Community-based conditional cash transfers in Tanzania: results from a randomized trial

Given the success of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs elsewhere in the world, in 2010 the Government of Tanzania - via the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) rolled out a CCT program in three districts. Its aim was to see if, using a model that relied heavily on communities to target beneficiaries and deliver payments, the program can improve outcomes for the poor the way centrally run CCT programs have in other contexts. The program was piloted in three poor districts (Bagamoyo, Chamwino, and Kibaha), selected in part for their poverty relative to other parts of Tanzania. The program provided benefits for these poor households based on the number of vulnerable children (age 0-15) and elderly (age 60 plus) therein. Payments were made every other month, or six times each year. Given scarce resources, TASAF randomly selected 40 villages out of 80 eligible villages in the three study districts to be treated under the pilot program. Communities selected the most vulnerable households to participate before learning which villages were randomly selected to participate in the program. In this context, this report gives background; results of the baseline survey; evaluation strategy; impact evaluation results at the midline; results of the community score card exercise; results of the midline focus group exercise; impact evaluation results at end line; and conclusion.