Whether cash transfers should be poverty targeted or universal within certain social categories remains a hotly debated topic. Recent plans to expand Nepal’s Child Grant programme brought this question sharply into focus. Using available secondary data, this article presents a four-step analysis that examines the costs and benefits of different approaches. Given the country’s poverty profile, the theoretical results of different targeting models, government capacity and overall costs, a universal (age-cohort targeted) approach achieves the best outcomes for children.
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