Washington - It’s a simple idea to make a positive difference: when someone buys a pair of their shoes, the for-profit company TOMS gives one to an impoverished child. But whether the programme actually helps those kids has real implications as aid organisations gauge the usefulness of in-kind donation programmes - those that give goods and services rather than cash.
World Bank researchers take a hard look at how TOMS were received among El Salvadorian children in new research.
Do programmes that distribute shoes to children whose families can't afford them actually improve recipients' lives?
First off, children definitely used the charity shoes, if the focus group of about 1 600 children in El Salvador who received a pair from Los Angeles-based TOMS is any indication. For boys, there was even a small positive impact on school attendance.
It isn’t a totally sunny picture, though.
Children who got shoes were more likely to say that outsiders should provide for the needs of their family, and may have just been wearing the shoes as substitutes for older pairs.
undefinedThe takeaway: “In a context where most children already own at least one pair of shoes, the overall impact of the shoe donation program appears to be negligible, illustrating the importance of more careful targeting of in-kind donation programmes.”
* Shoeing The Children: The impact of the TOMS shoe donation programme in rural El Salvador(released September 2016) is available on the World Bank website .
BLOOMBERG