Empowering Adolescent Girls: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Sierra Leone

Last registered on December 18, 2018
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowering Adolescent Girls: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Sierra Leone
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000300
Initial registration date
March 04, 2014

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
March 04, 2014, 11:37 AM EST

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

Last updated
December 18, 2018, 2:48 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Sierra Leone
Region
Kambia, Port Loko, Moyamba, Pujehun

Primary Investigator

Name
Imran Rasul
Affiliation
University College London (UCL)
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Andrea Smurra
PI Affiliation
UCL
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PI Name
Andrea Smurra
PI Affiliation
UCL
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PI Name
Niklas Buehren
PI Affiliation
Gender Innovation Lab (GIL), World Bank
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PI Name
Markus Goldstein
PI Affiliation
Gender Innovation Lab (GIL), World Bank
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PI Name
Oriana Bandiera
PI Affiliation
London School of Economics (LSE)
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2013-10-01
End date
2019-12-31
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance, Health, Welfare
Additional Keywords
Female Empowerment, Reproductive Health
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
In Sierra Leone, early childbearing and teenage pregnancy is one of the most pervasive problems affecting the health, social, economic and political progress and empowerment of women and girls. Of all pregnancies, 34% occur amongst teenage girls (SLDHS 2008) and 40% of maternal death occur as a result of teenage pregnancy (MICS 2010).

This study evaluates BRAC's Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program, designed to socially and financially empower teenage girls by providing safe spaces for them to socialise and receive mentoring and life skills training. With networks of these girls' clubs active in five countries, BRAC combines this approach with financial literacy training, offering customized microloans that contribute to their social and financial independence. This in turn helps prevent early marriages and leads to a more stable future for the next generation. In Africa, the ELA program was previously implemented and evaluated in Uganda, Tanzania and South Sudan.

External Link(s)
Academic paper of the ELA Uganda evaluation
UNICEF Policy Analysis note

Registration Citation

Citation
Bandiera, Oriana et al. 2018. "Empowering Adolescent Girls: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Sierra Leone." AEA RCT Registry. December 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.300-3.0
Former Citation
Bandiera, Oriana et al. 2018. "Empowering Adolescent Girls: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Sierra Leone." AEA RCT Registry. December 18. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/300/history/39092
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The ELA intervention provides young women them with a protective space (a club) where they can find support, receive information on health/reproductive issues and vocational training. those aged 12-25 are eligible.
Intervention Start Date
2014-03-01
Intervention End Date
2015-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. What is the impact on sexual and reproductive health of providing a safe and social space for adolescent girls to share their experiences in conjecture with life skills provision (with a focus on teenage pregnancy)?
2. What is the value- added of providing training on income generating activities (IGA) and financial literacy particularly when looking at economic outcomes?
3. What is the value- added of providing microcredit support for adolescent girls?
4. Are interventions in questions (1), (2), and (3) complementary?
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The intervention has one control group and three treatment groups:
T1: ELA club, community participation, life skills training
T2: ELA club, community participation, life skills training, livelihood training
T3: ELA club, community participation, life skills training, livelihood training, microfinance

Unexpectedly, the post-baseline period coincided with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Our analysis thus leverages quasi-random across-village variation in the severity of Ebola-related disruption, and random assignment of villages to the intervention to document the impact of the Ebola outbreak on young women tracked over the crisis, and any ameliorating role played by the intervention.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization based on household listing data, stratified by the number of adolescent girls in the community, the average poverty score of households in the community, the coefficient of variation in the poverty score across households in the community.
Randomization Unit
Village
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
200 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
6,000 adolescent girls
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50 villages control, 50 villages treatment group 1, 50 villages treatment group 2, 50 villages treatment group 3.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Innovations for Poverty Action IRB - USA
IRB Approval Date
2014-10-08
IRB Approval Number
13October-001
Analysis Plan

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