Evaluation of the Welfare Impacts of a Livestock Transfer Program in Nepal

Assets are key to poverty dynamics, determining who can invest and save, endure a negative shock, and generate sustainable income. Households and communities without assets can get stuck in poverty traps, lacking incentive or ability to invest or save, easily knocked down by shocks, and lacking capacity to aspire and hope. Livestock transfers are increasingly popular as a tool to enable households to move out of poverty. These programs can improve nutritional and economic outcomes, usually targeting women to improve their status in the household and community, and to better achieve nutrition and educational outcomes. Heifer International is the global leader in livestock transfers, claiming to have enabled more than 20 million families to transition out of poverty in its 70-year existence. The Heifer Model, known as "Passing on the Gift," is designed to create positive spillovers. Beneficiaries give a goat to another community member after 1.5 years, passed gift also includes group formation and training. Group formation is done by original beneficiaries, technical training is done by original beneficiaries, and capstone (Empowerment) training comes directly from Heifer. Despite the popularity of livestock transfers, there is little empirical evidence on their effectiveness. However, some studies have found positive impacts. Rawlins et al. (2014) used propensity score matching to find positive nutrition effects on children of a cow transfer in Rwanda. Argent et al. (2013) found that conditional on receiving a cow, livestock training increased milk production, earnings from milk, calves birthed, cows sold, and asset accumulation in Rwanda. Clements (2012) used a benefit-cost analysis to find that livestock transfers are very cost effective in Uganda. Banerjee et al. (2012) used a randomized controlled trial to find that a multiple livestock transfer and training program increased consumption, food security, happiness, and health among the ultra-poor in West Bengal. The research questions for this study include the impacts of a livestock transfer program on beneficiaries, the components of the program that are most effective, and whether there are spillover effects. The study design involves comparing the impact of training and asset transfers on various outcomes, including expectations, aspirations, and hope, consumption, nutrition and health, income and economic outcomes, female empowerment, risk management, and resilience.