Social cohesion and economic empowerment: evidence from an entrepreneurship program implemented in post-conflict Western regions of Cote d’Ivoire

Last registered on October 03, 2019

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Social cohesion and economic empowerment: evidence from an entrepreneurship program implemented in post-conflict Western regions of Cote d’Ivoire
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002737
Initial registration date
September 24, 2018

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
September 25, 2018, 3:57 PM EDT

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

Last updated
October 03, 2019, 5:25 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
CREST - Ecole Polytechnique - U. Paris Saclay

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
World Bank

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2015-12-10
End date
2019-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Impact evaluation of an entrepreneurship program implemented in Western Cote d'Ivoire.
The program focuses on promoting productive self-employment to sustain livelihoods, in a rural area which was hit by the post-electoral conflict of the last decade. It aims to sustain vulnerable populations through entrepreneurship training and access to financial capital. Shared prosperity is expected to reinforce social cohesion, as well as more direct interventions such as a peace building training, and repeated interactions with other ethnic groups during trainings and meetings. This is all the more relevant in this area which is ethnically fractionalized following conflict displacement.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Marguerie, Alicia and Patrick Premand. 2019. "Social cohesion and economic empowerment: evidence from an entrepreneurship program implemented in post-conflict Western regions of Cote d’Ivoire." AEA RCT Registry. October 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2737-2.1
Former Citation
Marguerie, Alicia and Patrick Premand. 2019. "Social cohesion and economic empowerment: evidence from an entrepreneurship program implemented in post-conflict Western regions of Cote d’Ivoire." AEA RCT Registry. October 03. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2737/history/54581
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This study is a RCT for the " Projet d’Insertion Socio-Economique des populations vulnérables de l’Ouest de Cote d’Ivoire " (PRISE) program, which aims at supporting social and economic inclusion of poor populations in regions affected by the past conflict in Cote d’Ivoire. The study compares the relative effectiveness of three alternative treatments seeking to facilitate investments in income-generating activities and promote social cohesion.
The PRISE program has been implemented by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and coordinated by the Bureau de Coordination des Programmes Emplois (BCP-Emploi) as part of the Ministry of Youth and Youth Employment. PRISE was developed in the post-conflict period after the 2011 post-electoral crisis.
The program was implemented in the Western part of the country, in the 4 regions of Tonki, Cavally, le Bafing, Guémon. Those regions were identified as the most severely affected by the conflict. The regional area accounts for numerous internal migrants and displaced populations which are either non-indigenous or indigenous, and are part of various ethnic groups.
In this context, the PRISE program seeks to promote economic inclusion of people who became economically vulnerable after the conflict, especially youth and women. Improvements of economic opportunities are expected to also facilitate social and economic interactions between ethnic groups and in turn improve social cohesion.
The study is a RCT with 3 treatment arms, testing alternative models to relax financial and human capital constraints to foster more productive income-generating activities (IGAs):
- Semi-credit (up to 100 00 FCFA per person) conditional on writing a viable business plan, with 50% to be reimbursed within 6 months.
- Set up of Village Savings and Loan Associations, promoting savings among participants based on their own resources (without capital injection).
- Cash grant (up to 100 00 FCFA per person) conditional on writing a viable business plan, with no reimbursement required.
All program participants also receive 55 hours of basic training, which covers (i) peace building and social cohesion, (ii) support for the creation of income-generating activities and writing of a business plan, (iii) business skills, and (iv) life skills.
The RCT was designed prospectively prior to the launch of the program, in collaboration with BCP-Emploi, with the objective to inform future policies in Cote d’Ivoire. The RCT was embedded in the second wave of the program that started in July 2015, and lasted for 2 years. During this period, 5000 individuals benefited from the program.
Intervention Start Date
2016-08-01
Intervention End Date
2017-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Individual economic outcomes:
• Employment (inactivity, employment, self-employment in agriculture, self-employment in livestock, self-employment in non-agricultural activities, wage employment, number of activities)
• Earnings (total earnings, earnings in self-employment in agriculture, earnings in self-employment in livestock, earnings in self-employment in non-agricultural activities, earnings in wage employment)
• Food security
• Assets owned by household

Social cohesion outcomes
• Participation in community activities
• Interpersonal trust
• Conflict and insecurity : source of conflict, and feeling of insecurity

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Individual economics outcomes :
• Business skills
• Savings (stock and flow) : diversity of savings tools (VSLA, ROSCAs, etc.)
• Debts (stock and flow) : diversity of creditors

Local economic outcomes :
• Governance : ethnic diversity and list of active associations by locality
• Conflicts number of conflicts in the locality and their resolution at local level

Exploratory analysis for additional outcomes is expected to take place, and will be mentioned as such.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The RCT is based on a randomized assignment process at the locality level. The randomization allocates localities that were eligible to be included in the program to either one of the treatments or to the control group. The protocol was as follows.

The PRISE program organized public lotteries involving all the localities and sous-prefecture representatives. The randomization was clustered by sous-prefecture and stratified by types of locality, namely village or city district.
Two different public lotteries were organized, after NGO IRC had realized an exhaustive listing of localities in the region.
A first randomization (“sampling lottery”) randomly selected localities into the study sample. A targeting data collection exercise was then completed in all localities selected into the sample. The data collection was conducted by IRC in each 207 localities selected after the first sampling lottery.

