Effectiveness of conditional cash transfers, subsidized child care, and life skills training on adolescent mothers' school reentry, sexual and reproductive health, and mental health in Malawi and Burkina Faso: The PROMOTE Project pilot randomized control trial

Three interventions will be delivered over a 12-month period: conditional cash transfers, subsidized daycare, and adolescent mothers’ clubs. The cash transfer will be conditioned on (re)enrolment in primary or secondary school (junior and senior high school in Burkina Faso) or a vocational training program. Transfers will be made for every school term during the intervention period that an adolescent mother is enrolled and remains enrolled. Adolescent mothers eligible to receive the cash transfers will receive US$30 every three months (a total of 120 US$ per adolescent mother enrolled throughout the 12 months).

Adolescent mothers eligible for subsidized child care will receive vouchers for subsidized child care in select childcare centers. Adolescent mothers who receive the vouchers will be entitled to 12 months of subsidized childcare. Adolescent mothers will hand over a voucher to the respective childcare center at the beginning of every month. In each study setting, field staff will collect the vouchers from each childcare center to monitor the intervention, as well as to determine the exact amount to be transferred to each childcare center.

The adolescent mothers’ clubs will be held every two weeks in a variety of locations in the community considered by adolescent mothers to be safe and appropriate for the meeting. During the club meetings, adolescent mothers will receive life skills training facilitated by community health workers. We expect that the clubs will create a safe space where adolescent mothers can interact to discuss their common problems, learn about child care, sexual and reproductive health and rights (including harmful gender norms that raise the risk of experiencing and tolerating gender-based violence) and financial literacy. The club will also offer a safe space where these mothers can receive psychosocial support from community health workers and peers. The collectivism the club creates also has the potential to strengthen their self-esteem, a resource they need to address the stigma associated with adolescent childbearing. If needed, we also expect that community health workers facilitating the club sessions will also support adolescent mothers to access sexual and reproductive health and child health services.

2022-09-01

2023-12-31

Education outcomes (enrollment in school or vocation training program)

Sexual and reproductive health; mental health

After the baseline survey, we will randomly assign adolescent mothers to one of three study arms. Adolescent mothers in all arms will receive life skills training through adolescent mothers’ clubs. Adolescent mothers in arm two will also receive subsidized child care, while those in arm three will receive all three interventions. Comparing arm one (mothers’ clubs only) and arm two (mothers’ clubs + subsidized child care) will allow us to test the additional benefit of the childcare subsidy. Comparing arms two and three (mothers’ clubs + subsidized child care + cash transfer) will also allow us to test the additional benefit of the cash transfer. Comparing arms one and three will allow us to test the combined benefit of the subsidized child care and cash transfers.

By computer

Individual

No

In each country, we will randomly assign 270 adolescent mother to one of three study arms (540 total)

270 adolescent mothers per country (540 total)

90 adolescent mothers