Supporting youth employment and productive inclusion in rural Niger

Last registered on June 23, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Supporting youth employment and productive inclusion in rural Niger
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009761
Initial registration date
July 22, 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
July 26, 2022, 1:48 PM EDT

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

Last updated
June 23, 2023, 4:43 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Bordeaux

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
World Bank

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-07-25
End date
2024-06-30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This research is a randomized evaluation of the Youth Employment and Productive Inclusion Project ("Projet Emploi Jeune et Inclusion Productive", PEJIP). The intervention consists in providing support to young individuals through Village saving and loan associations (VSLA).
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Audy, Robin and Quentin Stoeffler. 2023. "Supporting youth employment and productive inclusion in rural Niger." AEA RCT Registry. June 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9761-1.2
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This research evaluates the impact of the "Projet Emploi Jeune et Inclusion Productive" (PEJIP) – meaning Youth employment and productive inclusion project. It focuses on the first component of the project, which aims at encouraging youth economic activities in rural areas. The research intends to measure the impact of the project on beneficiaries’ income, their activities, and other wellbeing dimensions. The impact evaluation regards the last phase of the PEJIP program which includes 9,000 beneficiaries and will be implemented in 2022-2023 in 9 communes across Niger.
Intervention Start Date
2022-08-15
Intervention End Date
2023-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcomes considered in the study are:
- income of the young beneficiary individual
- beneficiary household's per capita consumption and food security
- individual and household income generating activities outside of agriculture ("micro-enterprises"): number, scale and profit
- migration outside of the village
- empowerment and psychosocial well-being
- agricultural activities (crop production, diversification, and profits) and livestock herding
- resilience

Testable hypotheses will be fully described in the pre-analysis plan.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The construction of the outcomes will be fully described in the pre-analysis plan. The questionnaire used is similar to the questionnaire used in another intervention in the Sahel (Bossuroy, Thomas, Markus Goldstein, Bassirou Karimou, Dean Karlan, Harounan Kazianga, William Parienté, Patrick Premand et al. "Tackling psychosocial and capital constraints to alleviate poverty." Nature 605, no. 7909 (2022): 291-297.) and variable construction is identical to allow a full comparability of the results.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary outcomes are also considered including:
- finance and transfers
- health and education
- housing conditions and durable assets
- productive assets
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
The construction of the outcomes will be fully described in the pre-analysis plan. We will also follow the variable construction as in Bossuroy et al. (2022).

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The research is a randomized evaluation of the PEJIP program. It relies on a clustered randomized control trial (RCT). Two variations are cross-randomized: a variation in the package of interventions received (full or simplified), and a variable in the cash delivery modalities.
Experimental Design Details
The level of the intervention is the village, which are randomly selected to serve as control group, or to receive one of the intervention variants. In total, 135 villages participate to the study. In 45 villages, no intervention is provided (pure control group). In the other 90 villages, two sources of variation are cross-randomized: the package of interventions received, and the cash payment modalities. In terms of package, 45 villages will receive a full (or traditional) PEJIP intervention, and 45 villages will receive a simplified package (without any training in micro-entrepreneurship or soft-skills). The cash variation consist in receiving a lump-sum transfer in 45 villages, while 45 villages receive regular transfers each month (in either case, villages receive 100,000 CFA in total).
Randomization Method
Randomization will consist in public lotteries, based on a stratification by commune.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization is the village. Within a village, all groups and all individuals will receive the same treatment.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The number of clusters is 135 villages.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan to collect information on 4,050 individuals.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
The planned number of clusters by treatment arm is: 45 villages in the control group, 90 villages to the treatment group. Among these, two variations are cross-randomized: 45 villages will receive the full package and 45 villages will receive the simplified package. Also, 45 villages will receive a lump-sum transfer, and 45 villages a monthly transfer. This means that 22-23 villages will receive each of the four possible combinations: full package with lump-sum transfer, full package with monthly transfers, simplified package with lump-sum transfer, simplified package with monthly transfers.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
HML IRB approval
Document Type
irb_protocol
Document Description
File
HML IRB approval

MD5: d991cda964e95d4d69eb6a56a0a5a030

SHA1: 5dd8bec60c6e72bfaa66c7c9a6c677492368bc89

Uploaded At: September 12, 2022

Document Name
CNERS IRB approval
Document Type
irb_protocol
Document Description
File
CNERS IRB approval

MD5: cd86631163a0eea368467942f405d9d4

SHA1: 472d8ea1487cd169ab63fb39924757834c25d959

Uploaded At: September 12, 2022

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Comité National d’Éthique pour la Recherche en Santé (CNERS) in Niger
IRB Approval Date
2022-07-21
IRB Approval Number
34/2022/CNERS
IRB Name
HML IRB
IRB Approval Date
2022-08-02
IRB Approval Number
2086
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials