Cash Transfers and Child Nutrition in Zambia

In extremely poor settings, cash transfers may need to be accompanied by complementary interventions to have an impact on long-term chronic malnutrition. Several recent articles have reviewed the existing state of evidence on the effects of cash transfers on child nutritional status and found mixed results.1 Notwithstanding the common publication bias towards significant impacts, one meta-analysis merely points to a slightly positive but not statistically significant effect of cash transfers on child height-for-age, a well-established indicator for chronic malnutrition.2 Another review, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa, summarizes the evidence on the effects of cash transfers on child nutrition and on the potential pathways through which cash could affect nutritional status: the environment, food intake and health behaviours.3 This investigation confirms the lack of systematic positive impacts on child nutritional status, but does highlight positive effects on intermediate outcomes such as food security and the use of health services. Overall, these reviews point to the relative dearth of evidence on the effects of cash on potential transmission channels.