First and Second Generation Impacts of Secondary Education Scholarships for Girls: Setting up a Long-run Randomized Study in Cameroon

A 15-year RCT in Ghana found that secondary school scholarships for girls significantly increased adult income, and cognitive development and survival of their children (revision requested, AER). While free primary education has expanded across Africa, few Sub-Saharan governments subsidize secondary schooling. As a result, over half of girls completing primary school drop out before secondary. To inform policy decisions, we propose a replication study to assess whether the substantial impacts found in Ghana—on recipients’ education and reproductive health, as well as their children’s health and cognitive development—extend to other Sub-Saharan contexts. This grant will support the study’s setup and the first two years of activities: (a) sampling participants, (b) conducting a baseline survey, and (c) implementing a short-run phone follow-up survey to measure immediate impacts. As a replication context, Cameroon provides external validity, with both French and English curricula, and high potential scholarship impact on girls due to high dropout rates, early childbirth (28% before age 18), and among Africa’s highest child mortality rates (70 per 1,000 before age five).The study will sample female students admitted to secondary school but facing financial constraints, randomly assigning half to receive a scholarship. Scholarship funding will come from private philanthropy, while funding for long-term impacts will be pursued separately. We will collaborate with Cameroon’s Ministry of Education and a local research firm, likely the Innovative Hub for Research in Africa (IHfRA).