Research on the developmental impact of the Food for Work (FFW) programmes in Bangladesh, an important component of the rural public works programme, providing more than 100 million days of employment in the mid-1980s, found that dietary intakes improved for all age groups in the project sites relative to control sites (IFPRI/BIDS 1989; Ahmed and Hossain 1990).
Cereal consumption was slightly higher among landless and near-landless project participants in comparison to similar nonparticipants in project villages. Agricultural production increased by an average of 27 % and per capita household income by about 10%, as a result of direct and indirect effects of the project. More productive employment generated substituted for very low productivity employment with wage employment increasing by13% and self-employment declining by about 10%.
Household-level research on labour-intensive public works programmes in Botswana and Niger confirms the income-increasing effects of participation in such programmes; in Botswana, project wage income contributed about 40% of the income of participating households, and, in Niger, it contributed about 20% of total household income of the poor (Teklu 1992; Webb 1992).