Despite a growing body of evidence on conditional cash transfers (CCTs) that supports claims of positive outcomes for households and children, there has been little investigation into unintended consequences and the potential for perverse incentives may negatively affect children or adults. This paper provides an overview of these issues and recommends that conditionalities should undergo far more scrutiny in order to acknowledge the potential damaging consequences.
The paper highlights a number of ways such programmes can impact on child abuse, neglect and child protection.
- Conditionality: evidence is sparse that conditions are needed to nudge particular behaviours that lead to positive outcomes, and even less focuses on the negative side effects. This includes last-minute attempts to avert the suspension of benefits, or the substitution effect – where boys may be taken out of school to fulfill domestic chores undertaken by girls who are now enrolled in school.
- Commodification of children: the promise of cash in return for care can provide necessary support for those providing kinship or foster care, but it can also result in poor care, abuse or neglect of children.
- Service provision: evidence suggests that CCT programmes are most effective in contexts with good availability of, and access to, services. However, the appeal of CCT programmes tends to outweigh such supply constraints. Further, a focus on conditionailities can divert attention away from improving the quality of services. For example, promoting school attendance can be at the expense of facilitating educational reform.
The paper also highlights the interaction between CCT programmes and gender inequalities through (a) perpetuating women’s roles as caregivers, and (b) with the need for complementary services that tackle these entrenched patterns.
CCTs along with unconditional cash transfers and other social protection programmes hold great potential for improving children’s lives. To take full advantage of these opportunities requires:
- A clear understanding of CCT programme’s criteria and processes, and their potential side effects by both programme implementers and recipients.
- Research that critically assesses the pathways through which conditions are met and outcomes are reached, including indirect interventions.
