杏吧论坛

Assessing the Impact of Providing Access to Nurseries on Female Labor Force Participation (Egypt)

ACCESS TO CHILDCARE

In this RCT, funded by the MENA GIL, researchers cross-randomized subsidized childcare vouchers and a job-matching service among mothers in low-income areas of Cairo. Take-up of the childcare subsidies was very low. Although many women signed up for the job matching service, only some applied to jobs and very few obtained jobs. Neither intervention on its own nor the combination of interventions led to an increase in women’s employment. Gender norms were one barrier to uptake of the interventions. The gap between women’s desired job attributes and available jobs on the job matching platform also limited the interventions' effectiveness, even among couples not reporting restrictive gender norms.

| (midline results) | (endline results)
 

Measuring the Impact of Modern Preschool (Morocco)

ACCESS TO CHILDCARE

IN PROGRESS - MENA GIL is supporting an ongoing RCT that measures the impact of Morocco’s national flagship early education expansion/reform program. The evaluation will assess the impact of the preschool program on child development and mothers’ time use and labor market participation.
 

Campaign to Promote Uptake of Childcare Subsidies (Jordan)

ACCESS TO CHILDCARE

IN PROGRESS - MENA GIL is collaborating on a campaign to encourage uptake of childcare vouchers offered under the Enhancing Women’s Economic Opportunities in Jordan Operation. The campaign will entail both a national media-based campaign and an intensive, in-person campaign with front-line public sector workers. The rollout of the in-person campaign will be randomized, allowing for an evaluation of the additional impact of this modality on uptake of childcare vouchers.
 

Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of the “Our Kindergarten in Our Neighborhood” Program (Tunisia)

ACCESS TO CHILDCARE

IN PROGRESS - MENA GIL is collaborating with the Ministry of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly in Tunisia to evaluate the program “Our kindergarten in our neighborhood.” Through the program, the Ministry covers, via a voucher, the monthly payment of kindergarten registration fees for children aged 3-5 from households receiving Aman Social, a national cash transfer program. Using a quasi-experimental design, the evaluation will examine the impact of the kindergarten program on child development and women’s labor force outcomes.
 

Enhancing Female Entrepreneurship through a Public Works Program and a Capital Injections Intervention (Tunisia)

LIVELIHOODS, FINANCIAL INCLUSION AND ASSETS

In this RCT in Tunisia, women in the intervention group received an unconditional cash grant and gender-sensitive financial training. Women were additionally randomized into an arm in which they attended the training by themselves and an arm in which they were encouraged to bring their husbands to the training. Impacts on household living standards were positive in both intervention arms. However, the results showed that while the program had a positive effect on women’s income generating activities, these gains disappeared when husbands were involved in the training. This suggests that men may have felt more entitled to influence how the grants were spent when they were involved in the training.

| | |

Bab Amal – Door of Hope (Egypt)

LIVELIHOODS, FINANCIAL INCLUSION AND ASSETS

IN PROGRESS - The Bab Amal program in Upper Egypt is a comprehensive anti-poverty intervention that provides a holistic package of services to ultra-poor households, including productive asset transfers, technical skills training, temporary consumption support, access to savings groups, life skills coaching and health education. The program also piloted a lower cost "half graduation" arm. The program is implemented by the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development with local NGOs and the RCT is being led by researchers at J-PAL MENA, with MENA GIL contributing funding.
Policy brief
 

Economic and Social Empowerment of Female Heads of Household (Egypt)

LIVELIHOODS, FINANCIAL INCLUSION AND ASSETS

IN PROGRESS - This cluster RCT evaluates a program that provides financial access to widows and other female heads of household, who face structural economic and social discrimination. The program entails group-based savings and loans associations and legal, business and financial skills training. The evaluation focuses on short-term economic outcomes, including income generating activities, investments in children, and women’s agency and wellbeing.
 

Evaluation of the Tahweesha program (Egypt)

LIVELIHOODS, FINANCIAL INCLUSION AND ASSETS

IN PROGRESS - The Tahweesha program modernizes traditional Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) through digital banking. Tahweesha replaces cash modalities with digital transactions through bank accounts, prepaid cards, and a mobile application, creating a pathway to broader financial inclusion for Egyptian women. MENA GIL is partnering with J-PAL MENA’s Egypt Impact Lab and the National Council for Women to conduct the evaluation endline.
 

Using Digital Technology to Expand Markets for Female Entrepreneurs (Egypt)

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

IN PROGRESS – This impact evaluation, funded by MENA GIL, aims to overcome barriers to the adoption of the new technology of digital advertising, to expand markets for small firms, and spur firm growth, a significant share of which are women-led informal Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
 

Evaluating the Impact of SMEPS’ (Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Service) Training and Livestock Transfer Interventions on women's entrepreneurship, employment, and empowerment during conflict (Yemen)

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The aim of this impact evaluation was to measure the impact of training and input grants on sustainable livelihoods for women livestock breeders in a conflict context. A cluster RCT was designed to analyze the impact of the intervention on women's empowerment, income and indicators of livestock productivity. The impact evaluation was dropped because of the conflict in Yemen but a baseline survey was conducted.

Policy brief
 

Market Competition and Discrimination Against Women (Egypt)

DISCRIMINATION

IN PROGRESS – In MENA, small and medium sized firms dominate the economy, yet they often struggle to grow due to various constraints. Previous research has shown that trust of employers in workers may be a factor. This study uses a lab-in-the-field experiment to investigate whether biased beliefs about the trustworthiness of women workers discourages employers from hiring them. Furthermore, the experiment will explore whether women workers or competitive markets attenuate biased beliefs.
 

The Impact of Employer Discrimination on Female Labor Market Outcomes (Tunisia)

DISCRIMINATION

Using a correspondence design, this study tested for discrimination in the Tunisian labor market by sending out fictious, identical male and female resumes. The study found that discrimination was sector specific.

|

Measuring Women’s Agency in Tunisia

MEASUREMENT

IN PROGRESS - The MENA GIL is conducting a mixed-methods study of women’s agency in Tunisia. Replicating the methodology of Jayachandran et al. (2023), the studyuses quantitative survey data and qualitative in-depth interviews conducted with the same sample of 400 women to develop a short survey module that accurately and efficiently measures women’s agency in the context of the MENA region.
 

1.

This policy brief presents an update on the state of food security and the gender gap in food insecurity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the COVID-19 pandemic using findings from a large-scale phone survey in 10 MENA countries, conducted by the World Values Survey (WVS) Association. The survey interviewed 12,366 respondents, distributed almost equally across Algeria, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt.

2.

This policy brief presents an update on the state of domestic violence and other violence against women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the COVID-19 pandemic using findings from a large-scale phone survey in 10 MENA countries, conducted by the World Values Survey (WVS) Association. The survey interviewed 12,366 respondents, distributed almost equally across Algeria, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt.

3.

This policy brief presents an update on the state of unhappiness and depression in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the COVID-19 pandemic using findings from a large-scale phone survey in 10 MENA countries, conducted by the World Values Survey (WVS) Association. The survey interviewed 12,366 respondents, distributed almost equally across Algeria, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt.