Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) has evaluated the LEGACY programme, implemented by Save the Children and funded by LIFT, which aims to reduce malnutrition and stunting in children in Myanmar's Central Dry Zone. The results indicate a 4 percentage point reduction in stunting of children under the age of 2 over three years. The experimental evaluation was carried out together with Save the Children and researchers from the University of Michigan and Duke University.
Villages in the three study townships were randomly assigned into three groups. In the first set of villages, women who were at least four months pregnant received both the cash transfers along with the SBCC (Cash+SBCC). Another set of villages received only the cash transfers (Cash-Only), and a third set of villages did not receive any intervention (Control).
Through an extensive endline survey, IPA collected high-quality survey and biomarker measures, including height of children; dietary diversity; antenatal care (ANC) practices; infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices; water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) measures; and other health and economic indicators.
