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Field
Abstract
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Before
Despite considerable emphasis on improving female education and discouraging early marriage, adolescent girls in Bangladesh have a high drop-out rate and almost two-thirds marry before the legal age of 18 (DHS 2011). Those who marry young have less education, higher fertility, poorer health, more restricted mobility, and more unequal relations within the household, all of which are important constraints to labor market productivity and entrepreneurial success.
This research follows a large sample of girls from 460 communities in rural Bangladesh who were exposed to a large scale empowerment program run by Save the Children. Beginning in 2007, girls in randomly selected communities received social competency, financial literacy and livelihood training designed to help them negotiate for their own needs and provide the basis for successful future economic empowerment. Others received a non-cash incentive to delay marriage until age 18, with the potential to significantly change marriage outcomes, including decision-making power dynamics between women, their husbands and in-laws. A final group received a combination of the incentive and empowerment program.
This study follows these girls as they transition into adulthood and examines the long-run impact of delaying marriage, increasing schooling attainment and adolescent empowerment on adult outcomes such as fertility, maternal and child health, and labor market participation.
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After
Despite considerable emphasis on improving female education and discouraging early marriage, adolescent girls in Bangladesh have a high drop-out rate and almost two-thirds marry before the legal age of 18 (DHS 2011). Those who marry young have less education, higher fertility, poorer health, more restricted mobility, and more unequal relations within the household, all of which are important constraints to labor market productivity and entrepreneurial success.
This research follows a large sample of girls from 460 communities in rural Bangladesh who were exposed to a large-scale empowerment program run by Save the Children. Beginning in 2007, girls in randomly selected communities received social competency, financial literacy and livelihood training designed to help them negotiate for their own needs and provide the basis for successful future economic empowerment. Others received a non-cash incentive to delay marriage until age 18, with the potential to significantly change marriage outcomes, including decision-making power dynamics between women, their husbands and in-laws. A final group received a combination of the incentive and empowerment program.
This study follows these girls as they transition into adulthood and examines the long-run impact of delaying marriage, increasing schooling attainment and adolescent empowerment on adult outcomes such as fertility, maternal and child health, and labor market participation.
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
Save the Children USA in Bangladesh implemented a broad range of interventions aimed at empowering adolescent girls. The program, Kishoree Kontha (Bangla for “adolescent girls’ voices”), was carried out in five sub-districts in the south central region of Bangladesh over 2 years and concluded in August 2010. A conditional noncash transfer was added to the Save the Children program. The interventions, at the village level, included the random assignment of the following packages:
• Basic Package: community mobilization, social competency, self-help study support for in-school girls and literacy sessions for illiterate girls.
• Livelihoods Package: Basic package plus financial competency training.
• Conditional Stipend/Oil Incentive Package: non-cash incentive in the form of cooking oil conditional on the girl being unmarried. The value of the transfer was deigned to offset the financial cost to families in increased dowry from delaying their daughter's marriage.
• Full Package: Livelihoods Package plus Conditional Stipend.
• Savings Cross-Cut: villages were randomly chosen from the Livelihoods and Full packages to receive support in establishing girls’ savings clubs.
• Control Group: 153 villages in total were assigned as comparison.
The packages are structured to reflect different approaches to adolescent girl empowerment in order to separate out the role of different constraints on economic empowerment of women.
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After
Save the Children USA in Bangladesh implemented a broad range of interventions aimed at empowering adolescent girls. The program, Kishoree Kontha (Bangla for “adolescent girls’ voices”), was carried out in five sub-districts in the south central region of Bangladesh over 2 years and concluded in August 2010. A conditional noncash transfer was added to the Save the Children program. The interventions, at the village level, included the random assignment of the following packages:
• Basic Package: community mobilization, social competency, self-help study support for in-school girls and literacy sessions for illiterate girls.
• Livelihoods Package: Basic package plus financial competency training.
• Conditional Stipend/Oil Incentive Package: non-cash incentive in the form of cooking oil conditional on the girl being unmarried. The value of the transfer was designed to offset the financial cost to families in increased dowry from delaying their daughter's marriage.
• Full Package: Livelihoods Package plus Conditional Stipend.
• Savings Cross-Cut: villages were randomly chosen from the Livelihoods and Full packages to receive support in establishing girls’ savings clubs.
• Control Group: 153 villages in total were assigned as comparison.
The packages are structured to reflect different approaches to adolescent girl empowerment in order to separate out the role of different constraints on economic empowerment of women.
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