The Impact of Cash Transfers on Intimate Partner Violence: A Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

Abstract

Abstract The prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among women remains high around the world. Cash transfers (CTs) are one potential avenue that can be used to reduce violence through women’s empowerment. The present study uses a mixed method, where both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed to compare the difference in the prevalence of IPV between CT recipients and non-recipients of CTs and among different categories of CTs. For quantitative data, a single difference estimation of the end-line cross-section data was used to assess the impact of Tanzania’s CTs on IPV. Results show that CTs have no impact on different forms of IPV, except a negligible impact in reducing physical violence. Moreover, thematic analysis of qualitative data suggests that cultural norms that subordinate women to men irrespective of women’s socioeconomic status are the channels through which IPV is perpetuated in Tanzania. Therefore, we recommend that CTs be designed in a manner that progressively transforms power relations in Tanzania. This would necessarily include having tailor-made gender training programs; promoting efforts that seek to reform the legal framework that preserves masculine culture in Tanzania’s society as well as improving the functioning of police-based gender desks and social work departments across the country.