A Cash Plus Model for Safe Transitions to a Healthy and Productive Adulthood: Baseline report

This report provides the baseline results from the impact evaluation of ‘A Cash Plus model for safe transitions to a healthy and productive adulthood’ being implemented within the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN), with technical assistance from UNICEF and TACAIDS. The impact evaluation is a 24-month, mixed methods study to provide evidence on the potential for an additional plus component targeted to youth that is layered on top of a government cash transfer programme to improve future economic opportunities for youth and facilitate their safe transitions to adulthood. This is based on the recognition that cash alone is rarely sufficient to mitigate all risks and vulnerabilities youth face or to overcome structural barriers to education, delayed marriage and pregnancy, and other safe transitions.

The model the intervention follows was informed by a workshop held inTanzania in February 2016 with government, researchers and development partners. The framework utilizes a capacities/asset-building framework, which recognizes that youth need a combination of social, health and financial assets to safely transition to adulthood. Using the Livelihoods Enhancement component of the existing government cash transfer programme (Tanzania Social Action Fund’s Productive Social Safety Net) as a strategic entry point, this intervention and study aims to examine how economic empowerment, HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education, and linkages to other existing and new services enable youth to leverage their households’ participation in the government cash transfer programme. The programme aims to reduce extreme poverty and break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, to increase the well-being of youth today as well as provide them with opportunities and capacities for their future.

The intervention is implemented by TASAF, with technical assistance from UNICEF Tanzania and TACAIDS. The research study and impact evaluation are being overseen by UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti in collaboration with a Tanzanian national partner, Economic Development Initiatives (EDI). Findings aim to inform design of future iterations of the Government’s social protection and provide innovative programmatic guidance on the safe transition to adulthood of Tanzanian youth, allowing them to reach their full productive potential as healthy adults.