Category

• Promising Local Practice

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Poverty impact

• Awareness

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Poverty driver

• Provide benefit in-kind (experience)
• Increase income from benefits
• Increase employment income
• Non-driver - improving quality of life

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Keywords

• Poverty
• Mental Health
• Cash Transfers
• Life Chances
• Policy Evaluation

Aim

• The primary aim is to use emerging evidence to inform more nuanced policies that address the interconnected nature of poverty and mental health, taking a comprehensive approach to supporting young people living in poverty and optimising the return on investments in cash transfer programmes.
• To examine longitudinal data from six countries (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa, Liberia, and Malawi), alongside personal narratives from young people and insights from professionals involved in funding or delivering programmes, to identify how cash transfer initiatives can better support the financial and mental health needs of youth living in poverty.
• To evaluate the impact of cash transfer programmes and their specific components (e.g., conditionality, duration of support) to identify limitations—such as when funds do not reach young people directly or when financial support fails to address poor mental health.
• To shape further development of policy and interventions through co-production, guidance, and feedback in stakeholder meetings and policy workshops.
• To directly influence key stakeholders and policymakers by conducting multiple policy workshops in Brazil, South Africa and Colombia.
• To promote youth participation and narrative sharing through digital storytelling, leading to the creation of six films that examine the interplay between mental health and poverty, and the creation of the documentary ‘Holding onto Hope’ that aims to foster dialogue about methods of poverty alleviation and support for mental health. Link to documentary.

Summary

Chances-6 brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers to work with communities and stakeholders in enhancing cash transfer programmes, aiming to improve their impact on mental well-being as a pathway to optimising returns on investment. The project integrates research with policy engagement across six low- and middle-income countries (Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Mexico, Liberia and Malawi). The research evaluated the impact of one cash transfer programme from each country, generating both quantitative and qualitative evidence to guide programme improvements. Policy workshops and stakeholder meetings in Brazil, Colombia and South Africa functioned as bidirectional feedback platforms to allow emerging data to shape programme adjustments and inform ongoing evaluation.

What difference does it make?

The project contributed to advancing policy discussions on integrating cash transfer programmes with mental health interventions. Policy workshops held in Brazil, South Africa, and Colombia are expected to inform future policy developments. The project also promoted youth participation and created artistic and creative products, including 6 short films and a documentary. Throughout the project, existing and new partnerships were strengthened across countries and global organisations through discussions and knowledge exchange. Researchers from Chances-6 were invited to take part in other programmes from the participating countries. The Colombian researchers were actively involved in the drafting of the first comprehensive government strategy for mental health and was approved in 2021. Findings from Chances-6 will be used in South Africa to both inform the development of a new national mental health policy and included in recommendations to new policy developments. The findings of the project were disseminated and promoted via social media and multinational conferences. Significantly, in Colombia, the work of the Chances-6 team led to a change in focus of the national mental health policy: the first draft framed mental health disorders as a disease consequence of individual’s exposure to traumatic events, which the team lobbied to change to consider mental health a socially determined issue. This had important implications as it shifts the responsibility for preventing and treating from the individual to society at large.

Key take-aways

• It is challenging to develop appropriate interventions that combine mental health, tackling poverty and cash transfers together.
• Policy impact work takes time and is much a matter of relationship building as evidence based.
• Persistence has been a major determining factor in building relationships, cross-sector collaboration, and policy impact work.

 

Organisations

• London School of Economics and Political Science - Care Policy and Evaluation Centre. • United Kingdom’s Economic and Social Research Council (funder). • King’s College London. • Brazil’s Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. • Brazil’s Universidade de São Paulo. • Colombia’s Universidad de los Andes. • South Africa’s University of Cape Town.

Location

Six low- and middle-income countries (Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Mexico, Malawi and Liberia).

Contact