CLARISSA Cash Plus Social Protection intervention: quantitative and qualitative data

The CLARISSA Cash Plus intervention represented an innovative social protection scheme for tackling social ills, including the worst forms of child labour (WFCL). A universal and unconditional ‘cash plus’ programme, it combined community mobilisation, case work, and cash transfers (CTs). It was implemented in a high-density, low-income neighbourhood in Dhaka to build individual, family, and group capacities to meet needs. This, in turn, was expected to lead to a corresponding decrease in deprivation and community-identified social issues that negatively affect wellbeing, including WFCL. Four principles underpinned the intervention: Unconditionality, Universality, Needs-centred and people-led, and Emergent and open-ended.

The intervention took place in Dhaka – North Gojmohol – over a 27-month period, between October 2021 and December 2023, to test and study the impact of providing unconditional and people‑led support to everyone in a community. Cash transfers were provided between January and June 2023 in monthly instalments, plus one investment transfer in September 2023. A total of 1,573 households received cash, through the Upay mobile financial service. Cash was complemented by a ‘plus’ component, implemented between October 2021 and December 2023. Referred to as relational needs-based community organising (NBCO), a team of 20 community mobilisers (CMs) delivered case work at the individual and family level and community mobilisation at the group level. The intervention was part of the wider CLARISSA programme, led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and funded by UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The intervention was implemented by Terre des hommes (Tdh) in Bangladesh and evaluated in collaboration with the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and researchers from the University of Bath and the Open University, UK.

The evaluation of the CLARISSA Social Protection pilot was rooted in contribution analysis that combined multiple methods over more than three years in line with emerging best practice guidelines for mixed methods research on children, work, and wellbeing. Quantitative research included bi-monthly monitoring surveys administered by the project’s community mobilisers (CMs), including basic questions about wellbeing, perceived economic resilience, school attendance, etc. This was complimented by baseline, midline, and endline surveys, which collected information about key outcome indicators within the sphere of influence of the intervention, such as children’s engagement with different forms of work and working conditions, with schooling and other activities, household living conditions and sources of income, and respondents’ perceptions of change. Qualitative tools were used to probe topics and results of interest, as well as impact pathways. These included reflective diaries written by the community mobilisers; three rounds of focus group discussions (FGDs) with community members; three rounds of key informant interviews (KIIs) with members of case study households; and long-term ethnographic observation.

Quantitative Data

The quantitative evaluation of the CLARISSA Cash Plus intervention involved several data collection methods to gather information about household living standards, children’s education and work, and social dynamics. The data collection included a pre-intervention census, four periodic surveys, and 13 rounds of bi-monthly monitoring surveys, all conducted between late 2020 and late 2023. Details of each instrument are as follows:

• Census: Conducted in October/November 2020 in the target neighbourhood of North Gojmohol (n=1,832) and the comparison neighbourhood of Balurmath (n=2,365)
• Periodic surveys: Baseline (February 2021, n=752 in North Gojmohol), Midline 1 (before cash) (October 2022, n=771 in North Gojmohol), Midline 2 (after 6 rounds of cash) (July 2023, n=769 in North Gojmohol), and Endline (December 2023, n=750 in North Gojmohol and n=773 in Balumath)
• Bi-monthly monitoring data (13 rounds): Conducted between December 2021 and December 2023 in North Gojmohol (average of 1,400 households per round)

The present repository summarizes this information, organized as follows:

• 1.1 Bimonthly survey (household): Panel dataset comprising 13 rounds of bi-monthly monitoring data at the household level (average of 1,400 households per round, total of 18,379 observations)
• 1.2 Bimonthly survey (child): Panel dataset comprising 13 rounds of bi-monthly monitoring data at the child level (aged 5 to 16 at census) (average of 940 children per round, total of 12,213 observations)
• 2.1 Periodic survey (household): Panel dataset comprising 5 periodic surveys (census, baseline, midline 1, midline 2, endline) at the household level (average of 750 households per period, total of 3,762 observations)
• 2.2 Periodic survey (child): Panel dataset comprising 4 periodic surveys (baseline, midline 1, midline 2, endline) at the child level (average of 3,100 children per period, total of 12,417 observations)
• 3.0 Balurmat - North Gojmohol panel: Balanced panel dataset comprising 558 households in North Gojmohol and 773 households in Balurmath, observed both at 2020 census and 2023 endline (total of 2,662 observations)
• 4.0 Questionnaires: Original questionnaires for all datasets

All datasets are provided in Stata format (.dta) and Excel format (.xlsx) and are accompanied by their respective dictionary in Excel format (.xlsx).

Qualitative Data

The qualitative study was conducted in three rounds: the first round of IDIs and FGDs took place between December 2022 and January 2023; the second round took place from April to May 2023; and the third round took place from November to December 2023. KIIs were taken during the 2nd round of study in May 2023.

The sample size by round and instrument type is shown below:

The files in this archive contain the qualitative data and include six types of transcripts:

· 1.1 Interviews with children in case study households (IDI): 30 families in round 1, 30 in round 2, and 26 in round 3

· 1.2 Interviews with parents in case study households (IDI): 26 families in round 1, 23 in round 2, and 25 in round 3

· 1.3 Interviews with community mobiliser (IDI): 3 CM in round 3

· 2.0 Key informant interviews (KII): 5 in round 2

· 3.0 Focus group discussions (FGD): 6 in round 1, 6 in round 2, and 7 in round 3

· 4.0 Community mobiliser micro-narratives (556 cases)

Additionally, this repository includes a comprehensive list of all qualitative data files ("List of all qualitative data+MC.xlsx").