Targeted towards pregnant women and children under-five living in poverty, the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), Cambodia supported by UNICEF, designed a pilot cash transfer project in 2013 to improve maternal health, nutrition and increase human capital development.
We undertook a formative evaluation to assess the results and foster learning to improve the cash transfer mechanism. The evaluation assessed programme design, effectiveness, and quality of implementation. The evaluation also examined women’s preferences and levels of satisfaction with the programme. Our approach aimed at promoting adaptive programming and adjusting the programme design and implementation mechanisms to effectively achieve results. A cost effectiveness analysis of the pilot was also undertaken to benchmark it against other cash transfer interventions in Cambodia, such as those implemented by the World Bank and Save the Children. The assignment was rated “Highly Satisfactory” by the UNICEF’s Global Evaluation Reports Oversight System (GEROS). The evaluation was awarded the first prize under the Credibility category in the IDEAS Evaluation for Transformational Change Award 2019.
Key Recommendations
- Reassess the size of cash transfers
- The set of co-responsibilities for bonus payments must be reviewed and trimmed to ensure effective monitoring and cost-efficiency
- Create an inclusive targeting mechanism
- Considering human and fiscal capacity constraints, a phased approach is recommended for the roll-out of the national cash transfer programme
- Establish a robust management information system (MIS) and develop appropriate monitoring and evaluation framework
