Making Money Work: Unconditional cash transfers allow women to save and re-invest in rural Zambia

Luisa Natali, Sudhanshu Handa, Amber Peterman, David Seidenfeld, Gelson Tembo and Office of Research - Innocenti Unicef

Innocenti Working Papers

Abstract: Savings play a crucial role in faciliating investment in income-generating activities and the pathway out of poverty for low-income households in developing settings. Yet, there is little evidence of successful programmes that increase savings, particularly those that are simultaneously cost effective, scaleable and address gender inequalities. This paper examines the impact of the Government of Zambia’s Child Grant Programme (CGP), an unconditional cash transfer targeted to women in households with young children, on women’s savings and participation in non-farm enterprises.Findings show that the CGP enabled poor women to save more cash and that the impact is larger for women who had lower decision-making power at baseline. The results support the proposition that cash transfers have the potential for long-term sustainable improvements in women’s financial position and household well-being by promoting savings and facilitating productive investments among low-income rural households.

Keywords: cash transfers; savings; small farms; small scale enterprises; social benefits; women in development; women's empowerment; zambia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-mfd and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa827

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