Cash Transfers and Child Labour: An Intriguing Relationship

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes provide cash to poor households. In return, the households are expected to meet the conditionalities attached to schooling, among others. Several evaluations have found positive impacts on primary school attendance. One issue on which there is a heated debate is the impact of CCTs on child labour. Because the programmes affect children?s time allocation, some impact on child labour is always expected. But it is not as evident as the impact associated with school attendance. (...)Cash Transfers and Child Labour: An Intriguing Relationship

Transferências de Renda e Trabalho Infantil: Um Intrigante Relacionamento

Transferências de Renda e Trabalho Infantil: Um Intrigante Relacionamento

Unintended Effects of Microfinance: An Increase in Child Labour in Some Contexts?

An increasing number of policies in developing countries seek to empower women through female entrepreneurship. Many microfinance institutions (MFIs), for example, lend exclusively to women. Loans are usually combined with capacity building workshops on entrepreneurial activities such as the production of handicrafts, clothes or food to be sold in local markets. While there is evidence that these strategies have been successful in empowering women (Panjaitan-Drioadisuryo and Cloud, 1999), less is known about how such an increase in mothers? non-domestic labour affects the working hours of their children. In the few available studies, the results are ambiguous: see, for example, Hazarika et al. (2007) and Dehejia and Gatti (2002). Drawing on a study of Mexico (Lehman, 2010), this One Pager points out that policies which encourage the small business activities of women may lead to an increase in child labour. It hypothesises that the provision of family and/or social support infrastructure (full-day schools and childcare facilities), and/or policies that encourage investment in the children?s future, may help mitigate these unintended impacts.Unintended Effects of Microfinance: An Increase in Child Labour in Some Contexts?

Transferencias Monetarias y Trabajo Infantil:Una Relación Intrigante

Transferencias Monetarias y Trabajo Infantil:Una Relación Intrigante

The Programa Subsidio de Alimentos in Mozambique: Baseline Evaluation

The Food Subsidy Programme (Programa Subsidio de Alimentos, PSA) is the main basic social protection programme of the government of Mozambique in terms of coverage. It was established in 1990 to help the destitute elderly (women above 55 and men above 60), people living with a disability, the chronically sick and their dependants by providing a monthly cash transfer. The programme falls under the mandate of the Ministry for Women and Social Action (MMAS), while implementation is the responsibility of the National Institute for Social Action (INAS), the Ministry?s executing agency. By the end of 2008, the PSA covered 143,455 households with a total of 287,454 beneficiaries. The main direct beneficiaries were the elderly (93 per cent), followed by people living with disabilities (6 per cent) and the chronically ill (1 per cent). The general eligibility criteria are: age, residency for more than six months in the selected area, per capita earnings less than the minimum benefit on the PSA scale, and/or recognised by medical declaration to be chronically ill or living with a disability. Potential beneficiaries are selected by a local intermediary (known as a Permanente) chosen by the community and appointed by INAS, after which the application undergoes an approval process within the INAS delegation. Although the PSA is a national programme, it does not reach the entire eligible population and its coverage is unequally distributed across districts. This is the result of the absence of an expansion strategy based on poverty incidence and population density. Expansion of the PSA was initially restricted to urban areas in order to mitigate the effects of the post-war structural adjustment programme on the urban population (Low et al., 1999). Currently, expansion to remote rural areas is a programme priority. The programme?s administrative cost is considered high relative to the amount transferred to the beneficiaries (Ellis, 2007). Though the programme is the largest in terms of the number of beneficiaries, its coverage is low relative to the potential universe of beneficiaries. Expansion of the programme tends to diminish the administrative costs in relative terms. In 2008, the PSA underwent two important reforms. First, the subsidy scale increased. The subsidy amount for the first (direct) beneficiaries rose from 70 to 100 meticais (US$2.5 to US$3.6), and the additional benefit for dependants increased from 10 to 50 meticais (US$0.36 to US$1.80) per dependant up to four. The second reform was the greater focus on the inclusion of eligible dependants as indirect beneficiaries in the payment scheme, and the monitoring and evaluation system. Though it is a relatively old programme, it has never been evaluated before. An opportunity to conduct an evaluation has arisen in the context of the reforms. This Policy Research Brief seeks to improve knowledge of the PSA by presenting the first part of the PSA impact evaluation?that is, the summary of the baseline report.The Programa Subsidio de Alimentos in Mozambique: Baseline Evaluation

Debating Targeting Methods for Cash Transfers: A Multidimensional Index vs. an Income Proxy for Paraguay?s Tekoporã Programme

There is a lively global debate on how to target beneficiaries of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes. In this Evaluation Note we analyze alternative targeting methods for Paraguay?s CCT programme, Tekoporã. The major practical choice for Paraguay is between a multidimensional quality-of-life index and a proxy-means test for income. We focus on the efficiency and efficacy of these approaches by examining primarily the trade-off between leakage and coverage. Tekoporã is a CCT programme that is being scaled up in Paraguay. Like other recent CCT programmes, it was designed in the context of a national strategy for combating poverty, as part of the general effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Its pilot started in August 2005, covering 4,500 households in five districts of two departments. Tekoporã is gradually expanding and intends to cover 35 districts by 2008. These districts were selected from the pool of 66 districts that had been judged to have the most vulnerable populations, according to a scoring system based on a Geographical Prioritization Index (IPG). Tekoporã?s objective is to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty by means of the cash transfer and follow-up activities for beneficiary households. This follow-up consists of the monitoring of co-responsibilities (between beneficiaries and the programme) with regard to the supply and use of health and education facilities and the development of related family-support activities. (...)Debating Targeting Methods for Cash Transfers: A Multidimensional Index vs. an Income Proxy for Paraguay?s Tekoporã Programme

