Cash for Resilience: Examining the Impact of a Cash Transfer on Marginalized Girls in Refugee and Host Communities in Kenya

Conference: The Barcelona Conference on Education (BCE2022)
Title: Cash for Resilience: Examining the Impact of a Cash Transfer on Marginalized Girls in Refugee and Host Communities in Kenya
Stream: International Education
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Marlous de Milliano, American Institutes for Research, United States
Timothy Kinoti, World University Service of Canada, Kenya
Hannah Ring, American Institutes for Research, United States
Mary Kwena, World University Service of Canada, Kenya
Thomas de Hoop, American Institutes for Research, United States
Evelyn Jepkemei, World University Service of Canada, Kenya

Abstract:

Since 2017, World University Service of Canada (WUSC) has been working with local partners in northern Kenya to deliver conditional cash transfers (CCTs) to marginalized girls, including refugee girls, who struggle to attend school regularly. While CCTs have been extensively tested in low resource contexts and even refugee contexts, there is limited evidence around the impact of CCTs intended to enhance education-related outcomes in protracted refugee contexts. Methodology. To assess the impact of the cash transfer we used a mixed-methods approach. For the quantitative analysis, we used a longitudinal sample derived from annual household surveys combined with administrative school data using a difference-in-differences approach with coarsened exact matching. For the qualitative analysis, we used program reports, interview transcripts and primary data from interviews with KEEP cash transfer implementers and stakeholders. Results. The impact assessment shows no statistically significant effects of the KEEP cash transfer on school attendance or performance in Kakuma. In Dadaab, we found larger positive trends in education performance for the cash transfer group, but we were unable to assess the impact of the program because the test for the parallel trend assumption, which is underlying our identification strategy, only held in Kakuma. In further analysis, we find that more than half of the beneficiary households thought that the cash transfer was insufficient to cover their needs during the pandemic. The qualitative analysis found some inefficiencies in the implementation. Influences due to COVID-19 or implementation barriers could have diluted the effect of the cash transfer on school attendance.



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