A Mixed-Method Review of Cash Transfers and Intimate Partner Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
By Ana Maria Buller, Amber Peterman, Meghna Ranganathan, Alexandra C E Bleile, Melissa Hidrobo, L. Heise. The World Bank Research Observer, 2018
278 citations recorded by the source corpus.
There is increasing evidence that cash transfer (CT) programs decrease intimate partner violence (IPV); however, little is known about how CTs achieve this impact. We conducted a mixed method review of studies in low- and middle-income countries. Fourteen quantitative and nine qualitative studies met our inclusion criteria, of which eleven and six respectively demonstrated evidence that CTs decrease IPV. We found little support for increases in IPV, with only two studies showing overall mixed or adverse impacts. Drawing on these studies, as well as related bodies of evidence, we developed a program theory proposing three pathways through which CT could impact IPV: 1) Economic security and emotional wellbeing, 2) intra-household conflict, and 3) women’s empowerment. The economic security and wellbeing pathway hypothesizes decreases in IPV, while the other two pathways have ambiguous effects depending on program design features and behavioural responses to program components. Future studies should improve IPV measurement, empirical analysis of program mechanisms, and fill regional gaps. Program framing and complementary activities, including those with the ability to shift intra-household power relations are likely to be important design features for understanding how to maximize and leverage the impact of CTs for reducing IPV, and mitigating potential adverse impacts.
Subfields: General Health Professions, Health, Safety Research
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0f3a8992680234bb330985d2c000efd7f05c0524
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In General Health Professions
In Safety Research
Citations in the corpus
- Exploring Universal Basic Income: A Guide to Navigating Concepts, Evidence, and Practices (2019, background): “Just as current cash transfer programs may often reduce intimate partner and emotional violence within the household relative to nonrecipients (Buller et al. 2018; Peterman et al. 2017), the provision of cash to all members may further attenuate those tensions.”
- Transfers, Behavior Change Communication, and Intimate Partner Violence: Postprogram Evidence from Rural Bangladesh (2019, unknown): “A second mechanism is that transfers increase total household income and reduce poverty-related stress, which may reduce the conflict within the household that precipitates violence (Buller et al., 2018; Ellsberg et al., 2015; Fox et al., 2002).”