Evaluation report
Effectiveness of a cash for school program on education and marriage among adolescent girls: A longitudinal intervention study in Lebanon
Shatha Elnakib, Maia Sieverding, Zeinab Kammouni, Heba Dabliz, Karine Taha ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study evaluates a three-year conditional cash transfer program in Lebanon that provided money to families if adolescent girls attended school. The program included Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian girls. Girls who received cash transfers for two or more years were significantly less likely to marry early and more likely to stay in school, but one year of transfers alone was not enough to prevent early marriage. The findings suggest that cash for education can help prevent child marriage and improve school attendance in conflict-affected settings, but only if sustained over multiple years.
Key points
- Receipt of two or more years of cash transfers was associated with significant reductions in early marriage risk
- One year of cash transfers was not sufficient to reduce early marriage
- Each additional year of cash receipt reduced the risk of school dropout
- Cash transfers improved educational outcomes and attitudes toward education in year three participants
- The program operated in a humanitarian setting with Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian girls
Limitations
The study uses a comparison group rather than randomised assignment, so causal claims depend on the groups being comparable at baseline. The document does not specify whether baseline characteristics or potential confounding factors were controlled for in the analysis.
Abstract
Abstract Introduction This study evaluates the effects of a three-year conditional cash transfer program on educational outcomes and child marriage among Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian adolescent girls in Lebanon. Methods In the third year of the program, survey data were collected from households receiving a cash transfer conditional on adolescent girls’ school attendance and a comparison group of households. We conducted descriptive analysis and logistic regression models comparing outcomes, at endline, between girls in the intervention and comparison groups. Survey data on marriage and school dropout were also collected from all households of girls who were ever enrolled in the intervention or comparison groups over the three years of the program. Survival analysis was used to compare the transition to marriage and school dropout among girls who received cash transfers for different durations. Results Among year three participants, receiving cash transfers was associated with improved educational and attitudinal outcomes, but not reductions in early marriage. Comparing all program participants, receipt of two or more years of cash transfers was associated with significant reductions in the risk of early marriage but receipt of cash for one year only was not. Each additional year of cash receipt was associated with reductions in the risk of school dropout. Conclusion Our findings point to the promise of cash for education as an approach to improving school retention and reducing early marriage among adolescent girls in humanitarian settings, provided that cash transfers can be implemented for a sufficient duration of time. Implications and contributions This is one of the first studies to evaluate the impacts of a CCT program on early marriage in a humanitarian setting. Leveraging longitudinal data, our findings provide evidence on the promise of cash conditional on schooling to improve school retention and reduce early marriage among conflict-affected adolescent girls.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Conditional cash transfer program providing money to families conditional on adolescent girls' school attendance
- Population
- Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian adolescent girls in Lebanon
Key finding
Receipt of two or more years of cash transfers was associated with significant reductions in risk of early marriage