Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether giving vocational trainees richer information about potential jobs improved their employment outcomes. Researchers provide suggestive evidence that with the information, trainees made better decisions on whether to continue the training: those who saw the program as a poor fit for their job ambitions dropped out, while those who valued the training’s job opportunities stayed.

I n Senegal, researchers are testing whether encouraging women to join vocational training through scholarships and supportive information from past participants and their families can shape women’s work and family aspirations, their employment decisions, and their families’ perspectives on women’s work.

In urban India, researchers are testing whether helping women and men start STEM careers through a job training program improves their employment and earnings, and, for women, enhances economic empowerment and shapes family planning choices.

Child marriage remains prevalent in many countries despite laws prohibiting the practice, leading to negative health and education outcomes for young women and their children. Researchers evaluated the impacts of an incentive program and an adolescent empowerment program on child marriage, teenage childbearing, and level of education in rural Bangladesh. Financial incentives conditional on delayed marriage reduced child marriage and teenage childbearing, and increased girls’ level of education. The empowerment program, on the other hand, did not succeed in delaying marriage.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, young girls drop out of school at higher rates than boys. A large portion of drop outs occur between primary and secondary school, when families in most countries have to start paying fees for their children to continue attending school. In Zambia, researchers designed and evaluated the impact of a training that taught adolescent girls non-cognitive skills to negotiate health and educational decisions with authority figures in their lives. They found that girls who were taught negotiation skills had better educational outcomes in the following three years. The negotiation training appeared to have larger effects on girls with higher abilities.

Researchers evaluated a secondary school readiness program, Utkarsh, that provided targeted instruction to students in Odisha, India.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in West Bengal, researchers studied whether citizens heeded messages better from the government or from a trusted figure. When people received a video message from a trusted figure, they stayed home, washed their hands more, and reported symptoms more often, and their neighbors did the same, regardless of the message’s content.

In Northern Ghana, researchers tested whether providing information could encourage mothers to talk more with their infants, thereby improving child development. Six to eight months after the intervention, mothers who received the information reported they were more likely to talk to their infants and that their children showed stronger language and communication skills.

Researchers partnered with the government of Uruguay to evaluate the impact of a national youth employment program. The program increased participants’ earnings and school enrollment during and up to two years after the program, suggesting that work-study programs may ease students’ school-to-work transition.

Researchers evaluated the impact of a program addressing constraints related to hygiene infrastructure and access to sanitary products while addressing social stigma around menstruation, on girls’ learning and psychosocial well-being in Madagascar. The program led to improvements in academic learning outcomes and anxiety. Reduction in stigma and improvements in observed hygiene behaviors were larger in schools with peer leaders who were identified, trained, and coached to address these harmful social norms.

Research has shown that HIV/AIDS impacts not only the health of infected individuals, but also their financial security, and the financial security of their households, often aggravating existing poverty. Researchers will introduce unconditional cash grants, coupled with financial planning sessions, to people living with HIV/AIDS to evaluate the impact on the health and financial security outcomes of participants.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, wage job opportunities are limited, and a vast majority of young people are engaged in low-productive work. Many governments support formal apprenticeship programs to help youth find suitable employment, but there is limited evidence on the direct and indirect effects of these public interventions. Researchers partnered with the World Bank and the government of Cote d’Ivoire to evaluate the impact of a subsidized dual apprenticeship program targeting both youth and firms. The apprenticeship program increased participation among youth in formal apprenticeships, and participating firms hired more formal apprentices after the program was implemented.

In partnership with Health Access Connect, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of a community-led primary healthcare outreach program on women’s contraceptive choices, healthcare use, and work decisions in rural Uganda.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether a performance-based repayment contract could outperform conventional microcredit contracts, or fixed-payment loans, in improving business outcomes and welfare for micro-distributors in Kenya. Micro-distributors who received flexible financing, especially a hybrid loan that adjusted payments based on earnings, had higher profits than those with fixed-payment loans. They also restocked more often, expanded their sales areas, managed their businesses better, and repaid more.

The researchers aim to understand the role that digital cash transfers can play as a policy tool both to increase household resilience during the pandemic and to stem the spread of the disease by increasing adherence to social distancing in Ghana.