The Challenge and Success of Impact Evaluation for Tanzania Community-Based Conditional

Cash Transfer Pilot

Tanzania Third Social Action Fund (TASAF III) Tuesday, 31 May, 2016

Presentation by Godfrey Mkelemi (Government of Tanzania) and David Evans (World Bank)

1. CB-CCT description2. CB-CCT impact evaluation design3. CB-CCT impact evaluation challenges 4. CB-CCT impact evaluation successes

Outline

What households received (in 2010)

per child (US$3) per month

per adult (US$6) per month

on average

What households had to do (in 2010)

Education HealthChildren (age 0-5) Visit clinic

6x per yearChildren (age 7-15) Be enrolled with

80% attendanceElderly Visit clinic

1x per year

How big was it?

≈≈

3 provinces selected to pilot

Initial Treatment Initial Comparison

80 eligible villages

but only cash for 40

Treatment

2 years laterwith additional

funding

randomization

Health Education

Health insurance Children’s assets

Did it work? Yes.

Getting buy-in from the Government team◦ Training in impact evaluation from the outset◦ Clear opportunity for RCT (insufficient transfers for all needy

villages)◦ Strong government involvement at every stage

Procurement-robust impact evaluation?◦ Procurement of data collection and implementation took time◦ Baseline was one year before outset

Okay with RCT, but adds noise

Timing for control group roll-out◦ Delay in final data collection meant short delay in roll-out to

control◦ Government sought to protect integrity of evaluation

Impact Evaluation Challenge – Evaluators

The challenge of getting the political support required to achieve a successful impact evaluation. The incorporation of control communities in the evaluation caused strong criticism and blames from political leaders (i.e. members of parliaments, ward councilors and village chairpersons) and there was a pressure happening frequently for extending program benefits to the control villages. TASAF had to maintain the integrity of evaluation through communicating with them on the importance and benefits of the evaluation design.

Impact Evaluation Challenge – Implementers

Following the development of the National Social Protection Framework and the results of impact evaluation of the pilot CB-CCT, the Government decided to create a country wide, permanent social safety net (the Tanzania Productive Social Safety Net – PSSN) to operate as a system to support the poorest and the most vulnerable through a series of complementary interventions.

Todate, a total of 1.1 million poor and vulnerable households with approximately 5.0 million beneficiaries have been enrolled into the PSSN program and are receiving program benefits. These households are from 9,960 villages in all 161 districts in the country. The households are supported through CCT, PW, COMSP and ID interventions.

Policy Impact Success

The pilot CB-CCT Program was initiated in 2009 and covered 5,000 households in 80 selected villages (40 treatment and 40 control villages).

The pilot program was implemented as a community -based initiative and a social fund.

In 2013, the pilot CB-CCT was scaled up to

Implementation …..

Data collectors from Lyampona ‘B’ Village (in Sumbawanga DC) recording information from identified poor household.

Beneficiaries from poor household in Kalunga Village, Heri juu - Kigoma

There are three major impact evaluations in progress:

PSSN impact evaluation - by Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF).

Impact of PSSN on women empowerment - by Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA).

Impact of PSSN on youth wellbeing and transition to adulthood – by UNICEF & REPOA.

Baseline has been completed for all studies (analysis and write up on progress).

Culture of Impact Evaluation: PSSN Impact Evaluations

Thank you for attention