Abstract
The Venezuelan crisis has generated a great influx of forced migrants into Peru in the last five years, representing a significant challenge to the mostly informal and precarious labor markets. Due to this situation, IPA and Save the Children (StC) have teamed up to evaluate the impact of a cash transfer program aimed at helping start or improve the entrepreneurships of forced migrants. StC recruits vulnerable families of Venezuelan migrants and provides some initial emergency support, followed by help to increase their income-generating capacities. Our study focuses on those that are selected into and finish a business training program, mainly women, and randomly assign them to receive a cash transfer to fund the creation of a new firm or the expansion of an already established one.
The results of this study will provide information about how providing capital to immigrant entrepreneurs affects the profitability and sustainability of their businesses, with a focus on how exactly the money is spent and the perceived and realized resilience of the businesses to external volatility. They will also shed light on how entrepreneurship outcomes interact with the recipient’s household situation, by examining other sources of income, other members’ labor market situation, and household expenses across different categories.
Finally, it will provide useful insights that can be used by humanitarian and development organizations to better target entrepreneurship activities, transition households out of humanitarian aid, and enhance the sustainability of cash project outcomes. If the grant for entrepreneurs has a positive effect on migrants, especially after the cash assistance ends, it would be one of the very few livelihood interventions proven to work in humanitarian contexts.