Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents in Schools (ELAS): A cluster randomized controlled trial in Uganda

Last registered on December 05, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents in Schools (ELAS): A cluster randomized controlled trial in Uganda
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017285
Initial registration date
December 02, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
December 05, 2025, 9:30 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Jennifer Seager
Affiliation
George Washington University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Manisha Shah
PI Affiliation
University of California Berkeley
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-07-10
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Education, Gender, Health, Labor
Additional Keywords
adolescence
JEL code(s)
I3, J1, O12
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Life skills programming has shown promise in improving adolescent wellbeing across outcomes ranging from mental health, reduced exposure to violence, human capital development, etc. However, evidence on the scale-up and sustainability of this type of programming remains elusive. Most of these programs rely on a sustained and consistent flow of donor funding and end when funding windows close. In searching for a more sustainable pathway to scale, BRAC designed a project (called ELA in Schools or ELAS) to adapt the ELA curriculum and delivery model to an after-school club setting, leveraging government funding by relying on classroom spaces to host club meetings and teachers to serve as mentors. The program includes separate clubs for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and adolescent boys and young men (ABYM), covering topics related to adolescence, gender, and personal economic and social empowerment. With an aim to identify the viability of a low-cost implementation, BRAC is implementing two versions of programming: one with intensive support—including regular refresher training and ongoing coaching and monitoring of teacher-mentors, and materials for ELAS clubs—and one with light-touch support, which is limited to providing initial training and curriculum materials, but no ongoing support during implementation.

We are evaluating the impact of ELAS on adolescent outcomes using a cluster randomized control trial (cRCT) with 150 schools in Uganda. The cRCT will have two treatment arms and a control arm, each with 50 schools: (1) ELAS intensive support; (2) ELAS light-touch support; (3) Control. This design will allow us to estimate the causal impact of ELAS on adolescent outcomes as well as determine whether a light-touch implementation model is effective in improving adolescent outcomes, providing a pathway to scale.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Seager, Jennifer and Manisha Shah. 2025. "Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents in Schools (ELAS): A cluster randomized controlled trial in Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. December 05. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17285-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
ELAS is an adaptation of BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents program and curriculum to an after-school club setting. The ELAS project design allows for content to be delivered on school premises rather than in community-based clubhouses with teachers serving as mentors instead of near-peers. The adaptation to ELAS also included the decision to add more content geared towards young men navigating adolescence, especially content related to positive masculinity and sexual health. BRAC worked with the Ministry of Education and Sports to adapt the ELA curriculum for delivery in schools, and the Ministry supported the implementation.

ELAS clubs are separate for AGYW and ABYM. The curriculum comprises 30 sessions for AGYW and 29 sessions for ABYM. The adolescents meet once per week for 90 minutes after school. The curriculum covers topics related to social and economic empowerment, combatting gender-based violence, and puberty. Clubs generally consist of 25-35 members and are led by a same-sex teacher-mentor. Each school has two clubs: one for females and one for males. We will evaluate two different implementations of the program:

Treatment 1 (T1) - ELAS Intensive Support: BRAC trained teacher-mentors on the ELAS curriculum and how to facilitate the clubs. In addition, BRAC provided material inputs and ongoing coaching to teacher-mentors.

Treatment 2 (T2) – ELAS Light-touch Support: BRAC trained teacher-mentors on the ELAS curriculum and how to facilitate the clubs but provided no continuing support. T2 represents a lower cost pathway to scale whereby effective programming is provided with more limited resources.

Intervention Start Date
2024-03-01
Intervention End Date
2024-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Indicator for currently enrolled in school
2. Schooling index
3. Economic empowerment index
4. Social support and voice index
5. Mental health index
6. Indicator for married/cohabiting
7. Relationship index
8. Sexual and reproductive health attitudes index
9. Intimate partner violence index
10. Violence at school index
11. Confidential envelope violence question
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
1. Indicator for currently enrolled

2. Schooling index
a. Highest grade attained
b. Test scores on financial literacy test
c. Wants to attend postsecondary

3. Economic empowerment index
a. Indicator for whether adolescent was employed in past 12 months
b. Indicator for whether adolescent was self-employed in past 12 months
c. Indicator for whether adolescent completed any career preparation outside ELAS (job training, course, apprenticeship, or internship)
d. Indicator for whether adolescent has any money they control
e. Indicator for has savings for the future
f. Indicator for ever taken out a loan

