, and in some contexts, there may be risks opportunities to vulnerable populations. In fragile of increased household conflict and backlash against contexts, the short-term economic benefits of such some women recipients. This needs to be closely programs are well documented, but there is no strong monitored. The GIL Federation has contributed to this evidence of their medium and long-term impacts.8 literature with studies in East Asia and Africa. The Africa GIL conducted a study in the Central African Public work programs provide a source of income to Republic to evaluate a public work program that women that can reduce economic stress and, provided temporary employment to men and women potentially, gender-based violence (GBV). A study by beneficiaries in various regions of the country selected the EAP GIL in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic through public lotteries.9 Having temporary jobs analyzes the impact of a randomly allocated public work resulted in short-term increases in monthly earnings, the program.13 The program was targeted at rural women, who received wages for 18 months. The research finds transfers to women may be less threatening to men and that the program increased women’s income, but it did can generate significant reductions in IPV. not affect their self-reported experience of GBV. The study argues that the lack of effects on IPV might be A quasi-experimental study by the EAP GIL in the linked to the need of complementary interventions, such Philippines used regression discontinuity design to as behavioral change components targeted at both men examine the effects of a conditional cash transfer and women. program on GBV.15 The study finds no statistically significant effect on IPV or GBV outside of home, but it The Africa GIL conducted an RCT to evaluate an anti- estimates a decline in emotional non-partner domestic poverty program in northern Nigeria.14 The study violence. The authors argue that the main channels by compared impacts across control communities and which the decrease in violence occurred were stress communities assigned to three treatment arms: a reduction due to higher income, increase in livelihoods program that provided benefits to both men empowerment and bargaining power, and strengthened and women in the community, a cash transfer to social networks. Similarly, a quasi-experimental women, and the combination of the two. Twelve months evaluation by LAC GIL of Bolsa Familia conditional cash after the end of the program there was no IPV impact for transfers program in Brazil finds no impact on female women in households that received only the community homicides.16 livelihoods program. Cash transfers provided to women alone increased sexual IPV by 6 percentage points, but Overall, these studies show that social protection cash transfers provided to women with the community programs reduce economic stress for women, but this livelihoods program reduced sexual IPV by 13 does not always translate into reductions in GBV. percentage points. Complementary interventions may be needed to achieve the desired outcome, and close attention These results suggest that in communities where norms should be paid to possible backlash from men or other are conservative and the broader community is not community members. benefitting, boosting women's bargaining power can lead to an IPV backlash that persists a year after the program ends. When whole communities benefit, FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Diego Ubfal dubfal@worldbank.org 1818 H St NW Washington, DC 20433 USA https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This brief is a product of collaboration between the World Bank Gender Group and the Gender Innovation Labs. It was prepared by Daniel Halim, Diego Ubfal, and Rigzom Wangchuk with key inputs from Diana Arango, Elizaveta Perova, and Rachael Pierotti. It was copy-edited by Leslie Ashby. Other contributors include Lourdes Rodriguez Chamussy, Maria Emilia Cucagna, Isis Gaddis, Markus Goldstein, Jacobus Joost De Hoop, Forest Brach Jarvis, Hillary C. Johnson, Lili Mottaghi, Michael B. O'Sullivan, Laura B. Rawlings, Javier Romero, Jayati Sethi, and Emcet Tas. The World Bank GILs and the GIL Federation are supported by the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank and supported with generous contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. ENDNOTES 1 Cameron, Lisa. 2019. Social protection programs for women in developing countries How to design social protection programs that poor women can benefit from. IZA World of Labor. 2 Bowen, Thomas, Carlo del Ninno, Colin Andrews, Sarah Coll-Black, Ugo Gentilini, Kelly Johnson, Yasuhiro Kawasoe, Adea Kryeziu, Barry Maher, and Asha Williams. 2020. Adaptive Social Protection: Building Resilience to Shocks. International Development in Focus. World Bank. 3 Banerjee, Abhijit, Esther Duflo, Nathanael Goldberg, Dean Karlan, Robert Osei, William Pariente, Jeremy Shapiro, Bram Thuysbaert, and Christopher Udry. 2015. A multifaceted program causes lasting progress for the very poor: Evidence from six countries. Science 348 (6236): 1260799. 4 Bandiera, Oriana, Robin Burgess, Narayan Das, Selim Gulesci, Imran Rasul, and Munshi Sulaiman. 2017. Labor Markets and Poverty in Village Economies. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 132(2): 811 870. 5 Bedoya, Guadalupe, Aidan Coville, Johannes Haushofer, Mohammad Isaqzadeh, and Jeremy Shapiro. 2019. No Household Left Behind Afghanistan Targeting the Ultra Poor Impact Evaluation. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 8877. 6 Bossuroy, Thomas, Markus Goldstein, Bassirou Karimou, Dean Karlan, Harounan Kazianga, William Pariente, Patrick Premand, Catherine Thomas, Christopher Udry, Julia Vaillant, and Kelsey Wright. 2022. Tackling psychosocial and capital constraints to alleviate poverty. Nature 605, 291–297. 7 Bastian, Gautam, Markus Goldstein, and Sreelakshmi Papineni. 2017. Are cash transfers better chunky or smooth: evidence from an impact evaluation of a cash transfer program in northern Nigeria. Gender Innovation Lab Policy Brief No. 21, World Bank. 8 Mvukiyehe, Eric. 2018. What are we learning about the impacts of public works programs on employment and violence? Early findings from ongoing evaluations in fragile states. Blog. The World Bank. 9 Alik-Lagrange, Arthur, Niklas Buehren, Markus Goldstein and Johannes Hoogeveen. 2020. Can Public Works Enhance Welfare in Fragile Economies? The Londo Program in the Central African Republic. Brief. 10 Africa GIL. 2021. Enabling Women to Work and Their Children to Blossom: The Double Success Story of Mobile Childcare in Burkina Faso. Feature Story. World Bank. March 8, 2021. 11 Ajayi, Kehinde, Aziz Dao, and Estelle Koussoubé. 2022. The Effects of Childcare on Women and Children: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Burkina Faso. Forthcoming in Policy Research Working Paper Series, World Bank. 12 For a review of cash transfers and IPV see: Buller, Ana Maria, Amber Peterman, Meghna Ranganathan, Alexandra Bleile, Melissa Hidrobo and Lori Heise. 2018. A Mixed-Method Review of Cash Transfers and Intimate Partner Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. The World Bank Research Observer, Volume 33 (2): 218–258, 13 Perova, Elizaveta, Erik Johnson, Aneesh Mannava, Sarah Reynolds, and Alana Teman. 2021. Public Work Programs and Gender-Based Violence: Evidence from Lao PDR. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9691. 14 Cullen, Claire, Paula Gonzalez Martinez, and Sreelakshmi Papineni. 2020. Empowering Women Without Backlash? Experimental Evidence on the Impacts of a Cash Transfer and Community Livelihoods Program on Intimate Partner Violence in Northern Nigeria. Working Paper. 15 Dervisevic, Ervin, Elizaveta Perova, and Abhilasha Sahay. 2022. Conditional Cash Transfers and Gender-Based Violence-Does the Type of Violence Matter? World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10122. 16 Litwin, Ashley, Elizaveta Perova, and Sarah Anne Reynolds. 2019. A conditional cash transfer and Women's empowerment: Does Bolsa Familia Influence intimate partner violence? Social Science & Medicine 238: 112462.