Women’s Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa: journal article

This article evaluates a multifaceted policy intervention attempting to jump-start adolescent women's empowerment in Uganda

• From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
• Published: 31 January 2020

• Country: Uganda
• Document Type: Journal Article
• Theme: Economic Growth, Social Change
• Authors: Bandiera, O, Buehren, N, Burgess, R, Goldstein, M, Gulesci, S, Rasul, I, Sulaiman, M

Abstract

We evaluate a multifaceted policy intervention attempting to jump-start adolescent women’s empowerment in Uganda by simultaneously providing them vocational training and information on sex, reproduction, and marriage. We find that 4 years postintervention, adolescent girls in treated communities are more likely to be self-employed. Teen pregnancy, early entry into marriage/cohabitation, and the share of girls reporting sex against their will fall sharply. The results highlight the potential of a multifaceted program that provides skills transfers as a viable and cost-effective policy intervention to improve the economic and social empowerment of adolescent girls over a four-year horizon.

This work is part of the Closing the Gender Gap in Africa: evaluating new policies and programmes for women’s economic empowerment programme

Citation

Bandiera, Oriana, Niklas Buehren, Robin Burgess, Markus Goldstein, Selim Gulesci, Imran Rasul, and Munshi Sulaiman. 2020. “Women’s Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 12 (1): 210-59. DOI: 10.1257/app.20170416

Link

Women’s Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa

Published 31 January 2020