4. Social support and voice index
a. Has an adult s/he trusts
b. Feel comfortable expressing an opinion to a peer
c. Feel comfortable expressing an opinion to parents/elderly
d. Number of friends in the same grade in school

5. Mental health index
a. Locus of control scale (scale from 6 to 24)
b. Likelihood of depression measured by the PHQ-9
c. Likelihood of anxiety measured by the GAD-7

6. Indicator for married/cohabiting

7. Relationships index
a. Indicator for currently has partner (cohabiting or non-cohabiting)
b. Indicator for ever had sex
c. Indicator for use of contraceptives
d. Indicator for using a (male) condom

8. SRH attitudes index
a. Agree: Women should be married after age 18.
b. Agree: It is appropriate for an adolescent female over the age of 13 to be using contraceptive methods such as the injectable or the pill.
c. Agree: It should be in a woman's control to make a decision about whether or not to use a contraceptive method.
d. Disagree: Girls are also to blame for being sexually harassed.
e. Agree: In most families that I know, adolescents my age have sex before marriage.

9. IPV index:
a. Indicator for physical violence by partner in the past 6 months
b. Indicator for sexual abuse by partner in the past 6 months
c. Indicator for verbal abuse by partner in the past 6 months
d. Indicator for being threatened by a partner in the past 6 months

10. Violence at school index:
a. Indicator for being hit by a teacher in the past 6 months
b. Indicator for other physical abuse by a teacher in the past 6 months
c. Indicator for verbal abuse by teacher in the past 6 months
d. Indicator for verbal abuse by peers at school in the past 6 months
e. Indicator for physical abuse by peers at school in the past 6 months
f. Indicator for being forced to act against their will by a peer at school in the past 6 months

11. Confidential envelope violence question
a. Indicator for experience of sexual abuse by someone other than a partner
b. Indicator for experience of sexual abuse by partner

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This trial takes place in 150 schools across 20 districts in central, Eastern, and Western Uganda. Schools were randomly assigned to one of three study arms, stratified by sub-region and day vs boarding school:

1. Control group: 50 schools (2,957 adolescents — 1,471 males and 1,486 females)
2. T1 – ELAS intensive support: 50 schools (2,957 adolescents — 1,476 males and 1,481 females)
3. T2 – ELAS light support: 50 schools (2,889 adolescents — 1,442 males and 1,447 females)

In treatment schools (both T1 and T2), the clubs are open to all eligible students attending Senior One (S1), the first year of lower secondary school. No intervention was implemented in control schools.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Cluster randomization on a computer using STATA, stratified by five sub-regions and school type (boarding vs. day) (10 strata).
Randomization Unit
School
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
150 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
8,803 adolescents in grade S1 at baseline (1,471 males and 1,486 females)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50 control, 50 T1, 50 T2
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Power calculations assume 50 schools per treatment arm, 30 females (or males) surveyed per school at baseline, and 17% attrition, leaving 25 females (or males) per school at endline. This attrition rate is in line with attrition rates in Bandiera et al. (2020) evaluating ELA in Uganda and Shah et al. (2025) evaluating ELA in Tanzania. In addition, we assume 80% power, 5% significance, and a coefficient of variation of cluster size of 0.23 based on the coefficient of variation in Shah et al. (2025). All power calculations are conducted assuming that the male and female samples will be analyzed separately to be conservative. We will also analyze with a pooled sample of males and females, in which case we will have more power to detect treatment effects. With an ICC of 0.01, we are powered to detect an effect of at least 0.13 standard deviations. For an ICC of 0.05 we can detect an effect of at least 0.17 standard deviations, and for an ICC of 0.1 we can detect an effect of at least 0.21 standard deviations. These effect sizes are comparable to the effect sizes found in Bandiera et al. (2020) for the impact of ELA on Gender Empowerment (0.12 standard deviations) and HIV knowledge (0.37 standard deviations) in Uganda. They are also comparable to the treatment effect on Gender Attitudes (0.18 standard deviations) in Dhar, Jain, and Jayanchandran (2022).
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Hospice Africa Uganda Research Ethical Committee
IRB Approval Date
2023-03-03
IRB Approval Number
HAU-2022-36
IRB Name
The George Washington University Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2023-07-10
IRB Approval Number
NCR234982
Analysis Plan