Targeting Scholarships and Cash Transfers for Secondary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

This background paper considers the evidence on whether and how more targeted approaches to subsiding secondary school costs are possible. Examples often focus on ones that relate to cost reductions through social protection programmes such as scholarships or Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) that aim to increase enrolment and retention in school (Petrosino, Morgan, Fronius, Tanner-Smith & Boruch, 2012). Such interventions on their own are unlikely to improve learning outcomes, and so need to be accompanied by strategies to promote inclusive, quality of education (Sabates et al., 2018). There is a wide variety of evidence on cost-reduction programmes, with rigorous evidence of the impacts on education. Specifically, this report focuses on evidence on education scholarships (including stipends and fee elimination), and conditional cash transfers. Examples are provided from Sub-Saharan Africa where available, complemented with ones from other low- and middle-income countries where such programmes have often been more prevalent