'Cash Plus' for adolescents in Tanzania: How it started, where it's going, and why research matters
In this edition of the UNICEF Innocenti podcast, we talk to three experts about the 'cash plus' social protection programme for adolescents in Tanzania: Vicky Chuwa, former chief for HIV/AIDs at UNICEF Tanzania, now at UNICEF Botswana; Ulrike Gilbert, current HIV/AIDS chief at UNICEF Tanzania; and Tia Palermo, social policy specialist at UNICEF Innocenti. Adolescents represent the promise and potential of Tanzania’s future development. Yet for adolescent boys and girls, transitioning to adulthood means facing significant social, health and economic risks. These include a lack of economic opportunities, early marriage and pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV, violence, abuse and exploitation. To support a safe, healthy and productive passage to adulthood, the Tanzania Social Action Fund(TASAF), the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS), UNICEF and other key stakeholders have come together to develop, implement and evaluate an intervention where social protection and economic empowerment interventions are combined with sexual and reproductive health education and services as part of the Tanzanian Government’s cash transfer programme, the Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN). In this podcast we explore how this 'cash plus' social protection programme developed, what's happening on the ground in Tanzania now and where it's going, and why the research component of the programme is so critical. For more about the programme: http://bit.ly/cashplustz For more about UNICEF social protection research: https://www.unicef-irc.org/