TOWARD IMPROVING HOUSEHOLD WELFARE AND CHILD NUTRITION THROUGH SOCIAL PROTECTION IN MALI

Outcome Overview

In 2014, with support from the World Bank, the Government of Mali launched the Projet Filets Sociaux (Jigisemejiri), a national program aimed at alleviating vulnerability and poverty through cash transfers, trainings, and distribution of fortified food supplements. The first phase of the program ran from 2014-2018 in six regions (Gao, Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Segou, and Sikasso) and the District of Bamako, reaching about 62,000 households. In order to rigorously and independently assess the impacts of the program, the Government of Mali collaborated with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) to undertake an impact evaluation.

The midline results of the evaluation showed that the program significantly improved household food security, dietary diversity, savings and investments among the beneficiaries, but that it had limited impact on child nutrition. To augment impacts on household welfare and to increase potential for child nutrition improvements, the evaluation formulated several recommendations aimed at changing households’ behavior related to use of the cash transfers: increase the size and frequency of the cash transfers; involve women in addition to heads of households in the decision of how to use the transfer; increase the participation of mothers in trainings related to child nutrition and health; and use new strategies to improve the intensity and effectiveness of trainings with respect to changing behavior related to maternal and child nutrition.

These recommendations informed the Government of Mali’s design of the next phase of the program, which began in 2019 and aims to reach 100,000 beneficiaries by 2022. The size of the cash transfers has increased from 10,000 FCFA/month to 15,000 FCFA/month. The frequency of the distribution has increased from every three months to every two months. The training sessions on maternal and child nutrition now include home visits for more individualized counseling, and new themes on child development and income-generating activities have been added.

This work was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) under Flagship 4: Social Protection for Agriculture and Resilience.

This story is part of the PIM 2018 Outcomes collection. For more information about our work in 2018, see PIM Achievements in 2018: Highlights and Annual report 2018: CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM).