TY - RPRT TI - The Economic Lives of Young Women in the Time of Ebola: Lessons from an Empowerment Program AU - Bandiera, Oriana AU - Buehren, Niklas AU - Goldstein, Markus AU - Rasul, Imran AU - Smurra, Andrea AB - We evaluate an intervention to raise young women’s economic empowerment in Sierra Leone, where women frequently experience sexual violence and face multiple economic disadvantages. The intervention provides them with a protective space (a club) where they can …nd support, receive information on health/reproductive issues and vocational training. Unexpectedly, the post-baseline period coincided with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Our analysis leverages quasi-random across-village variation in the severity of Ebola-related disruption, and random assignment of villages to the intervention to document the impact of the Ebola outbreak on the economic lives of 4 700 women tracked over the crisis, and any ameliorating role played by the intervention. In highly disrupted control villages, the crisis leads younger girls to spend signi…cantly more time with men, out-of-wedlock pregnancies rise, and as a result, they experience a persistent 16pp drop in school enrolment post-crisis. These adverse e¤ects are almost entirely reversed in treated villages because the intervention enables young girls to allocate time away from men, preventing out-of-wedlock pregnancies and enabling them to re-enrol in school post-crisis. In treated villages, the unavailability of young women leads some older girls to use transactional sex as a coping strategy. The intervention causes them to increase contraceptive use so this does not translate into higher fertility. Our analysis pinpoints the mechanisms through which the severity of the aggregate shock impacts the economic lives of young women, and shows how interventions in times of crisis can interlink outcomes across younger and older cohorts. JEL Classi…cation: I25, J13, J24. DA - 2018/12// PY - 2018 DP - DOI.org (Crossref) LA - en PB - World Bank ST - The Economic Lives of Young Women in the Time of Ebola UR - http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/31219 Y2 - 2020/07/21/14:36:33 KW - ___working_potential_duplicate ER - TY - JOUR TI - Women's empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa AU - Bandiera, Oriana AU - Buehren, Niklas AU - Burgess, Robin AU - Goldstein, Markus AU - Gulesci, Selim AU - Rasul, Imran AU - Sulaiman, Munshi T2 - American Economic Journal: Applied Economics AB - We evaluate a multifaceted policy intervention attempting to jump-start adolescent women's empowerment in Uganda by simultaneously providing them vocational training and information on sex, reproduction, and marriage. We find that four years postintervention, adolescent girls in treated communities are more likely to be self-employed. Teen pregnancy, early entry into marriage/cohabitation, and the share of girls reporting sex against their will fall sharply. The results highlight the potential of a multifaceted program that provides skills transfers as a viable and cost-effective policy intervention to improve the economic and social empowerment of adolescent girls over a four-year horizon. DA - 2020/01// PY - 2020 DO - 10.1257/app.20170416 DP - www.aeaweb.org VL - 12 IS - 1 SP - 210 EP - 259 LA - en SN - 1945-7782 ST - Women's Empowerment in Action UR - https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20170416 Y2 - 2022/06/06/22:36:52 KW - Child Care KW - Children KW - Domestic Abuse, Fertility KW - Education and Economic Development, Marriage KW - Family Planning KW - Family Structure KW - Human Development KW - Income Distribution KW - Labor Productivity, Economic Development: Human Resources KW - Marital Dissolution KW - Migration KW - Non-labor Discrimination, Labor Demand, Human Capital KW - Occupational Choice KW - Skills KW - Youth, Economics of Gender ER - TY - BOOK TI - Empowering Adolescent Girls: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Uganda AU - Bandiera, Oriana AU - Buehren, Niklas AU - Burgess, Robin AU - Goldstein, Markus AU - Gulesci, Selim AU - Rasul, Imran AU - Sulaiman, Munshi AB - Nearly 60% of Uganda’s population is aged below 20. This generation faces health challenges associated with HIV, coupled with economic challenges arising from an uncertain transition into the labor market. We evaluate the impacts of a programme designed to empower adolescent girls against both challenges through the simultaneous provision of: (i) life skills to build knowledge and reduce risky behaviors; (ii) vocational training enabling girls to establish small-scale enterprises. The randomized control trial tracks 4 800 girls over two years. We …nd the programme signi…cantly improves HIV and pregnancy related knowledge, as well as corresponding risky behaviors: among those sexually active, self-reported routine condom usage increases by 50%. Furthermore, from a baseline of 21%, there is the near elimination of girls reporting having recently had sex unwillingly. On outcomes related to vocational training, the intervention raised the likelihood of girls being engaged in income generating activities by 35%, mainly driven by increased participation in self-employment. The …ndings suggest combined interventions might be more e¤ective among adolescent girls than single-pronged interventions aiming to change risky behaviors solely through related education programmes, or to improve labor market outcomes solely through vocational training. DA - 2012/12// PY - 2012 DP - DOI.org (Crossref) LA - en PB - World Bank ST - Empowering Adolescent Girls UR - http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/25529 Y2 - 2022/06/06/22:36:19 ER -