The targeting data collection was implemented by IRC. The final enrolled population was 14 880 individuals in 207 localities. Among all registered individuals,13 217 individuals were eligible.

The second lottery randomly assigned the 207 eligible localities to one of the three treatment groups or to the control group, divided as follows:
- 60 localities were assigned to the control group
- 64 localities were assigned to receive the training and the semi credit option, with 50% of the credit to be reimbursed within 6 months, and conditional on writing a viable business plan.
- 53 localities were assigned to receive the training and support to set-up VLSA
- 30 localities were assigned to receive the training and a cash grant conditional on writing a business plan.

The final selection of candidates was based on an individual vulnerability score. Baseline data, collected during enrollment, were used to compute a vulnerability score for each individual. Selected individuals are those above the vulnerability cut-off established in each locality, ordering vulnerability score in descending order.

An end line survey will be conducted a year and half after completion of the program. It will include individuals above the vulnerability cut-off in treatment and control groups, in order to estimate treatment effects for each treatment, and between treatments. In addition, a sample of eligible but non-selected individuals (with vulnerability scores below the cut-off) will also be included in order to provide information on whether the program generated economic and/or social externalities through spillovers within localities.


Experimental Design Details
The RCT is based on a randomized assignment process at the locality level. The randomization allocates localities that were eligible to be included in the program to either one of the treatments or to the control group. The protocol was as follows.

For each sous-prefecture, an exhaustive listing of localities was realized by IRC. The second wave of the program, on which the RCT focuses, involves 11 clusters of sous-prefecture which represent 415 localities (villages and districts), out of which 354 were considered eligible to the program.

The PRISE program organized public lotteries involving all the localities and sous-prefecture representatives. The randomization was clustered by sous-prefecture and stratified by types of locality, namely village or city district.

Two different public lotteries were organized.

A first randomization (“sampling lottery”) randomly selected localities into the study sample. A targeting data collection exercise was then completed in all localities selected into the sample. The data collection was conducted by IRC in each 207 localities selected after the first sampling lottery. The steps of the targeting data collection were:
- Organize an assembly to present the project and inform the population of the enrollment and the targeted population of the program.
- Create a validation committee in charge of the validation of enrollment list in their respective localities, in order to check the veracity of the given information and the real belonging to the village.
- Open the enrollment and record information about the potential participants within 1 to 3 days.

The targeting data collection was implemented by IRC. The final enrolled population was 14 880 individuals in 207 localities. Among all registered individuals, eligibility criteria were applied. The eligible criteria required applicant to be aged of 18 to 40 years old; exemption were made for single mother (from 15 years old on) and widow and handicapped (up to 60 years old). Applicants should not be involved in any other economics assistance program or registered at the ADDR (another program that help disarmed individuals). The last exclusion criteria is to be a student at the time of enrollment. In total, 13 217 individuals were confirmed eligible.

The second lottery randomly assigned the 207 eligible localities to one of the three treatment groups or to the control group, divided as follows:
- 60 localities were assigned to the control group
- 64 localities were assigned to receive the training and the semi credit option, with 50% of the credit to be reimbursed within 6 months, and conditional on writing a viable business plan.
- 53 localities were assigned to receive the training and support to set-up VLSA
- 30 localities were assigned to receive the training and a cash grant conditional on writing a business plan.

The final selection of candidates was based on an individual vulnerability score. Baseline data, collected during enrollment, were used to compute a vulnerability score for each individual. It is a weighted score based on 4 broad criteria including incapacity, marital status, formal education, employment, economic status economic responsibility towards household and assets. Weights were chosen to maximize the dispersion of the score. Selected individuals are those above the vulnerability cut-off established in each locality, ordering vulnerability score in descending order.

An end line survey will conducted after a year and half. It will include individuals above the vulnerability cut-off in treatment and control groups, in order to estimate treatment effects for each treatment, and between treatments. In addition, a sample of eligible but non-selected individuals (with vulnerability scores below the cut-off) will also be included in order to provide information on whether the program generated economic and/or social externalities through spill-overs within localities.
Randomization Method
2 Public lotteries were organized: 207 localities were selected in the sample through a the first lottery, which took place in August 2015. The first lottery identified a sample of 207 localities out of 354 eligible sites (referred as “sampling lottery”). The second lottery allocated the 207 sample localities into treatment arms or control group (referred as “assignment lottery”).
Randomization Unit
The randomization takes place at the locality level. First, localities were randomly selected into the study sample, then a second randomization assign each locality to a treatment or control arm.
The randomization was stratified by type of locality (village versus district of a city).
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
207 localities (villages or districts of a city)
Sample size: planned number of observations
5220 individuals across the 207 localities
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
- 60 control sites
- 64 sites in “semi-credit” intervention (T1),
- 53 sites in “VSLA” intervention (T2),
- 30 sites in “cash grant” intervention (T3)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
For T1 : 15 individuals sampled per treated cluster – MDE for T1 – C comparisons = 18.5% For T2 : 17 individuals sampled per treated cluster – MDE for T2 – C comparisons = 18.9% For T3 : 22 individuals sampled per treated cluster - MDE for T3 – C comparisons = 21.3%
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
JPAL PSE
IRB Approval Date
2018-08-19
IRB Approval Number
2018008

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials