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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Agnes Quisumbing

Agnes Quisumbing is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit. She co-leads a research program that examines how closing the gap between men’s and women’s ownership and control of assets may lead to better development outcomes.

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experts

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Jessica Leight

Senior Research Fellow

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Jessica

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@leightjessica
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Bio

Jessica Leight is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit. Her research focuses on questions linked to social protection, multifaceted livelihoods interventions, agriculture, gender, health, and structural transformation. She conducts fieldwork in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Somalia, and Mozambique.

Before joining IFPRI, Jessica was an assistant professor of economics at American University and at Williams College. Jessica received a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MPhil in economics from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, and a BA from Yale University.

Personal Website

Google Scholar Citations

CV

Publications

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Brief

The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

2024Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Zafar, Sarim
Details

The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

Cash transfer programs have become increasingly popular tools for fighting chronic poverty and food insecurity in lowand middle-income countries (Fiszbein and Schady, 2009; USAID, 2022; WFP, 2023). Cash transfers offer recipients flexibility by permitting them to finance immediate consumption needs or to increase future income streams through investments and savings. Moreover, these programs are generally feasible to implement and scale across diverse contexts. While studies consistently show cash transfers effectively reduce poverty in the short term, the evidence on their long-term impact is less clear.

Year published

2024

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Zafar, Sarim

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Zafar, Sarim. 2024. The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Keywords

Cash Transfers; Data; Consumption; Livelihoods

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

2024Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Zafar, Sarim
Details

The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

Over the last 20 years, a burgeoning scholarly literature has analyzed the effects of cash transfer and cash plus interventions in a wide range of contexts and using a range of empirical designs. We conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the pooled effect of any cash or cash plus intervention on livelihoods-related outcomes (consumption, income and labor supply), ultimately compiling 305 different treatment estimates from 155 treatment arms in 104 studies (and in 43 countries). Using random effects and multilevel models, our findings suggest that cash transfer programming is associated with an increase of between $1 and $2 in monthly household consumption and income per $100 in cumulative transfers, an effect that persists for a period of roughly three years (inclusive of the period of program implementation); this effect is meaningfully larger (as much as $4 larger) for cash transfer programs that also include a cash plus livelihoods intervention. There are no significant effects observed on labor force participation. We also present a range of estimates capturing the longer-term (cumulative) effects of cash transfers on consumption under alternate assumptions.

Year published

2024

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Zafar, Sarim

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Zafar, Sarim. 2024. The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2262. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148881

Keywords

Cash Transfers; Consumption; Income; Livelihoods

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Working Paper

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Report

Implementer-Led Evaluation and Learning (IMPEL) evaluation of SPIR II RFSA – Midline survey report

2024Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hirvonen, Kalle; Leight, Jessica; Tesfaye, Haleluya
Details

Implementer-Led Evaluation and Learning (IMPEL) evaluation of SPIR II RFSA – Midline survey report

The objective of this report is to present results from the midline survey conducted as part of the IMPEL evaluation of SPIR-II, a randomized controlled trial launched in 2022. The second phase of the Strengthen PSNP Institutions and Resilience (SPIR-II) project aims to enhance livelihoods, increase resilience to shocks, and improve food security and nutrition for rural households vulnerable to food insecurity in Ethiopia. The project is situated within Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), one of the largest safety net programs in Africa. Funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), SPIR-II is implemented by World Vision International (lead), CARE, and ORDA in the Amhara and Oromia regions of Ethiopia. The IMPEL SPIR-II impact evaluation employs an experimental design with three arms comparing two treatment combinations of livelihood and nutrition graduation model programming provided to PSNP beneficiaries relative to a control group receiving only PSNP transfers. The treatment assignment is randomized at the kebele level in 234 kebeles. In the first arm (T1; the control group), PSNP is implemented by the government with SPIR II support for the provision of cash and food transfers only (no supplemental programming). In the second arm (T2), SPIR-II programming is rolled out to PSNP beneficiary households in conjunction with nurturing care groups targeting enhanced infant and young child nutritional practices. In the third arm (T3), PSNP beneficiary households receive SPIR-II programming and nurturing care groups (NCGs), supplemented with additional targeted cash transfers to pregnant and lactating women.

Year published

2024

Authors

Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hirvonen, Kalle; Leight, Jessica; Tesfaye, Haleluya

Citation

Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hirvonen, Kalle; Leight, Jessica; and Tesfaye, Haleluya. 2024. Implementer-Led Evaluation and Learning (IMPEL) evaluation of SPIR II RFSA – Midline survey report. Washington, DC: The Implementer-Led Evaluation & Learning Associate Award; International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Cash Transfers; Children; Food Security; Households; Nutrition; Poverty; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Report

Blogs

Do ultra-poor graduation programs build resilience against droughts? Evidence from rural Ethiopia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
March 04, 2024

Do ultra-poor graduation programs build resilience against droughts? Evidence from rural Ethiopia

By Kalle Hirvonen, Daniel Gilligan, Jessica Leight, Heleene Tambet, and Victor Villa

Safety nets can buttress households against climate shocks.

Can a light-touch graduation model address persistent poverty? Evidence from Ethiopia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
January 08, 2024

Can a light-touch graduation model address persistent poverty? Evidence from Ethiopia

By Jessica Leight

Impacts of a large-scale approach.

The most effective approaches to reduce intimate partner violence: What the evidence shows
IFPRI Blog
 | 
October 23, 2023

The most effective approaches to reduce intimate partner violence: What the evidence shows

By Jessica Leight

A meta-analysis shows that broadly, IPV programs work.

Events

Building pathways out of poverty: Midline findings from a randomized controlled trial
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

July 31, 2024, 9:00 – 10:00 am

Building pathways out of poverty: Midline findings from a randomized controlled trial

Click HERE to join this event on July 31, 2024 from 9:00am to 10:00am Washington, DC time (EDT). This webinar will provide evidence around the effects of the Ultra Poor Graduation program implemented in Baidoa, Somalia by World Vision and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). The […]