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Improving Girls' Access Through Education (IGATE)

Last registered on November 29, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Improving Girls' Access Through Education (IGATE)
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007963
Initial registration date
November 25, 2021

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
November 29, 2021, 8:51 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Zimbabwe
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Ardyn Nordstrom
Affiliation
Carleton University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Christopher Cotton
PI Affiliation
Queen's University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2013-10-01
End date
2016-12-31
Keywords
Education, Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
We evaluate a large, randomized UKaid Girls' Education Challenge project in rural Zimbabwe, where the staggered roll-out of the project allows us to isolate the impact of intervention components specifically intended to improve knowledge of and support for girls' education. Such information and engagement campaigns are often included as components of major development projects, but previous work has been unable to isolate their importance and effectiveness separately from the broader projects. We show that information and engagement campaigns increased mathematics performance and school enrolment. In later periods, the program was expanded to provide resources such as bicycles and books and to update curriculum. During these later periods, we observed improvements in literacy, but no additional improvements in mathematics and enrolment beyond what was observed following the information and engagement campaign alone.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Cotton, Christopher and Ardyn Nordstrom. 2021. "Improving Girls' Access Through Education (IGATE)." AEA RCT Registry. November 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7963-1.1
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2014-03-01
Intervention End Date
2016-09-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Girls' empowerment and education
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The program identified 467 schools (and respective communities) across rural districts in Zimbabwe to be eligible to receive the IGATE interventions. A subset of these schools were randomly selected to receive the program. As is standard in GEC evaluations, only a subset of the participating schools were then selected for data collection and evaluation. We use data from 37 treatment and 28 control locations in our evaluation sample.

The procedure used to select girls (and their caregivers) within these communities for data collection involved a sampling procedure in which teams of professional enumerators from a Zimbabwe-based firm started at a recognizable local landmark (e.g., community center) and then enumerators walked in different directions using a routine where they would pass three households and knock every fourth door.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by a computer
Randomization Unit
School
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
467
Sample size: planned number of observations
812
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Data from 37 treatment schools and 28 control schools.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Queen's University General Research Ethics Board
IRB Approval Date
2019-04-30
IRB Approval Number
6026503
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 31, 2016, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 31, 2016, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
65
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
942
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
65
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
We evaluate a large, randomized UKaid Girls' Education Challenge project in rural Zimbabwe, where the staggered roll-out of the project allows us to isolate the impact of intervention components specifically intended to improve knowledge of and support for girls' education. Such information and engagement campaigns are often included as components of major development projects, but previous work has been unable to isolate their importance and effectiveness separately from the broader projects. We show that information and engagement campaigns increased mathematics performance and school enrolment. In later periods, the program was expanded to provide resources such as bicycles and books and to update curriculum. During these later periods, we observed improvements in literacy, but no additional improvements in mathematics and enrolment beyond what was observed following the information and engagement campaign alone.
Citation
Christopher S. Cotton, Jordan Nanowski, Ardyn Nordstrom, and Eric Richert. 2020. Information and Engagement Campaigns in Support of Girls' Education Increase Math Performance and Enrolment, Queen's Economics Department Working Paper
URL
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3547786

Reports & Other Materials