David K. Evans POLICY SEMINAR Information, Governance, and Rural Service Delivery Co-Organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

2. Cash Transfers Increase
Trust in Local Government
David K. Evans | @DaveEvansPhD | 21 October 2019 | CGDev.org
David K. Evans, Brian Holtemeyer, Katrina Kosec

3. What the Government of Tanzania did
David K. Evans | @DaveEvansPhD | 21 October 2019 | CGDev.org
Provided
cash transfers
to low-
income
households
in 40
communities
across 3
districts
conditioned
on health
and
education
investments
decentralized
to locally
elected
management
committees

4. What we learned
David K. Evans | @DaveEvansPhD | 21 October 2019 | CGDev.org
• Particularly in villages with more community meetings
Trust in elected leaders 
• Again, especially in villages with more community meetings
Confidence that local policymakers are honest and responsive 
• But not in other sectors
Record keeping  in sectors directly affected by transfer program

5. What happens in these meetings?
David K. Evans | @DaveEvansPhD | 21 October 2019 | CGDev.org
Discuss
development
projects
Disseminate info
from central
government
Local elections
Report on
collected financial
resources

6. What this implies
David K. Evans | @DaveEvansPhD | 21 October 2019 | CGDev.org
• When decentralizing resources, build institutions to
communicate about them locally and regularly.
A community-based project improved trust with meetings
in place
• Provide incentives to hold meetings
• Provide training and templates to make those meetings more
effective
Currently lots of variation in frequency of community
meetings