We bought our products at large scale on global markets, which meant our money went way further than our recipients’ could and we had access to quality products they couldn’t buy locally.
How does the time and monetary cost of buying these products compare to the time and monetary cost of giving cash?
In the Vox article at the start of this post, the cash-benchmarked nutrition program failed to improve nutrition at all (cash failed too). You shouldn’t need a cash comparison arm to conclude that that program either needs major improvements or defunding. So even in the case presented by supporters, I don’t see the value of cash benchmarking in RCTs.
But obviously the researchers didn’t know beforehand that the programs would fail. So this isn’t an argument against cash benchmarking.
How does the time and monetary cost of buying these products compare to the time and monetary cost of giving cash?
The total value of the bundle ($120) includes all staffing (modelled at scale with 100k recipients), including procurement staff, shipping, etc. This trial was a part of a very large nonprofit, which has very accurate costs for those kinds of things.
But obviously the researchers didn’t know beforehand that the programs would fail. So this isn’t an argument against cash benchmarking.
That’s true, I don’t think I made my point well/clearly with that paragraph. I was trying to say something like, “The Vox article points to how useful the cash comparison study had been, but the usefulness (learning that USAID shouldn’t fund the program) wasn’t actually due to the cash arm”. That wasn’t really an important point and didn’t add much to the post.
How does the time and monetary cost of buying these products compare to the time and monetary cost of giving cash?
But obviously the researchers didn’t know beforehand that the programs would fail. So this isn’t an argument against cash benchmarking.
The total value of the bundle ($120) includes all staffing (modelled at scale with 100k recipients), including procurement staff, shipping, etc. This trial was a part of a very large nonprofit, which has very accurate costs for those kinds of things.
That’s true, I don’t think I made my point well/clearly with that paragraph. I was trying to say something like, “The Vox article points to how useful the cash comparison study had been, but the usefulness (learning that USAID shouldn’t fund the program) wasn’t actually due to the cash arm”. That wasn’t really an important point and didn’t add much to the post.