Achievements and Shortfalls of Conditional Cash Transfers: Impact Evaluation of Paraguay?s Tekoporã Programme

The International Poverty Centre (IPC), with the support of GTZ and UNFPA, has recently undertaken an impact evaluation of the pilot of Tekoporã, a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme in Paraguay. Previously, IPC analysed the logical framework of this programme and its implementation challenges, and assessed its targeting mechanisms. This Evaluation Note presents a summary of the impacts of the programme on household behaviour and well-being, as reported in Soares et al. (2008). The evaluation of a pilot project can offer important inputs into the decision-making process on the feasibility of the scaling-up of the programme, the effectiveness of its design and the assessment of problems that limit its potential. The evaluation of Tekoporã shows positive impacts on per capita income and consumption, poverty reduction, school attendance, investment in agricultural production, access to credit, savings and social participation. Indeed, these results easily justify its scaling-up. However, the pilot has not been successful in reducing child labour or increasing child immunizations. Thus, addressing these aspects needs to be a key part of any redesign of the programme when it is scaled up. Tekoporã seeks to reduce extreme poverty by using direct cash transfers to poor households with children and diminish the potential for future poverty by encouraging investment in human and social capital. The programme intends to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty through investments in the health and education of children. The transfers are conditional on school attendance, regular visits to health centres and updating of immunizations. The programme also includes a family support initiative that, among having other effects, should increase the productive potential of the household and its social participation. (...)Achievements and Shortfalls of Conditional Cash Transfers: Impact Evaluation of Paraguay?s Tekoporã Programme

Los Logros y las Carencias de las Transferencias de Efectivo Condicionadass: Evaluación del Impacto del Programa Tekoporã del Paraguay

El Centro Internacional de Pobreza (CIP), con el apoyo del GTZ y el FNUAP, ha llevado a cabo recientemente una evaluación del impacto del programa piloto de Tekoporã, un programa de transferencias de efectivo condicionadas (CCT, en su sigla inglesa) en Paraguay. Previamente, el CIP analizó el marco lógico del programa y sus dificultades de aplicación, y se evaluaron sus mecanismos de selección de beneficiarios.1 Esta Nota de Evaluación presenta un resumen de los impactos del programa sobre el comportamiento y bienestar de los hogares, como se recogió en Soares et al. (2008). La evaluación de un programa piloto puede ofrecer aportaciones importantes en el proceso de toma de decisiones sobre la viabilidad de su ampliación, la eficacia de su diseño y la evaluación de los problemas que limitan sus efectos potenciales. La evaluación de Tekoporã muestra impactos positivos en el ingreso per cápita y el consumo, la reducción de la pobreza, asistencia escolar, la inversión en la producción agrícola, el acceso al crédito para consumo, el ahorro y la participación social. De hecho, estos resultados justifican fácilmente su ampliación. Sin embargo, el programa piloto no ha tenido éxito en la reducción del trabajo infantil o el aumento de la vacunación infantil.2 Por lo tanto, abordar estos aspectos debe ser una parte clave de cualquier reformulación del programa cuando se amplíe. (...)Los Logros y las Carencias de las Transferencias de Efectivo Condicionadass: Evaluación del Impacto del Programa Tekoporã del Paraguay

Escolha ocupacional e transição no Brasil Metropolitano: uma análise com ênfase no setor informal

Este artigo investiga o setor informal - trabalhadores por conta própria e pequenos empregadores - em áreas metropolitanas brasileiras. Avalia-se quem são os indivíduos que se inserem como trabalhadores informais e verifica-se quem, dentre os informais, apresenta maior chance de sair do setor. Os resultados indicam que os mais escolarizados apresentam maior probabilidade de inserção como empregados sem carteira, desempregado ou inativo do que como informal. Quanto às transições, os resultados sugerem que o tempo do empreendimento é mais decisivo na permanência na informalidade relativamente aos atributos pessoais, e, a não ser por anos de estudo, há poucas diferenças entre homens e mulheres.This paper investigates the informal sector in Brazilian metropolitan areas. The objectives are to investigate personal attributes of the informal workers and to verify who of these workers make transition out of that occupation. The results for the first objective point that high-education individual has higher probability to be employee without a labor card, unemployed and inactive than informal worker. About transition, the results show that entrepreneurship time is more important than personal attributes on the probability of staying in the informal economy

A influência da raça e do gênero nas oportunidades de obtenção de renda - uma análise da discriminação em mercados de trabalho distintos: Bahia e São Paulo

O objetivo deste trabalho é verificar a hipótese de discriminação no mercado de trabalho para homens e mulheres, segundo a sua auto-identificação racial - brancos ou pardos e negros - em dois estados brasileiros de predominância étnica distinta: Bahia e São Paulo. Os testes estatísticos foram realizados empregando um modelo probit. Os resultados indicam que a discriminação racial e por gênero estão presentes no mercado de trabalho brasileiro, de acordo com as categorias analisadas - dirigentes e ge-rentes, empregados com registro e empregados sem registro. Constata-se também que não há indícios de presença de discriminação racial entre os ocupados mais pobres - que pertencem ao primeiro quintil da distribuição de renda familiar per capita - embora neste grupo se verifique a discriminação contra a mulher.This paper attempts to verify the hypothesis of discrimination in the Brazilian labor market for men and women, according to their racial auto-identification - white or black - in the states of Bahia and São Paulo. A probit model has been applied for the accomplishment of the tests. The results show that the discrimination is alive in the Brazilian labor market against black people and women, especially black women. It was not found any evidence of racial discrimination among the poorest population, but among this group the discrimination against women persists