Cash Transfers, Microentrepreneurial Activity, and Child Work: Evidence from Malawi and Zambia.

Cash transfer programs are rapidly becoming a key component of the social safety net of many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The primary aim of these programs is to help households improve their food security and smooth consumption during periods of economic duress. However, beneficiary households have also been shown to use these programs to expand their microentrepreneurial activities.

Perspectives of adolescent and young adults on poverty-related stressors: a qualitative study in Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania.

Objectives: To define key stressors experienced and coping behaviours within poor agrarian communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Design: Descriptive qualitative study incorporating inductive thematic analysis.

Participants: 81 participants purposely sampled, stratified by age (adolescents and young adults) and sex SETTING: The study was conducted in villages in Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania.

Government of Malawi's unconditional cash transfer improves youth mental health.

We explore the impacts of Malawi's national unconditional cash transfer program targeting ultra-poor households on youth mental health. Experimental findings show that the program significantly improved mental health outcomes. Among girls in particular, the program reduces indications of depression by about 15 percentage points.

Cash Transfers, Early Marriage, and Fertility in Malawi and Zambia.

There is increasing interest in the ability of cash transfers to facilitate safe transitions to adulthood in low-income settings; however, evidence from scaled-up government programming demonstrating this potential is scarce. Using two experimental evaluations of unconditional cash transfers targeted to ultra-poor and labor-constrained households over approximately three years in Malawi and Zambia, we examine whether cash transfers delayed early marriage and pregnancy among youth aged 14 to 21 years at baseline. Although we find strong impacts on poverty and schooling, two main pathways hypothesized in the literature, we find limited impacts on safe transition outcomes for both males and females.

The role of productive activities in the lives of adolescents: Photovoice evidence from Malawi.

Adolescence is an important transitional period, separate from both childhood and adulthood. Critical physical and mental development occurs during adolescence, including emotional skills, physical, and mental abilities. Behaviors adopted during this lifecourse period have critical implications for adolescents' future health and well-being.

Poverty and perceived stress: Evidence from two unconditional cash transfer programs in Zambia.

Introduction: Poverty is a chronic stressor that can lead to poor physical and mental health. This study examines whether two similar government poverty alleviation programs reduced the levels of perceived stress and poverty among poor households in Zambia.

Method: Secondary data from two cluster randomized controlled trials were used to evaluate the impacts of two unconditional cash transfer programs in Zambia.