|
Field
Trial Title
|
Before
Business training, networks, and seed grants for female entrepreneurs in Afghanistan
|
After
More loans, better skills, safer spaces: Evidence from clustering savings groups in Afghanistan
|
|
Field
Abstract
|
Before
Afghanistan is not only one of the poorest countries in the world, it also ranks among the most gender-unequal societies. The latter is reflected in its restrictive social norms and gender roles that translate into large gaps in economic empowerment of women compared to men. Only 29 percent of women in Afghanistan participate in the labor force, and only 27 percent of these women are engaged in paid employment (ALCS 2013-14). While female wage employment barely exists, women rely on self-employment as a more practical way of earning income: self-employment activities can be carried out at home, close to the household chores, and in accordance with gender norms and roles. However, these female small-scale enterprises are hold back as they lack crucial factors for business success. Self-employed women are to a large extent excluded from trade and purchase networks, financial services like loans, and higher education by the restrictive gender norms that prohibit mobility and interactions of women with the other sex outside of their home. At the same time command over resources (e.g. own generated income or acquired loans) is usually controlled by husbands or other household members: Women lack a voice in household spending and investments, with 90 percent of households stating that, for instance, the decisions on taking up or paying back loans are made mainly by men (NRVA 2007/8). Against this backdrop, any program that aims to effectively tackle poverty and increase female economic empowerment in Afghanistan needs a comprehensive strategy that takes the cultural context into account.
We study a comprehensive intervention designed to encourage female economic inclusion in 4 provinces (11 districts) in Afghanistan. The intervention builds on mostly female pre-existing local savings groups, which are combined into 90 clusters of 5 to 15 groups each. For the 45 randomly selected treatment clusters, we use these clusters to install "platforms for economic empowerment". The intervention studied here takes a graduation approach — i.e. it responds to the complexity of the matter by easing multiple economic constraints faced by poor women at the same time: The community-owned platforms are used to diminish credit constraints by disbursing externally funded small revolving loans, feed business and vocational training to enhance human capital where needed, and provide socio-emotional skill training known to be helpful to entrepreneurs. Most importantly, the intervention does not stop there, but takes into account the multiple additional struggles related to gender roles and social norms that hinder women in particular to run a successful business in Afghanistan. The empowerment platforms at cluster level are intended to act as catalysts for network formation beyond the local groups. Thereby, the platforms
• enable women to take advantage of economies of scale (e.g. by pooling risk at a larger scale, finance larger-sized loans to members),
• aggregate women’s production inputs and outputs and facilitate market linkages (e.g. by providing market intermediation assistance, organization of regional trade fairs, identifying and facilitating purchasing and trade partnerships),
• foster agency and mutual support against restrictive social norms.
We investigate the effects of the intervention on outcomes related to business performance, female economic empowerment, and well-being.
|
After
In rural low-income contexts, savings groups offer an opportunity to alleviate credit constraints and gender disparities in access to credit. They can also promote women’s economic empowerment, which is defined as having both the ability to succeed and advance economically and the power to make and act on economic decisions. On their own, however, savings groups are often insufficient to fully support women's economic empowerment because (1) members—especially women living in poverty—generally lack enough cash for the group to invest in high productivity activities; (2) savings groups often lack access to quality training, information, and markets to support their productive activities; and (3) women in savings groups also lack sufficient voice in their communities to collectively address socio-cultural constraints to economic empowerment.
The Strengthening Afghan Women’s Economic Empowerment Project (SWEEP), a US$2.74 million project, addresses these constraints on several fronts. It is implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), an international non-governmental organization (NGO) which has invested community-based savings groups (CBSGs) in Afghanistan since the early 2000s. The intervention combines a graduation approach with a safe space delivery system. It forms ClustersNote that the term “cluster” is used to mean two things in this document. In the context of the program, 4-12 CBSGs are linked into Clusters for the purpose of the clustering intervention. In the context of the evaluation, a cluster-RCT also happens to be the standard research term for a RCT that randomly assigns whole groups or areas (“clusters”) to different treatment groups. To avoid confusion, we will capitalize the first letter of the word “cluster” whenever we speak about the savings groups platforms. of CBSGs and uses these Clusters as a platform to (1) create and manage a revolving loan fund financed with external capital, (2) deliver skills training and business-related services, and (3) build networks among members and encourage market linkages. As community-owned and managed institutions, the Clusters can play an important advocacy role in support of women’s voice within their communities. Therby, the intervention, on the one hand, aims to ease credit, educational, and social constraints faced by poor women in rural Afghnistan; and, on the other hand, it strives to create safe environments to access these loans, skills, and information while building business-specific female-only networks. The proposed study is not designed to investiagte the effects of each individual intervention component separately (e.g., capital injections, micro credit, various types of training and technical assistance, grouping of market interests, etc.), which have each been studied at length. Instead our contribution to the literature is to comprehensively combine and intensify previous approaches to remove many important constraints to female ecomic success simultaneously.
We investigate the effects of the intervention on outcomes related to business performance, female economic empowerment, and well-being.
|
|
Field
Last Published
|
Before
May 27, 2019 04:54 PM
|
After
June 30, 2021 05:04 PM
|
|
Field
Primary Outcomes (End Points)
|
Before
Portfolio of (income generating) activities;
Business performance (Most common products/prices/quantities/where sold; Earnings; Hours worked)
Household wealth (Consumption; Food security; Assets);
Female empowerment (Attitudes; Mobility; Marital status; Decision-making in the household; Sanitation infrastructure)
|
After
See PAP
|
|
Field
Primary Outcomes (Explanation)
|
Before
• Decision-making in the household: over productive assets, income use, household activities
• Attitudes: Decision making, confidence, social inclusion, problem solving, growth mindset, gender attitudes, optimism, self-efficacy, perceptions of available economic opportunities, household dynamics, barriers to economic empowerment, access to inputs and support services, community support and attitudes
|
After
See PAP
|
|
Field
Keyword(s)
|
Before
Education, Finance, Firms And Productivity, Gender, Labor, Post Conflict, Welfare
|
After
Education, Finance, Firms And Productivity, Gender, Labor, Post Conflict, Welfare
|
|
Field
Intervention (Hidden)
|
Before
The intervention comprises of four components:
Component 1: Formation of Cluster platforms for economic empowerment
Component 2: Training, business development services, and market access
Component 3: Increasing access to finance
Component 4: Project management, monitoring and evaluation, knowledge dissemination
The start date of component 1 lies before registration of this trail: Oktober 2018. The remaining components will be implemented after May 2019.
|
After
The intervention comprises of four components:
Component 1: Formation of Cluster platforms for economic empowerment
Component 2: Training, business development services, and market access
Component 3: Increasing access to finance
The start date of component 1 lies before registration of this trail: Oktober 2018. The remaining components will be implemented after May 2019.
|
|
Field
Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
|
Before
Business skills (Hard skills and attitudes specific to the training program contents);
Financial behavior (Savings behavior, Loan behavior, Investment behavior);
Financial inclusion (Formal bank account, Financial literacy);
Community participation (Agency; Collective bargaining)
Community support (Attitudes towards female participation in income generating activities)
|
After
See PAP
|
|
Field
Secondary Outcomes (Explanation)
|
Before
• Loan behavior: source, amount, duration, risk, interest paid, repayment, use
• Savings behavior: location, amount
• Investment behavior: volume, type, purpose
• Collective bargaining: participation in purchasing networks, sales networks, trade partnerships, socialization, mentorship, market access
|
After
See PAP
|