Vocational Training Plus Program and Women's Empowerment: Experimental Evidence from Nigeria

Last registered on January 03, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Vocational Training Plus Program and Women's Empowerment: Experimental Evidence from Nigeria
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009766
Initial registration date
December 14, 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
January 03, 2023, 4:07 PM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Julia Vaillant
Affiliation
The World Bank
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Nono Ayivi-Guedehoussou
PI Affiliation
The World Bank
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PI Name
Abhilasha Sahay
PI Affiliation
The World Bank
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-06-24
End date
2024-12-15
Keywords
Gender, Health, Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
Vocational training, Asset transfer, Vulnerable population
JEL code(s)
I15, J16
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) is partnering with Pro-International Health (PHI) to evaluate a vocational training program. This program is part of an overarching strategy implemented by Pro-Health International (PHI)— Integrated Child Health and Social Services Award (ICHSSA)— to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS. The targeted beneficiaries of the vocational training program are rural women residing in the states of Bauchi and Adamawa in Nigeria who are caregivers of children living with HIV (CLHIV), women with children and living with HIV (PLHIV), and caregivers of children that have been exposed to sexual violence and other abuse, as well as caregivers of HIV exposed infants. The vocational training program seeks to impart technical skills in non-farm trades, such as tailoring, and dry and wet grinding as well as life skills such as problem-solving, collaboration and negotiation. The program also includes the provision of an asset transfer to women who complete at least 70% of the training. Alongside, PHI will also implement a buddy program - where trainees are paired together at the beginning of the program - which is designed to address women’s social network constraints. Two versions of the buddy program will be tested: self-selection of peers and a random matching process.
Using a randomized control trial design, the study will evaluate the impact of the vocational training program on women’s labor market outcomes such as employment and earnings; intra-household decision-making and agency; psychological wellbeing; and adherence to HIV-treatment. The findings of this study will also shed light on the effects of an innovative social network intervention and the optimal delivery mechanism for such an intervention.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ayivi-Guedehoussou, Nono, Abhilasha Sahay and Julia Vaillant. 2023. "Vocational Training Plus Program and Women's Empowerment: Experimental Evidence from Nigeria." AEA RCT Registry. January 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9766-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The interventions include vocational training program, life skills curriculum training, asset transfer and buddy program.

The vocational training program includes three key components. The first component offers technical skills in three economic trades of tailoring, wet grinding and dry grinding. In the second component, the program offers training in life (non-cognitive) skills such as negotiation, collaboration, and problem solving and decision-making. The third component of the vocational training program includes an asset transfer which has been embedded to incentivize trainees to complete the training.

The buddy program is an add-on intervention that seeks to address constraints relating to women’s social networks. Under this program, each trainee will be paired with a co-trainee, i.e., a buddy, from her training group. This pairing will be carried out in two ways: (1) randomly matching a trainee with another co-trainee in the training group, (2) allowing the trainee to select her peer among trainees in her group.
Intervention Start Date
2022-12-05
Intervention End Date
2023-03-03

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
a. Improved participation in income-generating-activities and self-employment.
b. Increased earnings and/or profits.
c. Increased savings and investing behaviors.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
a. Improved HIV treatment adherence.
b. Enhanced role in intra-households decision-making.
c. Improved agency, self-efficacy and mental well-being.
d. Improved attitudes towards women's work.
e. Improved psychological wellbeing.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
To estimate the causal impact of the program, Randomized Control Trial (RCT) will be used. The 2,887 eligible beneficiaries will be individually randomized into three treatment arms and a control group after stratification based on LGAs. The three experimental groups include:
(i) vocational training + life skills training curriculum + asset transfer (defined as “core” program);
(ii) “core” program + buddy program with assortative marching;
(iii) “core” program + buddy program with random matching;
(iv) control group (which will not receive any intervention).
Training groups of approximately size 10 to 15 for each economic trade area will be formed within each treatment group. The vocational training program and add-on interventions will be delivered at the training group level.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Computer Randomization
Randomization Unit
Unit of randomization is training groups
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
255 training groups
Sample size: planned number of observations
2,887 vulnerable rural women
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
64 or 63 training groups per treatment arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
9.6 percentage points
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Health Media Lab, Inc.
IRB Approval Date
2022-03-22
IRB Approval Number
#1116TWBG22
Analysis Plan