Evidence - SBC Impact
Compelling, credible, recent, direct impact data
Evidence - SBC Impact
As of March 15 2025, The Communication Initiative (The CI) platform is operating at a reduced level, with no new content being posted to the global website and registration/login functions disabled. (La Iniciativa de Comunicación, or CILA, will keep running.) While many interactive functions are no longer available, The CI platform remains open for public use, with all content accessible and searchable until the end of 2025. 

Please note that some links within our knowledge summaries may be broken due to changes in external websites. The denial of access to the USAID website has, for instance, left many links broken. We can only hope that these valuable resources will be made available again soon. In the meantime, our summaries may help you by gleaning key insights from those resources. 

A heartfelt thank you to our network for your support and the invaluable work you do.
Time to read
less than
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Published 2 years ago
Last updated 1 year ago
Read so far

Cash Transfer for HIV Prevention - 90% of Studies Measuring Change in Sexual Behaviours Found a Positive Impact

0 comments

Strategy researched

Using cash for prevention of sexual transmission of HIV, with the purpose of the transfer varying by study (and conditionality or not): school attendance, school completion, poverty alleviation, and completion of health promotion activities, such as sexually transmitted infection (STI)/HIV testing

Impact achieved

Overall, the majority of studies that have measured a change in sexual behaviours found a positive impact (9/10). At 18-month follow up, one RCT (involving 1,289 individuals) - the Schooling, Income, and HIV Risk (SIHR) trial - found lower HIV and lower herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) prevalence among the intervention participants compared to the controls: HIV prevalence [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.36 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.14,0.91)] and HSV-2 prevalence [aOR: 0.24 (95% CI: 0.09,0.65)].

Countries of study

LMICs

Research methodology

Systematic review with 16 studies, of which 15 are RCTs

Journal

The Lancet; 2012

Journal paper title and link

Can money prevent the spread of HIV? A review of cash payments for HIV prevention

Excerpt from Abstract

"Most have seen reductions in sexual behavior and one large trial has documented a difference in HIV prevalence between young women getting cash transfers and those not. Cash transfer programs focused on changing risky sexual behaviors to reduce HIV risk suggest promise. The context in which programs are situated, the purpose of the cash transfer, and the population will all affect the impact of such programs; ongoing RCTs with HIV incidence endpoints will shed more light on the efficacy of cash payments as strategy for HIV prevention."

Summary at this link

 

Why the focus on direct impact data?

A common challenge from policy makers, funders, community members, people directly experiencing development issues, and governments is: Demonstrate your Impact. Prove that what you are doing works. The high quality, highly credible data presented on the cards below is designed to help you answer that question for your social change, behaviour change, community engagement, communication and media for development, strategy formulation, policy engagement and funding initiatives. At this link filter the research data to your specific interests and priorities

Why a playing cards design?

There is a physical pack of cards with this data (to get a copy please request through the comment form for any card). The card approach allows for easy identification and selection of relevant direct impact data in any context. For example if talking with a donor and you need to identify proof of impact say "take a look at the 7 of Hearts". Quick access can be provided to high-quality data for many areas of your work – funding, planning, policy, advocacy, community dialogue, training, partner engagement, and more. A card deck is also engaging, easy to use and share, a conversation starter, and a resource - and they are fun and different. So we kept that design for the online images as it can serve similar purposes. 

What are the criteria for inclusion?

The impact data presented meets the following high standard for inclusion criteria:

  • Positive change or trend in a priority development issue;
  • Social change or behaviour change strategy or process;
  • Randomized Control Trial or Systematic Review methodology;
  • High quality peer review journal published;
  • Numeric impact data point
  • Published since 2010.