re:Build: Cash grants and mentorship to strengthen refugee economic and social integration in Uganda

The mentorship groups will follow a structured curriculum based on the Learn 2 Earn business training program and other similar initiatives. Materials will include a handbook with business principles and exercises, animated videos for the main topics distributed to all clients with a smartphone, and discussion questions for each week. Some weeks will have more material than others, to allow for discussion of other topics based on the group’s needs and preferences. The discussion questions will include questions on business goals and challenges, personal histories, and encourage the sharing of specific examples.

The cash grant of 2,000,000 UGX to the mentees will be distributed six weeks after the launch, and clients will be encouraged to invest the money in their business. The six weeks gives the groups enough time to build trust and learn from each other how to invest the money wisely. The mentors will receive a grant of 1,000,000 UGX, also likely paid in full after six weeks.

The lotteries will be conducted every two months. Clients will be asked to inform the IRC when they have opened their business, and an IRC enumerator will then visit the business to collect information that will inform the spot-check for the lottery winners. All businesses that are open by the lottery’s deadline will be eligible to win; the probability of winning the lottery in each round will be approximately 1/3. When lottery winners are selected, they will be spot-checked for openness. Enumerators will look for any evidence the business is open and the client is investing significant time. Winning clients will receive 50,000 UGX each lottery.

Some of the groups will be randomized to receive lottery payments that are based on their group members’ success, in addition to their own. This “shared fate” model is intended to incentivize the whole group – both the mentor and mentees – to invest in the mentees’ business with their ideas and encouragement. For each of the clients’ businesses in this treatment arm that wins the lottery and is successfully spot-checked, all 3 clients will receive the 50,000 UGX payment. If all three mentees win, the mentees could therefore win 150,000 UGX each round. The mentors will receive a 100,000 UGX payment for each business that is open and could receive 300,000 UGX if all three mentee businesses are randomly drawn and successfully spot-checked. In the “shared fate” treatment arm, the mentors will receive twice the amount as the mentees in each lottery.

2022-07-01

2022-12-31

1. Business success
a. Our primary measures of business success will be business openness, business profit, and household financial health.
b. We will also analyze business management behavior to understand mechanisms, e.g., marketing, pricing, supplier choice, partnerships, goal setting.

2. Intergroup attitudes
a. Social cohesion: Perceived social distance between refugees and Ugandans (e.g., “Would you be comfortable with a refugee marrying a member of your family?”).
b. Integration: Interactions between refugees and Ugandans and feelings of inclusion in society (e.g., “How many of your business partners come from a different country than you?” and “How isolated do you feel from Ugandan society?”).
c. Political attitudes: Support for inclusive hosting policies (e.g., “Do you think Uganda should allow refugees to live outside settlements?”).

The final study sample of mentees will be randomly assigned to one of four groups:
(0) Control group, with cash grants provided after 18 months
(1) Cash grant and lottery only
(2) Cash grant and mentorship (lottery payments depend on individual performance)
(3) Cash grant and mentorship (lottery payments depend on group performance)

Then, microenterprise participants in group (2) and (3) will be further randomly assigned to different levels of matched identity based on gender and refugee status: (i) mismatch (different gender and different status in country); (ii) partial match (either same gender or same status in country); and, (iii) full match (same gender and same status in country).

In parallel, mentors will be randomly assigned to three groups:
(M0) control group, mentors identified and selected by the IRC as qualified, but did not receive an active placement with a microenterprise participant
(M1) paired with microenterprise group for mentorship (lottery payments are random)
(M2) paired with microenterprise group for mentorship (lottery payments depend on group performance)

We are looking to study the following questions:
- What is the effect of cash on profits?
- Is the effect of cash on profits different for refugees than hosts?
- What is the effect of cash on hosts' attitudes?
- What is the effect of mentorship on profits?
- Is the effect of mentorship on profits different for refugees than hosts?
- Is the effect of mentorship on profits different for women than men?
- What is the effect of a mixed nationality group on refugees' profits?
- What is the effect of a mixed gender group on womens' profits?
- What is the effect of a mixed nationality group on hosts' attitudes?
- What is the effect of the group incentive on profits?
- Is the effect of the group incentive on profits different in mixed nationality groups?
- Is the effect of the group incentive on profits different in mixed gender groups?
- Is the effect of the group incentive on hosts' attitudes different in mixed nationality groups?
- What is the effect of mentoring on mentors' profits?

Attitude outcomes will pool the mentee and mentor samples.

Stratification by nationality, gender, location, industry (where possible), attitudes and business income at registration into the three treatment arms or control. Then within basic mentorship and shared fate mentorship, randomize into groups using the same stratification.

Individual

No

2,000 mentees and 650 mentors

2,000 mentees and 650 mentors

Control: 336
Cash: 505
Basic Mentorship: 714
Shared Fate Mentorship: 445
Control mentors: 250

re:Build Uganda Pre-Analysis Plan