Clients
UK Department for International Development (DFID),
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)

Period
2011 - 2014

Services
Evaluation,
Innovation Capacity

Locations
Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho

Areas
Social Justice and Empowerment

This was a six-country mixed-methods impact assessment that included the use of Participatory Statistics to assess the contribution of cash transfers to local household economies and networks under the DFID-FAO-UNICEF ‘From Protection to Production’ (PtoP) project. The impact assessment was conducted under a contract held by Oxford Policy Management (OPM). Jeremy Holland, co-founder of Collaborative Impact, spearheaded the innovative Participatory Statistics component.

Using participatory tools, beneficiaries generated statistics to estimate and analyse the contribution of the cash transfer to their household income and expenditure. The research confirmed that cash transfers provided a valuable source of additional income for extremely vulnerable beneficiary households, whether elderly women looking after orphaned grandchildren or beneficiary households coping with health shocks.

Through group-based quant-qual analysis, randomly sampled beneficiaries were able to reflect on just how significant this extra income stream was for their households. It emerged that in some instances, beneficiaries were able to reduce their reliance on working as casual labourers or increase their investment in livelihood productivity, diversification or trading.

As part of the participatory process, research feedback sessions were held with each sampled community at the end of each period of fieldwork. These enabled validation and discussion of the teams’ working findings. Additional feedback sessions were held with government officials at district and national levels to consider the operational implications of the research findings.

Publications

• Holland J. et al (2018) Getting the Most Out of Participatory Impact Assessment: Reflections from a Multi-Country Cash Transfer Impact Assessment. CDI Practice Papers.

• Holland J. et al. (2017). The Livelihood Impacts of Cash Transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa: Beneficiary Perspectives from Six Countries. World Development. Elsevier.

• FAO (2014). From Protection to Production.