As part of the IFPRI Egypt Seminar in partnership with UN Women: “Women Empowerment for Revitalizing Rural Areas in Egypt”

1. The Impact of Takaful
on
Women’s Decision-Making
Working Draft
IFPRI Egypt
30 October, 2018
IFPRI Egypt Seminar Series

2. Outline
• Introduction
• Perceptions on Takaful
• Findings on Decision-Making
• Conclusion

3. Introduction

4. Women’s empowerment & CCTs
• Women’s empowerment is an important development goal.
• Many conditional cash transfer programs have been targeted to
women.
• There is mixed evidence on the impact of giving cash to women on
their decision making abilities.
• Aim: Explore the impact of the Egypt’s new cash transfers program on
women’s decision-making.

5. Egypt’s Takaful & Karama Program
• In March 2015, Egypt launched its first national (conditional) cash transfer program
“Takaful & Karama” (TKP).
• Takaful:
• Cash transfers to poor households with children
• Transfers are given to women
• Size of cash transfer scaled by the ages and number of children (up to 3)
• Conditionalities of school attendance and health monitoring (not yet implemented)
• Karama:
• Poor elderly, people living with disabilities and orphans
• IFPRI evaluated the program using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

6. Perceptions on Takaful

7. Qualitative Study
• Six governorates:
o61 interviews with men and women across 34 households
o12 Focus group discussions (6 Male, 6 Female)
oCommunity profiles
Urban Rural
Lower Egypt & Cairo 1 community 2 communities
Upper Egypt 1 community 2 communities

8. Favorable perceptions
• It is rare for either men or women to express
unfavorable views about giving transfers to
women.
• Men are likely to say “it doesn’t make
difference”.
• Both men and women say that transfers
decrease stress in household.
• Hypothetical conflict (and second-hand
stories) were mentioned.
“Yes, the transfers can cause some problems because.. Some
men can get annoyed because the money is coming to the
woman, so he would think she’ll spend it on herself”
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Men Women
Favorable Mixed Unfavorable No effect (doesn't matter)

9. Who decides on spending decisions
• Women reported more
control over the
transfers, than general
household spending.
“Since we started, [my
husband] told me it is not his
business how I use it [He
said} you live in the house
and can see what your kids
need and what the house
needs” 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Mother-in-law decides on both transfers
and usual household spending
Woman decides on transfers jointly with
husband/in-law but does not decide usual
household spending
Woman decides on both transfers and usual
household spending jointly with
husband/in-law
Woman only decides on transfers but not
on usual household spending
Woman decides on transfers and usual
household spending
# households

10. General empowerment
• Takaful may be empowering women beyond the narrow definition of
ability to influence decisions
• Strengthening women’s role as mothers and managers of their households.
• This type of impact would not easily emerge in quantitative work.
“It’s good this way (that the transfers are going to women) … the State’s caring for
me … In other words, it’s given me dignity”

11. Findings on Decision-Making

12. Quantitative Methodology
• Surveyed a random sample of 6,541 households in 22 governorates
o From all households registered for Takaful and Karama.
• Results compare (similar) beneficiaries to non-beneficiaries.
• Regression Discontinuity (RD) approach
o To establish causal relationship (i.e. Takaful transfers cause the impacts that
we describe).

13. Assessing women’s decision-making
9 CATEGORIES
Wage Employment
Major HH Expenditures
Minor HH expenditures
Using government subsidies/transfers
What food should be cooked
Getting medical treatment for self
Buying new clothes for self
Taking a child to the doctor
Child’s school
• Women’s decision-making index:
• Construct an index using principal components analysis (PCA)
• The index reflects the degree to which the woman can influence
household decisions in 9 categories

14. Negative impact on decision-making
• Negative impact on women’s
decision-making.
• The decrease is higher among
women with less than primary
education.
Women’s decision-making
index
(1) (2)
All women Women with less
than primary
education
Takaful household -0.269**
-0.665***
(0.135) (0.226)
Observations 5629 1955
R2
0.110 0.093
First stage F-statistic 160.842 66.025
Mean Dependent
Variable
-0.056 -0.086
Standard errors in parentheses
Estimates from Instrumental Variables Model
*
p < 0.10, **
p < 0.05, ***
p < 0.01

15. Negative impact on decision-making
• Negative impact on decision-making for several categories; with
stronger and additional outcomes for low educated women.
Less than primary education
Major HH Expenditures
Minor HH expenditures
Using government subsidies/transfers
Getting medical treatment for self
Buying new clothes for self
Taking a child to the doctor
All women
Wage Employment
Taking a child to the doctor
Child’s school

16. Possible pathways
• Two other program impacts on women with less than primary
education are strongly associated with the decrease in decision-
making influence
• Paid non-agricultural work for women decreased of 3.2 percentage points as
a result of the Takaful transfer
• Note: Overall rate of employment for women is quite low: 3.4%.
• Men became more involved in decisions on:
• Using government subsidies/ transfers
• What food should be cooked
• Buying new clothes for the woman

17. Possible consequences for consumption
• Overall, transfers caused households to increase consumption, but
there are differences in categories of consumption which may be
related to decision-making dynamics
Smoking Meat
Less than primary education Increased by 14EGP per
person
No impact
At least primary education No impact Increased by 13EGP per
person

18. Conclusion

19. Takaful and women’s decision-making
• Giving the transfers to women does not necessarily increase their
decision-making power.
• Takaful resulted in a negative impact on women’s decision-making
power.
• Female labor force participation
• Head of household involvement in new decision-making domains
• Women’s education level is key.
• Empowerment in a broader sense needs further investigation.