Channeling agricultural assistance through existing community-based organizations (CBOs) makes these organizations more inclusive (in the sense that they become more heterogeneous in terms of members’ ethnicity and wealth)
At the same time, channeling agricultural assistance through existing CBOs is associated with a decreased likelihood of female CBO membership and disproportionate dropout rates of women
Households with self-help group members had a significantly lower high cost debt burden, and were able to take out smaller loans repeatedly for productive purposes
Women enrolled in SHGs demonstrated higher levels of empowerment as measured by mobility, decision-making, and collective action
Some positive effects in cow ownership, mobile phone ownership, food security, and sanitation preferences among beneficiary households
Pudu Vazhvu project SHG women members were most likely to participate in their groups in the following ways: record and account maintenance, formulating the rules and regulations, and getting loans
Community members residing in communities that benefited from the program exhibited increased willingness to contribute to public goods in their community, as demonstrated by increased contributions in public goods games.
At the same time, the program appeared to have no impact on community members’ altruism and actually reduced community members’ interpersonal trust (possibly because of increased competition between community members for CDD project funds)
A social accountability and community monitoring (SACM) intervention introduced to the project improved community project quality by a small but significant magnitude amounting to 0.12 standard deviations. This overall improvement in community subprojects was driven by a mix of increases in the quality and quantity of outputs.
Through the community monitoring mechanism, community members were more engaged in ensuring they were receiving quality project outputs, and more likely to report issues to local, sub-county and district officials, as well as to the Inspectorate of Government
Community monitoring did not have any impact on payments made to district officials or satisfaction or trust in public officials, although beneficiaries reported lower trust in community sub-project leaders.
Over a period of two years, women in treatment villages (i.e. villages with SEWA groups established) were more likely to participate in group programs, acquire greater “personal autonomy” (including greater control over household decision-making), partake in collective action on issues such as water and sanitation, and engage in community affairs, than their counterparts in control villages.
No evidence that the program’s effects are concentrated among women who were better off at the baseline. Rather, landless women are more likely to save regularly, and increase their cash income as a result of SEWA’s programs, compared to landholders
Among households who participated in the initiative (an agricultural development program implemented by Village Development Councils), there is an increase in the proportion of farmers choosing to farm independently rather than enter into sharecropping agreements.
Also find a decline in households going hungry
Find little observable increase in agricultural (and total) income for the intervention households.
The study specifically examines the effects of disseminating information to villages about existing community-driven revenue sharing programs between villages and a Bwindi National Park
Authors did not find evidence that the information increased knowledge about or participation in the revenue sharing program, or increased satisfaction with local institutions.
The information treatment backfired related to perceived opportunities to participate, particularly among women.
Find that elite control in CDD projects is ubiquitous, but that it can be both malevolent and benevolent.
Find that communities can have a lot of power over governing elites. Suggests that development agencies should be cautious about automatically assuming the prevalence of malevolent elite capture and its ill-effects.
Find that gender homogeneity is not a sufficient means to ensure active female participation in CDD groups. It is only in combination with other factors, such as caste homogeneity, membership in self-help groups, and an absence of elite control, that women-only groups can enhance women's participation.
Self-Help groups formed by outsider facilitators are better linked to the state through participation in the local Gram Sabha and other poverty alleviation programmes. However, they are less likely to engage in collective action on issues related to public service delivery and less likely to actually engage with local politics.
Externally facilitated SHGs perform worse on financial outcomes
Given all these reasons, the authors argue that local, sub-nationally managed facilitation would have been optimal for this project.
Identify 3 critical success factors to livelihoods programming
Enabling community environment that emphasizes the need for providing close support, training, technical assistance, monitoring, and direct funding after creating an enabling environment that facilitates the community to implement projects in villages
Measurable project management outcomes by a committed staff of the village organizations to achieve project targets and enhance social capital
Community engagement throughout the project implementation process to ensure transparency in the processes, proper project selection and draw community support during implementation.
Wealth, education, access to media, and political engagement are positively correlated with the likelihood to apply for the program at the national level, and to be aware of it at the local level.
Centrally dictated features of the program – namely predetermined funding allocations to districts and eligibility rules – combine with the decentralized selection process within districts to counteract this initially regressive application pattern and produce a program that is, like many other CDD programs, only mildly pro-poor.
The results suggest that sensitization and outreach prior to the application process is a critical dimension in making CDD programs more progressive.
Findings indicated that SMCEs have spread widely. Average household expenditure, the rate of poverty, and agricultural output were significant predictors of SMCE establishments.
However, the research did not find any concrete evidence to support the claim that SMCEs helped reduce poverty or out-migration.
Heifer interventions resulted in improved socioeconomic status and household income per family member.
