Policy

Does Cash Improve Health?

In 1996 Paul Gertler, a Berkeley Professor of Business and Public Health, was asked by the Mexican national government to conduct an evaluation of a new health and welfare program, Progresa. The program was designed to provide direct cash payments to poor rural mothers, provided that their children attend school and visit local clinics for vaccinations and nutritional supplements. Because Gertler was involved in the design phase of this new effort, he was able to incorporate an experimental study into the program's roll out.

Armed with data from thousands of Mexican households—those receiving cash payments, and those placed on a waiting list—he was able to identify significant improvements in child health as a direct result of the program. Gertler also found that the cash payments were more cost-efficient than providing mothers with heath and nutrition education, because they actually changed family behavior. Widespread media coverage of these research findings has led to support for the Progresa program by multiple Presidents (a remarkable achievement given Mexico's political history). The program has now been adopted by dozens of other countries throughout the world.

Worms & Education in Kenya

For the last 10 years, Edward Miguel, an Economics Professor at UC Berkeley, has studied the impacts of hookworm medicine on the learning and social welfare of children in rural Kenya. He began his work in partnership with a local NGO that received funding for a new school-based de-worming program. Miguel built a rigorous evaluation into the roll out of the program, by randomly selecting which villages would immediately receive de-worming drugs, and which would be placed on a waiting list. School attendance and learning data were collected from both sets of villages.

Miguel found that de-worming significantly increased school attendance—to a greater extent than the purchase of costly new textbooks or teaching aids. In part because of this unexpected result, the governments of Kenya and Ghana have added de-worming programs to their national school plans. More recently, the U.S. government allocated $350 million for treatment of worms and other parasites in the developing world. Notably, the announcement of this new aid package cited the evidence that de-worming can enhance educational outcomes and, in the long-term, will hopefully promote economic growth.

Advancing Research in the Global South

CEGA faculty members work with research collaborators in more than 20 countries in the developing world; these partnerships create hands-on research experiences for hundreds of local investigators. To nurture and strengthen these relationships, the Center partners with leading academic institutions in the global South, to expand and sustain local research capacity.

For example, we are working with universities in East Africa to create innovative, locally relevant social science training programs with a focus on impact evaluation and policy analysis. We also seek to increase the numbers of students from least-developed countries who are able to study at UC Berkeley.

In addition to in-depth research training, CEGA offers short courses and workshops in impact evaluation for professionals and policy-makers, in the U.S. and abroad, to promote learning as a part of development. These courses help community-based organizations, donors, and governments build the local capacity and leadership needed to rigorously evaluate their new programs. As a result, limited budgets can be focused on services that are known to be effective.

Disseminating Knowledge Throughout the World

In 2006, the World Bank asked Alain de Janvry, a distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley—and the current Faculty Director of CEGA—to co-direct the 2008 World Development Report. This report is the World Bank's main annual research publication; each year, it provides incisive analysis of the most pressing issues in global development.

The 2008 volume, drawing on decades of research, outlines how low- and middle income countries can use agriculture as a tool for poverty reduction. In recent years, support for agriculture by aid agencies and national governments has declined; the new report brings much-needed prominence to the sector, at a time when global climate change threatens to devastate farm-based economies. According to the New York Times, the report's focus on agriculture "is likely to influence practical policies across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where hundreds of millions of farmers and landless laborers are still mired in poverty."

To accelerate the adoption of evidence-based policy, de Janvry has been actively disseminating the report through conferences and meetings with high-level government officials. For example, with fellow CEGA faculty member Elisabeth Sadoulet, he has met with India's Planning Commission to develop and implement practical recommendations, based on the report's findings. He has also presented the key messages of the report to foreign aid agencies, parliamentary officials, and U.N. officials.

Through partnerships with the World Bank and other multi-lateral organizations, governments, and private sector firms, CEGA researchers are helping to spread knowledge of "what works" to audiences with the power to make positive change in the lives of the poor.