Child Welfare in Developing Countries, 2010

to establish impact, attributing observed changes in welfare to the intervention, while identifying key factors of success. Impact evaluations are aimed at providing feedback to help improve the design of programs and policies. They also provide greater accountability and a tool for dynamic learning, allowing policymakers to improve ongoing programs and ultimately better allocate funds across programs. Such a causal analysis is essential for understanding the relative role of alternative interventions in reducing poverty. The papers in this section again adopt a variety of techniques. The rst two impact evaluation studies employ propensity score matching to establish, ex-post, a valid control group to assess the impact on child schooling outcomes among b- e ciaries of various interventions in Kenya and Ethiopia. The third chapter c- ries out an ex-ante evaluation of alternative cash transfer programs on child school attendance in Uruguay. The nal paper further carries out in-depth macro-modeling and micro-regression analysis to simulate the impacts of the food crisis and various policy responses, including food subsidies and cash transfers, on various dimensions of child poverty in Mali. Though using different approaches, the studies are gen- ally in agreement concerning the positive impact of the cash transfer program on child schooling and labor market outcomes. The studies from Kenya and Uruguay both nd that the schooling interventions are progressive.

Child Welfare in Developing Countries: An Introduction.- Child Welfare in Developing Countries: An Introduction.- Multidimensional Child Poverty Analysis.- Multidimensional Poverty, Survival and Inequality Among Kenyan Children.- Profiling Child Poverty in Four WAEMU Countries: A Comparative Analysis Based on the Multidimensional Poverty Approach.- Multidimensional Poverty AmongWest African Children: Testing for Robust Poverty Comparisons.- Impact Evaluation.- Free Primary Education in Kenya: An Impact Evaluation Using Propensity Score Methods.- Productive Safety Net Program and Children’s Time Use Between Work and Schooling in Ethiopia.- Family Allowances and Child School Attendance: An Ex-ante Evaluation of Alternative Schemes in Uruguay.- The Impact of the Increase in Food Prices on Child Poverty and the Policy Response in Mali.