In: World development: the multi-disciplinary international journal devoted to the study and promotion of world development, Band 33, Heft 10, S. 1689-1704
The importance of children's nutritional status for subsequent human capital formation, the limited evidence of the effectiveness of social protection interventions on child nutrition, and the absence of knowledge on the intra-household impacts of cash and food transfers or how they are shaped by complementary programming motivate this paper. We implemented two, linked randomized control trials in rural Bangladesh, with treatment arms including cash transfers, a food ration, or a mixed food and cash transfer, as well as treatments where cash and nutrition behavior change communication (BCC) or where food and nutrition BCC were provided. Only cash plus nutrition BCC had a significant impact on nutritional status, but its effect on height-for-age z scores (HAZ) was large, 0.25SD. We explore the mechanisms underlying this impact. Improved diets – including increased intake of animal source foods – along with reductions in illness in the cash plus BCC treatment arm are consistent with the improvement we observe in children's HAZ. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; CRP2; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; Transfer Modality Research Initiative (TMRI) ; PHND; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)
IFPRI3; ISI; Transform Nutrition; CRP4; B Promoting healthy food systems; Stories of Change in Nutrition ; PHND; A4NH ; PR ; CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)