|
Field
Intervention (Hidden)
|
Before
Intervention
Sudan is currently undergoing the world’s largest displacement crisis with over 11 million displaced persons, and nearly 24.8 million people in need of humanitarian or social assistance. Given the multi-faceted challenges in delivering social assistance in Sudan, infrastructural deterioration, and surging demand for life-saving assistance, existing literature does not offer clear guidance on how to deliver and target humanitarian assistance to hard-to-reach population and conflict-affected settings where infrastructural and data limitations may inhibit conventional delivery mechanisms. Our study aims to contribute to the broader discourse of the efficacy of digital cash transfers in improving household welfare during an active conflict.
We build on a large Urban Household Survey conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2024, which comprises a sample of 3000 urban households across Sudan. The sample covers all states and was split into three comparable groups: households were randomly assigned to be in the control group or one of two treatment groups receiving digital cash transfers of various amounts. The randomization and intervention occur at the household level and hence we aim to understand household-level impacts of digital cash transfers.
Before executing the transfers, we conducted a pre-transfer survey to elicit the preferred mode of digital transfer as well as associated account details. The pre-transfer survey reached 90 percent of the original 3000 households included in the original urban household survey. About 3 percent of the sample respondents reported that they are not interested in receiving digital transfer. This results in a sample of 2586 respondents that are interested in receiving the digital transfer. Through individual-level randomization, we randomly assign these 2586 urban households into three categories: a control group and two treatment groups. Based on a pre-transfer survey, we identified the households’ preferred mode of receiving digital cash transfers, and these include four variants: Bankak (51 percent); Fawry (2 percent); Cashi (3 percent), and airtime credit (45 percent). We are closely working with a survey firm to execute the one-time digital transfer to the randomly selected households in the treatment groups as a one-off payment. In view of that, we exogenously vary the amount of the transfers into two categories with different amounts; each forming a distinct treatment group assigned randomly. We stratify the intervention by state as well as by the type of digital transfer (Bankak, Fawry, Cashi and airtime credit). This would allow us to measure the impact of digital cash assistance on urban households living in conflict-affected cities in Sudan and compare the impacts across different modalities. Specifically, we aim to answer the following research questions.
Research Questions:
This research project aims to evaluate the impact of digital cash transfers disbursed through digital modalities such as mobile banking or airtime transfers on household welfare and related outcomes, including household dietary diversity, food insecurity scores, subjective well-being, perceived stress level, and anxiety level. Specifically, we focus on the following key research questions:
1. Can digital cash transfers improve short-term food security, consumption of nutritious diets and dietary diversity?
2. Can digital cash transfers improve the subjective well-being of beneficiaries in conflict-affected settings?
3. Can digital transfers cushion the adverse mental health effects of armed conflict? And does the size of the transfer matter?
4. Are digital cash transfers more impactful in conflict-affected communities?
5. What is the impact of individual-based cash transfers on trust in local institutions and social cohesion in the presence and absence of conflicts?
6. Who benefits more from digital cash transfers and does the impact of digital transfer vary across gender and socioeconomic characteristics of households?
|
After
Intervention
Sudan is currently undergoing the world’s largest displacement crisis with over 11 million displaced persons, and nearly 24.8 million people in need of humanitarian or social assistance. Given the multi-faceted challenges in delivering social assistance in Sudan, infrastructural deterioration, and surging demand for life-saving assistance, existing literature does not offer clear guidance on how to deliver and target humanitarian assistance to hard-to-reach population and conflict-affected settings where infrastructural and data limitations may inhibit conventional delivery mechanisms. Our study aims to contribute to the broader discourse of the efficacy of digital cash transfers in improving household welfare during an active conflict.
We build on a large Urban Household Survey conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2024, which comprises a sample of 3000 urban households across Sudan. The sample covers all states and was split into three comparable groups: households were randomly assigned to be in the control group or one of two treatment groups receiving digital cash transfers of various amounts. The randomization and intervention occur at the household level and hence we aim to understand household-level impacts of digital cash transfers.
Before executing the transfers, we conducted a pre-transfer survey to elicit the preferred mode of digital transfer as well as associated account details. The pre-transfer survey reached 90 percent of the original 3000 households included in the original urban household survey. About 3 percent of the sample respondents reported that they are not interested in receiving digital transfer. This results in a sample of 2586 respondents that are interested in receiving the digital transfer. Through individual-level randomization, we randomly assign these 2586 urban households into three categories: a control group and two treatment groups. Based on a pre-transfer survey, we identified the households’ preferred mode of receiving digital cash transfers, and these include four variants: Bankak (51 percent); Fawry (2 percent); Cashi (3 percent), and airtime credit (45 percent). We are closely working with a survey firm to execute the one-time digital transfer to the randomly selected households in the treatment groups as a one-off payment. In view of that, we exogenously vary the amount of the transfers into two categories with different amounts; each forming a distinct treatment group assigned randomly. We stratify the intervention by state as well as by the type of digital transfer (Bankak, Fawry, Cashi and airtime credit). This would allow us to measure the impact of digital cash assistance on urban households living in conflict-affected cities in Sudan and compare the impacts across different modalities. Because of the timing of the survey being close to Ramadan, we randomly assign about 60 percent of the sample to be administered pre-Ramadan and another (randomly selected) 40 percent of the sample to be interviewed during Ramadan, which allows us to address additional research questions and heterogeneities. Specifically, we aim to answer the following research questions.
Research Questions:
This research project aims to evaluate the impact of digital cash transfers disbursed through digital modalities such as mobile banking or airtime transfers on household welfare and related outcomes, including household dietary diversity, food insecurity scores, subjective well-being, perceived stress level, and anxiety level. Specifically, we focus on the following key research questions:
1. Can digital cash transfers improve short-term food security, consumption of nutritious diets and dietary diversity?
2. Can digital cash transfers improve the subjective well-being of beneficiaries in conflict-affected settings?
3. Can digital transfers cushion the adverse mental health effects of armed conflict? And does the size of the transfer matter?
4. Are digital cash transfers more impactful in conflict-affected communities?
5. What is the impact of individual-based cash transfers on trust in local institutions and social cohesion in the presence and absence of conflicts?
6. Who benefits more from digital cash transfers and does the impact of digital transfer vary across gender and socioeconomic characteristics of households?
7. Does the timing of survey matter for self-reported behaviors (including moral behaviors) and outcomes?
|