title: Impact of the Kenya Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children on early pregnancy and marriage of adolescent girls.
abstract: There is promising evidence that poverty-targeted cash transfer programs can have positive impacts on adolescent transitions to adulthood in resource poor settings, however existing research is typically from small scale programs in diverse geographic and cultural settings. We provide estimates of the impact of a national unconditional cash transfer program, the Kenya Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, on pregnancy and early marriage among females aged 12 to 24, four years after program initiation. The evaluation was designed as a clustered randomized controlled trial and ran from 2007 to 2011, capitalizing on the existence of a control group, which was delayed entry to the program due to budget constraints. Findings indicate that, among 1549 females included in the study, while the program reduced the likelihood of pregnancy by five percentage points, there was no significant impact on likelihood of early marriage. Program impacts on pregnancy appear to work through increasing the enrollment of young women in school, financial stability of the household and delayed age at first sex. The Kenyan program is similar in design to most other major national cash transfer programs in Eastern and Southern Africa, suggesting a degree of generalizability of the results reported here. Although the objective of the program is primarily poverty alleviation, it appears to have an important impact on facilitating the successful transition of adolescent girls into adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA; UNICEF Office of Research Innocenti, Piazza SS. Annunziata 12, 50122 Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Sudhanshu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Handa
authors.affiliation: UNICEF Office of Research Innocenti, Piazza SS. Annunziata 12, 50122 Florence, Italy. Electronic address: apeterman@unicef.org.
authors.forename: Amber
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peterman
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materal and Child Health, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, USA.
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Halpern
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, USA.
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pettifor
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, USA.
authors.forename: Harsha
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Thirumurthy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000191:economics; D054540:Child, Orphaned; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006078:Government Programs; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007630:Kenya; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008393:Marriage; D011203:Poverty / Q000191:economics; D011247:Pregnancy; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D035862:Vulnerable Populations; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adolescent girls; Cash transfers; Early marriage; Kenya; Pregnancy