Cash Transfers, Children and the Crisis: Protecting Current and Future Investments

In a mix of responses to the food, fuel and financial crises of 2008–9, some developing countries have introduced new safety‐net programmes, while others have modified and/or expanded existing ones. Many have introduced conditional cash transfers (CCTs) in recent years, and these have been used as an important starting point for a response. This article aims to describe these various experiences with CCTs, to distil lessons about their effectiveness as crisis‐response programmes for households with children, to identify design features that can facilitate their ability to respond to transient poverty shocks, and to assess how they can complement other safety‐net programmes.