What happens once the intervention ends? The medium-term impacts of a cash transfer programme in Malawi

This study by Sarah Baird, Ephraim Chirwa, Craig McIntosh and Berk Özler evaluated the impacts of the Zomba cash transfer programme (ZCTP) in Malawi two years after the programme ended. The ZCTP took place during 2008-2009 and involved cash transfers, both conditional on schooling and unconditionally, to never-married young women in the age group 13-22 years. The study tries to understand if ZCTP had lasting effects on education, marriage and fertility, health and nutrition, and sexual behaviour of young females.

Overall, the study findings suggest that the benefits of unconditional cash transfer did not sustain beyond the programme period. However, conditional transfers to girls who had dropped out of school had large and durable impacts on primary school completion, years of education, marriage rates and likelihood of bearing children.