• About us
  • GSDRC Publications
  • Research Helpdesk
  • E-Bulletin
  • Privacy policy

GSDRC

Governance, social development, conflict and humanitarian knowledge services

  • Governance
    • Democracy & elections
  • Social Development
    • Social protection
  • Humanitarian Issues
    • Humanitarian financing
    • Humanitarian response
  • Conflict
    • Conflict analysis
    • Conflict prevention
    • Conflict response
    • Conflict sensitivity
    • Impacts of conflict
  • Development Pressures
    • Climate change
    • Food security
    • Fragility
  • Approaches
    • Complexity & systems thinking
  • Aid Instruments
    • Budget support & SWAps
    • Capacity building
    • Civil society partnerships
  • M&E
    • Indicators
    • Learning
    • M&E approaches
Home»GSDRC Publications»Evidence of impact of emergency cash transfers on gender and protection

Evidence of impact of emergency cash transfers on gender and protection

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
February 2014

Question

What is the level and type of evidence on the impact of emergency cash transfers on gender and protection?

Summary

Key messages: The major trends and gaps in the evidence in this report are:

  • On the whole, ‘gender’ is used to refer to women. More recent papers include more analysis of how CTs impact men, especially on if they find it disempowering for women to be favoured as beneficiaries.
  • Gender analysis is not deeply ingrained into emergency CT programme evaluation. Many papers include a short section on gender impacts, but do not use gender as a major category of analysis.
  • Many evaluations look at how men and women control and use cash differently, and not on the wider gendered impacts of how they use it.
  • There is still a debate over whether CTs are empowering for women. The general conclusion is that they can be, but there is no overarching approach which facilitates this. The literature is fairly consistent in agreeing that CTs can empower women economically, but this is not rigorously evidenced.
  • The results from CTs do not appear to be transformative for gender relations. Women tend to be targeted as beneficiaries in their role as household managers and mothers, and are empowered to fulfil these roles more effectively. No study reported significant or long-term change in women’s roles or behaviours.
  • This report uncovered no studies which looked at the longer-term effects of emergency CTs, more than a few months after the programme ended.
  • Intra-household effects on gender are given as: reductions in domestic violence; and better relations between spouses and other household members.
  • Community-level effects on gender are given as: increased social capital; increased ability to contribute financially to community events; and increased social status.
  • There is little literature in this report which specifically looks at protection and gender. Where this is mentioned, it is mostly in the context of women’s security.

file type icon See Full Report [PDF]

Enquirer:

  • DFID CHASE: Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Department

Related Content

Social protection
Topic Guide
2019
Social Safety Nets in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
Helpdesk Report
2019
Cash-Based Initiatives for Refugees in Jordan: Annotated Bibliography
Helpdesk Report
2019
Assistive technologies in developing countries
Helpdesk Report
2017
birminghamids hcri

gro.crdsg@seiriuqne Feedback Disclaimer

Outputs supported by FCDO are © Crown Copyright 2022; outputs supported by the Australian Government are © Australian Government 2022; and outputs supported by the European Commission are © European Union 2022
Connect with us: facebooktwitter

Outputs supported by DFID are © DFID Crown Copyright 2022; outputs supported by the Australian Government are © Australian Government 2022; and outputs supported by the European Commission are © European Union 2022