Can Transfer Programs be Made More Nutrition Sensitive? 2013.
Harold Alderman, International Food Policy Research Institute
As is commonly presented, nutritional status reflects the interplay of food consumption, access to health and sanitation, and nutrition knowledge and care practices. Social protection programs typically increase income as well as influence the timing and, to a degree, the control of this income. Additionally, social protection programs may achieve further impact on nutrition by fostering linkages with health services or with sanitation programs, and specifically through activities that are related to nutrition education or micronutrient supplementation.
This chapter discussed what might be expected from such programs as well as reviews some of the evidence from specific transfer programs. Transfer programs reach a billion individuals in low income countries, often providing support that increases purchasing by twenty percent or more. Whether the mode of support is conditional or unconditional transfers most programs increase health care utilization as well as food consumption. There is, however, only modest evidence that such programs lead to measurable reductions in stunting or anemia with more encouraging results for very young children whose families receive assistance over much of the most vulnerable period in the child’s growth.
The review discusses possible reasons for this relative under performance. The chapter also reviews recent evidence on the impact of cash transfers relative to in-kind support. While the differences in these modes of delivery is nuanced and context specific, in virtually every study reviewed it cost less to deliver cash, although in some situations, cash programs proved vulnerable to inflation.
The potential of transfer programs to be nutrition sensitive remains largely untapped. Better access to quality health services as well as more explicit nutrition objectives may close the gap between the potential and results.
