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
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