Reproducibility package for The Enduring Impacts of a Big Push During Multiple Crises: Experimental Evidence From Afghanistan

Programs to reduce poverty are needed even more in fragile and conflict settings, where social protection is weakest and the poor are increasingly vulnerable to shocks of all types. This paper studies the long-run experimental effects of providing ultra-poor women in Afghanistan with a package including livestock assets, a monthly cash stipend and coaching. Five years after the asset transfer, before the regime change, treatment households have significantly higher levels of consumption, assets, market work participation, financial inclusion, children's school enrollment, and women's psychological well-being and empowerment, relative to the control group, while the country endured multiple concurrent health, violence and economic shocks. Households build resilience by diversifying productive activities and the program improves equality by reducing the gaps between ultra-poor and non-ultra-poor households across multiple dimensions. The persistent impacts of this one-off support package amidst multiple shocks highlight the potential -and limitations- of such multi-faceted interventions to support the most vulnerable populations and improve their resilience under increasing fragility in some of the harshest conditions in the world.