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.
| Repository name | URI |
|---|---|
| Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank) | https://reproducibility.worldbank.org |
The data for this project is currently restricted. It is expected to be published in the World Bank Microdata Library in the future. For questions regarding data release, please contact Yulia Belyakova ybelyakova@worldbank.org
| Author | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Guadalupe Bedoya | World Bank | gbedoya@worldbank.org |
| Yulia Belyakova | World Bank | ybelyakova@worldbank.org |
| Aidan Coville | World Bank | acoville@worldbank.org |
| Thomas Escande | World Bank | tescande@worldbank.org |
| Mohammad Isaqzadeh | Harvard University | isaqzadeh@fas.harvard.edu |
| Aminata Ndiaye | World Bank | andiaye6@worldbank.org |
The authors gratefully acknowledge the following people and organizations that supported the study:
Ahmed Rostom, Naila Ahmed and Guillemette Jaffrin who led the World Bank-funded Access to Finance project, which delivered the intervention. MISFA staff, especially Bahram Barzin and Khalil Baheer and their team including Matin Ezidyar, Shafkat Shahriyar Bin Reza and Hashmat Mohmand implemented the program. We also thank Afghanistan Country Management Unit (CMU), Jishnu Das, DIME Lighting Seminar participants, Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC) anonymous reviewer, Paul Christian, and Patrick Premand for helpful comments. Funding was provided by the DIME Impact Evaluation to Development Impact (i2i) fund, Knowledge for Change, UK-DFID protracted forced displacement trust funds, Partnership for Economic Inclusion (PEI), South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab (SAR GIL), the World Bank Afghanistan Country Management Unit and the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice. Aminata Ndiaye led the World Bank-funded Access to Finance project from 2018 to 2021. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its executive directors, or the countries they represent. The authors declare that they have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper.
2023-10
| Location | Code |
|---|---|
| Afghanistan | AFG |
The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.
| Name | URI |
|---|---|
| Modified BSD3 | https://opensource.org/license/bsd-3-clause/ |
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Yulia Belyakova | World Bank | ybelyakova@worldbank.org |
| Reproducibility WBG | World Bank | reproducibility@worldbank.org |
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reyes Retana | MRR | World Bank | Junior Data Scientist |
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