Women's Empowerment and Local Governance in Indonesia

Last registered on June 01, 2022

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Women's Empowerment and Local Governance in Indonesia

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0008037

Initial registration date

August 04, 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

August 05, 2021, 4:45 AM EDT

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

Last updated

June 01, 2022, 11:24 AM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Eitan Paul

Affiliation

University of Michigan

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2022-07-01

End date

2024-05-31

Keywords

Gender, Governance

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Local Government; Development Planning and Policy

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Women’s interests remain underrepresented in local policymaking despite the implementation of community-based and participatory planning and budgeting programs in much of the developing world. Male dominance in neighborhood institutions may make it difficult for women’s voices to be heard even if female attendance quotas in village planning and budgeting meetings are met. This RCT evaluates the effects of an intervention in Indonesia which will train 1) neighborhood-level women’s groups and 2) neighborhood association leaders about the importance of gender inclusivity and strategies for increasing women’s participation at the neighborhood level and better representing women’s interests in hamlet and village-level policymaking. The experimental design will test whether a supply-side strategy that targets neighborhood association leaders is more effective than a demand-side strategy that targets only women’s groups.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Paul, Eitan. 2022. "Women's Empowerment and Local Governance in Indonesia." AEA RCT Registry. June 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8037-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2022-07-01

Intervention End Date

2023-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

1. Efficacy: survey-based measure of respondent's belief that she can make a difference in her community
2. Participation:
a. respondent's communication with members of the village apparatus
b. neighborhood association chair form reporting contacts by female residents
c. female respondent's willingness to submit short proposal through survey and share it with community leaders or members of the village apparatus
3. Quality of Participation
a. relevance of women's policy proposals (under jurisdiction of village, hamlet & neighborhood governments and representative of women's preferences)
b. coordination among women to advocate for common concerns
4. Responsiveness
a. neighborhood association chair invites women to submit proposals
b. neighborhood association chair responds to requests made by female residents
c. neighborhood association chair can correctly identify women's priorities

(See complete list of outcome measures in Pre-Analysis Plan and Outcome Measures spreadsheet)

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

See details in pre-analysis plan

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Neighborhood associations (RT) are distinct units within Indonesian villages with their own leaders, groups, and activities. However, to conservatively avoid inter-neighborhood spillovers, we will conduct random assignment at the Rukun Warga (RW) level, which is a conglomerate of an average of five RT. Rukun Warga will be randomly assigned to one of three treatment arms: 1) Placebo, 2) Arisan Only, and 3) Arisan + RT. Fifty percent of neighborhoods will be randomly assigned to placebo, 25 percent to T1 (Arisan Only) and 25 percent to T2 (Arisan + RT). The Placebo will consist of a personal financial literacy training delivered to women’s arisan groups and a training about the village planning and budgeting process (without reference to gender and inclusive participation) delivered to the RT chair. The latter Placebo RT training will also be delivered to RT chair assigned to T1: Arisan Only.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

Rukun Warga (neighborhood cluster unit in Indonesia)

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

100 RW (neighborhood cluster units)

Sample size: planned number of observations

300 RT (neighborhoods) for neighborhood-level outcomes 4500 individuals for individual-level outcomes

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

50 RW (neighborhood cluster units) control, 25 RW arisan (women's group) training, 25 RW arisan and RT (neighborhood) leader trainings

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

This design is statistically powered to detect individual-level effects as small as 0.11 and neighborhood-level effects as small as 0.34 standard deviations with a significance level of alpha = 0.05.

Supporting Documents and Materials

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