Adoption of improved cook stove and women decision-making empowerment in rural Benin

Last registered on February 11, 2023

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Adoption of improved cook stove and women decision-making empowerment in rural Benin

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0009445

Initial registration date

May 29, 2022

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

May 30, 2022, 8:08 AM EDT

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

Last updated

February 11, 2023, 7:47 AM EST

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

Locations

Country

Benin

Region

West Africa

Primary Investigator

Name

Rose FIAMOHE

Affiliation

Université d'Abomey-Calavi (UAC), Benin

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Jonas Fassinou

PI Affiliation

University of Abomey-Calavi

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2022-03-14

End date

2023-04-30

Keywords

Behavior, Gender, Labor, Welfare

Additional Keywords

improved cook stoves, women decision-making, women's participation to labor market

JEL code(s)

D02; D90; J22; O33; Q52

Secondary IDs

JOI-21-00348

Prior work

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

Abstract

The ongoing use of inefficient cook stoves in rural Benin imposes time and health burdens on women, constraining their labor market participation. This situation prevents the attainment of gender and related labor market outcomes. The introduction of improved cook stoves (ICS) is an important development initiative that can improve the productivity of the time that women allocate to unpaid household production. We assume that the time saved by using an ICS is allocated to wage work that, in turn, improves women’s decision-making empowerment within their households. This aspect of development programs is often neglected in program evaluations. Acknowledging this gap, our research project aims to assess the causal effect of the adoption of an ICS on women's labor market participation and their decision-making empowerment in the household. A randomized control trial (RCT) and decision-making modeling process will be applied to obtain the study's expected results.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

FIAMOHE, Rose and Jonas Fassinou. 2023. "Adoption of improved cook stove and women decision-making empowerment in rural Benin." AEA RCT Registry. February 11. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9445-1.2

Sponsors & Partners

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The study aims to evaluate the causal effects of adoption of improved cook stoves (ICS) "Guev Cooker" on labour market and empowerment outcomes for women in rural Benin. The improved cook stoves "Guev Cooker" is a novel cooking technology developed by a Benin's startup to contribute to the programs of energy poverty elimination and inclusive economic growth improvement. The "Guev Cooker" is an efficient multifunctionnal ICS with the following major functions: (1) an automatic burner; (2) a combustion balance’s regulator; (3) a cooking time programmer with automatic extinguishing buzzer; (4) energy autonomy allowing the supply of three 12-volt "LED" lamps continuously for 72 hours while making possible the charge of various electrical devices (laptops, radios, computers, 12v fans). So, to evaluate the impact of the adoption of this technology on labour market and empowerment outcomes, baseline and endline surveys will be conducted in five municipalities in Benin, namely Adjarra, Avrankou, Dangbo, Ifangni & Sakete. In total, we plan to distribute 250 improved cook stoves (ICS) to married rural women, randomly selected among 500 women already randomly selected on the list of women rural cooperatives provided by mayors of study sites in rural Benin. But taking account to an attrition rate of 8%, 531 women were randomly selected on the list of women rural cooperatives. Then, 266 improved cook stoves (ICS) will be distributed to married rural women. In addition to the access of the ICS, women will receive training and awareness on the use of the ICS and a training on various income generating activities (IGA) opportunities. After the introduction and the use of ICS, the endline survey will be conducted to evaluate the impact of this intervention.

Intervention Start Date

2022-04-26

Intervention End Date

2022-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

- The variation in time allocated to unpaid works and care before and after the intervention
- the decision-making empowerment index.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

The decision-making empowerment index is a composite index (quantitative variable), taking into account the general pattern of measurement of decision-making. We will refer to Garikapati' s (2008) work to build the women empowerment index. It takes account:
─ Ownership of household assets and incomes (ASSETS):
─ Work time allocation
─ Division of domestic chores
─ Control over minor finance (keeping the money from her own economic activities, she has any regular personal spending money, having money for emergency use, etc.)
─ Control over major finances (retaining her own wage earnings, children wage, husband wage, etc.)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

The participation of women to income generating activities (IGA) or wage works

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

This outcome is a qualitative variable taking the value 1 if the women devoted they saved time to IGA or wage work before and after the intervention and 0 otherwise.

Experimental Design

We implement a stratified randomization sampling of 531 women. Two treatments are administered after baseline survey, as described as follows:
Treatment 1: Access and awareness on the use of Guev Cooker of one core + training on income generating activities (IGA)
Treatment 2: Access and awareness on the use of Guev Cooker of two cores + training on income generating activities (IGA)

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

A public lottery is run by computer with rural women in intervention sites (Adjarra, Avrankou, Dangbo, Ifangni, Sakete). We use a stratified randomization with commands seed and randtreat on Stata.

Randomization Unit

We use unit level randomization. Both the observation unit and the randomization unit are women in the study sites in rural Benin.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

266 women will be assigned with improved cook stoves with one core and two cores.

Sample size: planned number of observations

In total, 531 women were randomly selected on the list of women rural cooperatives.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

We have 265 women for the control group, 134 rural women for the first treatment group with improved cook stoves of one core and 132 rural women for the second treatment group with improved cook stoves of two cores, leading to a total of 266 rural women for the treatment group.

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

With alpha=0.05, a power=0.80, the Estimated effect size is evaluated to 0.2511.

Supporting Documents and Materials

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