This report provides results of an impact evaluation of the first phase of the Fiavota cash transfer programme for drought-affected households in southern Madagascar. In 2016, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in partnership with the World Bank and Ministry of Population, Social Protection, and Support for Women (MPPSPF) started giving cash transfers to households with young children. The first phase of the transfer covered 56,729 households and ended in March 2018. A monitoring and evaluation system consisting of a series of surveys (baseline, midline and endline) has
been put in place since the beginning of the FIAVOTA program. In 2018, as FIAVOTA was reaching its midterm, a series of analyses relating to mid-term impact assessment was conducted jointly by the World Bank
and UNICEF in collaboration with the Government, FID and the ONN/UPNNC. For 2018, the results of the impact analysis conducted by the World Bank using dynamic indicator review and the propensity score matching (PSM) method highlighted the immediate or short-term effects of the FIAVOTA program on beneficiary households. At the same time, UNICEF carried out a study to understand the effects of transfers in the humanitarian context.
This report presents the results of the dynamic analysis of key indicators and the assessment using quasi-experimental cross-sectional methods to estimate the net impact of the FIAVOTA program on
beneficiaries during the first phase. This assessment used propensity score matching (PSM) techniques to create treatment and comparison groups that are similar. The study reviews the impacts of the program both at the household level and at the level of individual members of beneficiary households. The two analyzes agree that, overall, the FIAVOTA program has had positive and significant impacts on the various indicators chosen.