Seminar
Jacob de Hoop (UNICEF): Lost Horizon, the impact of terminating cash support to displaced Syrian children in Jordan
Humanitarian funding is volatile. Consequently, humanitarian interventions are often scaled down while the crisis they are designed to address is still ongoing. This study explores the implications of scaling down a humanitarian intervention for program beneficiaries.
The program, which was developed by UNICEF Jordan, supports the school participation of displaced Syrian children. It provides poor displaced households with a combination of unconditional cash transfers and text messages that encourage caregivers to send their children back to school after the winter break, a precarious period during which many children drop out of school. Relying on a cluster-randomized trial with multiple treatment arms, the study explores and decomposes the impacts of (discontinuing) the cash transfers and the encouragement messages on child wellbeing.