Children under 60 months of age in the intervention group had greater incremental improvement in height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores than children in the control group, and longer participation in Heifer activities was associated with better growth.
Participation in NEO positively and significantly impacted beneficiaries' perceptions of local government, satisfaction with local government, levels of civic engagement, on-farm income earned from cane fruit, stone fruit, and hazelnut production, numbers of beneficiaries engaged in enterprise self-employment, and income earned from enterprise self-employment (vocational education)
However, community LED plans tended to be vague and reflective of generic priorities/the municipal government's most probably funding priorities.
Findings suggest that the INDH may offer an initial economic benefit but not have long-term, ongoing, transformative effects. Moreover, rough calculations suggest benefits exceed costs during Phase I.
Finds that the program had no impacts on early childhood development
Participation in youth savings and loans associations (YSLAs) empowered youth by providing them with access to financial services and training in life skills and financial education, which in turn led to income generation, increased capacity to save, and asset accumulation.
Additional results included: reduced dependence on their parents and other family members; increased investment in economic activities; acquisition of new skills and knowledge; and development of their leadership potential
The project also had a significant impact in motivating youths to save and borrow through the YSLAs
On the other hand, the outcome of the pilot linkage with a microfinance institution (MFI) met with limited success in its attempt to mainstream youth into the formal financial sector.
The program has been able to achieve its primary objective of improving livelihoods by transitioning more women into work.
The program has also expanded access to credit, increased the proportion of savings, and reduced interest rates on credit for rural households.
This is the first study to estimate the annual income effects of a government-run rural livelihoods program in India, and it shows significant increases in median income across the sample. The results for 30th, 40th, and 75th percentiles are also large and significant.
However, the study did not find significant average treatment effects for income. Contrary to previous studies, this study finds weaker impacts on assets, except for livestock.
Evidence indicates that SHGs have positive effects on three dimensions of women’s empowerment. On average, women were more economically empowered – that is, they had better access to, ownership of and control over resources – as a result of participation in SHGs than non-participants.
Female participants also showed higher mobility, so were more socially empowered than non-participants. In addition, SHG members were more able to exert control over decision-making about the family size of the household, but only if the SHGs included a training component.
Female SHG members were also more able to participate in decision-making focused on access to resources, rights and entitlements within communities, hence were more politically empowered.
Economic Self-Help Groups (ESHG) have positive effects on women’s economic and political empowerment, as well as social empowerment - such as women’s family size decision-making power and social mobility.
There is no quantitative evidence to indicate positive effects on women’s psychological empowerment. However, the qualitative studies suggest that women participating in ESHG perceive themselves as psychologically empowered.
ESHG with a training component, such as financial and business education or life skills training, have a larger effect than programs that do not involve training.
ESHGs do not reach the poorest citizens. The ‘poorest of the poor’ do not participate for economic and religious reasons, and mechanisms of self-selection.
Blog » Impact Evaluation
Impact Evaluation
Simplified table showing the key findings of CDD and
livelihood-related impact evaluations
Project Name
Project Type
Study Date
Country
Key Findings
Programme de Services Agricoles et Organisations de Producteurs (PSAOP)
World Bank
2016
Senegal
JEEVikA
World Bank
2015
India
Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation (Pudhu Vaazhvu) Project (PVP)
World Bank
2015
India
Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation (Pudhu Vaazhvu) Project (PVP)
World Bank
2015
India
Morocco National Human Development Initiative (INDH)
World Bank
2017
Morocco
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF2)
World Bank
2017
Uganda
Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)
Non-WB
2013
India
Shamrakshan Trust
Non-WB
2013
India
Bwindi Park Revenue Sharing
Non-WB
2017
Uganda
GlobalAid-Mozambique & Grupo de Desenvolvimento da Comunidade (CDG)
Non-WB
2013
Mozambique
Karnataka Milk Federation
Non-WB
2019
India
Livelihoods Enhancements and Associations Among the Poor (LEAP)
World Bank
2015
Cambodia
Indian National Rural Livelihoods Mission
World Bank
2017
India
Gemidiriya
World Bank
2016
Sri Lanka
Tanzania Social Action Fund II (TASAF II)
World Bank
2013
Tanzania
Small and Micro Community Enterprises Program (SMCEs)
World Bank
2015
Thailand
Heifer Nepal
Non-WB
2014
Nepal
Georgia New Economic Opportunities (NEO) Project
Non-WB
2016
Georgia
National Initiative for Human Development
World Bank
2016
Morocco
Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project
World Bank
2018
India
Youth Microfinance Project
Non-WB
2014
Niger, Sierra Leone, and Senegal
National Rural Livelihoods Mission
World Bank
2019
India
Meta-Analysis of SHGs
2019
Meta-Analysis of SHGs
2015