cash for women's empowerment? a mixed-methods evaluation of the government of zambia’s child...

Cash for Women’s

Empowerment?

A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of the Government of Zambia’s Child Grant Program

Hannah Reeves,1 Rosa Castro Zarzur,1 Juan Bonilla,1 Sudhanshu Handa,2, 3

Claire Nowlin,1 Amber Peterman,3 and David Seidenfeld1 *

November 2015

Copyright © 2015 American Institutes for Research. All rights reserved.

1 American Institutes for Research (AIR), Washington, DC, USA

2 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

3 UNICEF Office of Research–Innocenti, Florence, Italy

* On behalf of the Zambia Child Grant Program Evaluation Team

AMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH

Women’s Empowerment & Social Cash

Transfers

• SCTs often target female-headed households

or women, and thus have potential to

‘empower’ them:

– Affect bargaining power within household

– Other program components can also affect women’s

empowerment.

• As such, women’s empowerment is an often-

cited objective and benefit of SCTs.

• Despite the “empowerment promise”, the

evidence is mixed and mostly from programs

in Latin America:

– ≠ gender dynamics & poverty trends

– CCTs

2


Intra-household decision-making as a

measure of empowerment

• Standard decision-making questions in

quantitative household surveys

– “Who in your household has the final say on …”

» Own health

» Own earnings

» Spouse’s earnings

» Children’s clothes or shoes

» Children’s education

» Small daily household (food) purchases

» Large household (asset) purchases

» Family visits

3

Indicator Respondent

herself

Partner Respondent

and Partner

Jointly

Others

Sole Indicator 1 0 0 0

Sole or Joint Indicator 1 0 1 0

• Standard response options

» Respondent herself

» Partner

» Respondent and partner jointly

» Others in the household


Empirical Specification: ANCOVA

Yijt = α + βTTreatj + ρYij0 + ݆݅ܦߛ + εijt

Yijt : decision-making outcome of interest for woman i in cluster j at time t

Yij0: decision-making outcome of interest at baseline

Treatj: is an indicator that equals 1 if cluster j is in a CGP community

βT: ITT estimator or effect of CGP

Level of stratification or district at baseline :݆݅ܦ

4


CGP Women Were Making More

Sole Decisions Regarding their Own Health

5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Count of DM (*)

FITTED COUNT OF SOLE DECIS ION-MAKING ACROSS

DOMAINS

Treat Control

Asterisks indicate significance level: * p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01 of corresponding impact estimate

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

0.60

0.65

0.70

Children'sHealth

Children'sSchooling

OwnIncome

Partner'sIncome

MajorPurchases

DailyPurchases

Children'sClothes

FamilyVisits

OwnHealth(***)

Pro

po

rtio

n

FITTED PROPORTION OF WOMEN WITH SOLE DECIS ION-MAKING ACROSS DOMAINS

Treat Control


CGP Women Were Making More

Sole or Joint Decisions in 5 Domains

6

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

Children'sHealth

Children'sSchooling

(***)

OwnIncome

(***)

Partner'sIncome

(***)

MajorPurchases

DailyPurchases

Children'sClothes (*)

FamilyVisits (*)

Pro

po

rtio

n

FITTED PROPORTION OF WOMEN WITH SOLE OR JOINT DECIS ION-MAKING ACROSS

DOMAINS

Treat Control

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Count of DM (***)

FITTED COUNT OF SOLE OR JOINT DECIS ION -MAKING ACROSS

DOMAINS

Treat Control

Asterisks indicate significance level: * p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01 of corresponding impact estimate


Qualitative data to better understand

decision-making and empowerment

• In-depth interviews

(IDIs) with

beneficiary and

non-beneficiary

women and their

partners in Kaputa

District

– 30 women; 10 male

partners or other

decision makers

– June 2015

• Coding and

analysis using

NVivo

7


Men involved in all major decisions; women

make less important decisions

• Domestic chores

• Child health

• Child schooling

• Child clothing/shoes

• Own health

• Major purchases

• Daily purchases

• Own income

• Partner income

• Food choice

• Family visits

• Savings

8


Deeply entrenched traditional perceptions of

gender roles

• Unanimous agreement

that the head of the

household is a man

• Men have ultimate say

in important decisions

“Even in the laws of

Zambia, a woman is like a

steering wheel, and us (the

men) are the ones to drive

them in everything.”

~male, age 53 (CGP beneficiary)

9


Money and economic status = “Empowerment”

• Almost unanimous

belief that money

is synonymous

with being

empowered or

doing well in life

• Ability to make

purchases

independently

described as

empowering

10


Few large changes in decision-making,

some positive changes for women

• Collectively, women and men reported few big changes in

decision-making as a result of the transfer. Some positive

changes reported by married women, however:

• Roughly half of married women indicated they were in charge of

decisions made with the transfer funds

• About a quarter of married women reported that while the decision

process is largely the same, they now make purchases without

having to wait for their husbands to earn or give them money

• Most respondents indicated that the transfer improved their overall

well-being and happiness; a few reported that household

relationships improved while receiving the CGP

11


Small positive gains, but no transformation;

difficulty measuring empowerment

• Cash transfer programs such as CGP realize beneficial

gendered impacts (increased savings for women, ability to

start non-farm enterprises, decisions on use of transfer

funds) but do not shift gender norms in a transformational

way

• Room for improvement measuring empowerment through

women’s decision-making indicators: women may state that

they make a decision (jointly or solely), but in cases of

disagreement their husbands have the final word

12

Rosa Castro Zarzur

202-403-5213

[email protected]

1000 Thomas Jefferson Street NW

Washington, DC 20007-3835

General Information: 202-403-5000

www.air.org

13

Hannah Reeves

202-403-6715

[email protected]

cash for women's empowerment? a mixed-methods evaluation of the government of zambia’s child...

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