Supporting youth employment and productive inclusion in rural Niger

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.

2022-08-15

2023-06-30

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.

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 are also considered including:
- finance and transfers
- health and education
- housing conditions and durable assets
- productive assets

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).

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.

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 will consist in public lotteries, based on a stratification by commune.

The unit of randomization is the village. Within a village, all groups and all individuals will receive the same treatment.

Yes

The number of clusters is 135 villages.

We plan to collect information on 4,050 individuals.

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.