Brief description of the project

The primary objective of this evaluation is to generate evidence on the impact of the cash transfer programme and to understand the role of cash in provision of sustainable transformative social protection for children. Second, the evaluation aims to generate accountability by exploring how successful the CCT programme has been in achieving its expected results and to generate actionable recommendations that can improve the programme before it is scaled up nation-wide. 

To this end, the evaluation is expected to assess the programme design and implementation as well as its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability. In addition to this the evaluation will assess the cost efficiency of providing families with CCTs for community/family-based care arrangements vis-à-vis institutional care and provide actionable recommendations before the scaling up of the programme. Additionally, it will respond to the following specific objectives:

• Analyse the extent to which the CCT programme has been designed, efficiently and effectively implemented and cost-effective analysis
• Understand how families use the money provided, complied (or not) with conditions, adequacy of the transfer level, extent to which spending translated (or not) into benefits for children
• Assess institutional capacity at national and sub-national level, identify key gaps and bottlenecks in its pilot and small-scale stages and understand role of programme in strengthening (or not) such capacity 
• Assess the strength and weaknesses of the CCT programme to support family/community-based care as an alternative to institutional care, and carry out cost-effectiveness analysis of the two, considering the group of children for whom alternatives for institutional care are feasible.

Through these, derive lessons learnt to inform the development of strategies to improve the CCT programme, and foster accountability.