Can Transfers and Behavior Change Communication Reduce Intimate Partner Violence Four Years Post-program? Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh

Little is known about whether reductions in intimate partner violence (IPV) from cash transfer programs persist over the longer term. Using a randomized controlled trial design, we show that a program providing poor women in rural Bangladesh with cash or food transfers, alongside nutrition behavior change communication (BCC), led to sustained reductions in IPV 4 years after the program ended. Transfers alone showed no sustained impacts on IPV. Evidence suggests cash and BCC led to more sustained impacts on IPV than food and BCC – through persistent increases in women’s bargaining power, men’s costs of perpetrating violence, and poverty-related emotional well-being.

Keywords: social protection, cash transfer, gender, sustainability, domestic violence

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Roy, Shalini and Hidrobo, Melissa and Hoddinott, John and Koch, Bastien and Ahmed, Akhter U., Can Transfers and Behavior Change Communication Reduce Intimate Partner Violence Four Years Post-program? Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh (October 2, 2019). IFPRI Discussion Paper 1869, September 2019, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467612