Do early cash transfers in a food crisis enhance resilience? Evidence from Niger

Abstract

This article examines how households in the Tillabery region, in Niger, responded given early cash intervention, and its impact on household food access and ability to cope and recover from a food crisis. Food-access indicators are linked to the early cash-transfer programme and household social and demographic characteristics, and the relationships examined using descriptive and econometric methods. Although results indicate that the early cash-transfer programme had a positive impact on food access and reducing vulnerability, they also suggest, contrary to expectations, that the intervention was limited in contributing longer lasting impact on households' food security status.