Study: “Conditional Cash Transfers and HIV Prevention”
PI(s): Thirumurthy, Harsha
Affiliation(s): World Bank
Institutional Partner(s): World Bank
Project Dates:
Start: 2010
End: 2011
Data Source(s): Panel Data
Methods: Randomized Controlled Trial
Geographic Location(s): South Africa

Description:
The objective of cash transfer interventions is to reduce structural barriers to education and to increase school attendance of young women, thereby decreasing their risk for HIV. Mobilization activities aim to re-educate young men about gender norms, intimate partner violence, and HIV risk; and to encourage them about protecting young women and reducing HIV risk in their communities. The study examines the effect of an innovative, multilevel HIV prevention intervention that jointly addresses both structural and social factors contributing to young women’s increased vulnerability to HIV. The goal is to determine whether providing cash transfers to poor young women and their households reduces young women’s risk for HIV, and whether combining the cash transfer program with a community mobilization program focused on young men further reduces that risk. The researchers randomized individual young women from households to receive a monthly cash transfer, conditional on the young women attending school. Half of the villages where the young women reside were also randomized to receive a community mobilization intervention with a particular focus on changing gender norms in young men. This study is still ongoing.