Table 2
-Participants versus Nonparticipants (control villages at phase 1 endline) Nonparticipants ages 17-40, control villages
Source publication
We show that extremely poor, war-affected women in northern Uganda have high returns to a package of $150 cash, five days of business skills training, and ongoing supervision. Sixteen months after grants, participants doubled their microenterprise ownership and incomes, mainly from petty trading. We also show these ultrapoor have too little social...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... months after the start of the program, how- ever, we surveyed 2,836 nonparticipant households in treatment and control villages (about 25 from each village), and sought to interview two working age adults per household, in order to measure spillovers. 12 Table 2 reports summary statistics for participants and nonparticipants in the control villages only, in order to compare people in the absence of direct treatment effects. We distinguish between house- holds that were and were not traders at baseline. ...
Citations
... A series of randomised controlled trials found little impact of one popular MFI, microcredit, on household income and consumption [11]. Other studies of interventions that combine cash transfers or productive assets with business and financial training, meanwhile, observed sustained improvements in economic outcomes [12,13]. Many of these studies found substantial heterogeneity in programme outcomes, suggesting that social capital and initial resources may help determine whether MFI programmes achieve their objectives [13][14][15][16]. ...
... Other studies of interventions that combine cash transfers or productive assets with business and financial training, meanwhile, observed sustained improvements in economic outcomes [12,13]. Many of these studies found substantial heterogeneity in programme outcomes, suggesting that social capital and initial resources may help determine whether MFI programmes achieve their objectives [13][14][15][16]. ...
... For example, a prior review highlighted how individual-, household-, and community-level structures may limit the success of some women in entrepreneurial pursuits [28]. The present data identify a larger range of potential barriers and facilitators of programme success than those considered in much of the research on MFIs to date [11,[13][14][15][16]. ...
Background
Development interventions may promote sustainable livelihoods among participants via improved income generation, health, education, and quality of life. Within the development literature, microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide individuals with funds and/or start-up capital to develop small businesses. However, the evidence on whether MFIs are successful in ensuring sustainable livelihoods is mixed. In this study, we assessed participants’ perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to a poultry microenterprise intervention, and the impact of the intervention on enabling sustainable livelihoods for the participants, their families, and their community.
Methods
During exit interviews, 30 women who had participated in a poultry microenterprise demonstration project in rural Uganda nine months prior described their experiences in the intervention, including perceived benefits and challenges, and discussed specific factors that impacted their continuity in the project. We analysed the interviews using a content analysis approach.
Results
The participants noted instrumental and interpersonal benefits of the intervention: greater financial security, increased trust from community members, social support, empowerment, and skills-building. Despite these facilitators, challenges precluded some of them from establishing sustainable livelihoods. Pervasive poverty, poultry disease outbreaks, poor spousal/familial support, and challenges in effectively communicating the goal of the intervention stood as barriers to the establishment of sustained poultry businesses. While most participants (n/N = 20/30) reached the final phase of the intervention, only six continued rearing chickens beyond the project.
Conclusions
Barriers and facilitators described by the participants and identified in our analysis bear implications for the design, implementation, and evaluation of microenterprise interventions aimed at providing participants with sustainable livelihoods. Our findings highlight the importance of qualitative research in identifying concerns and informing intervention adaptations.
... Many report no significant positive effects on business performance (Drexler et al., 2014;Fiala, 2018;Karlan & Valdivia, 2011). However, others find that such training can increase profits, survival, or growth over the long term (Blattman et al., 2016;McKenzie & Puerto, 2021) or even the short term (De Mel et al., 2014;Field et al., 2016;Mano et al., 2012). The use of digital tools offers a promising avenue to expand the reach of these programs, as demonstrated by Attanasio et al. (2019), Davies et al. (2024), and Estefan et al. (2023). ...
Policymakers face the challenge of delivering business training programs that are high-quality, scalable, and cost-effective. This paper examines the impact of Exper-tienda, a free, smartphone-based business training application designed for Colom-bian microentrepreneurs. Using a randomised controlled trial (RCT) and leveraging local promoters from nearby universities, we evaluated the program's uptake and its effects on business practices, financial inclusion, and formalization. The study involved 994 microentrepreneurs across 10 Colombian cities, with data collected through administrative records and follow-up surveys one year after the intervention. The intervention increased app take-up by 3.97 percentage points, with no evidence of spillover effects across geographical boundaries. However, usage data reveals that the program struggled to engage users, as evidenced by low levels of interaction with the course. Moreover, we found no significant impacts on financial inclusion, formalization, business practices, or other key business outcomes. A high and unexpected attrition rate limited our ability to detect small effects, which are likely given the low levels of interaction with the app. This study is among the first to evaluate a mobile-based training intervention aimed at established microentrepreneurs who lack direct connections to the implementing organisation, providing important insights for the design and implementation of scalable digital training solutions.
... Theoretically, it is argued that increases in disposable earnings and consumption security provided by an additional (and guaranteed) source of income could be associated with a decrease in labour supply and work effort (Baird, McKenzie, and Özler 2018;Bastagli et al. 2016). Yet, the existing empirical evidence tends to disprove this claim: in most cases, receiving CTs does not lead to statistically significant changes in work participation or intensity (Alzúa, Cruces, and Ripani 2013;Banerjee et al. 2017; Barrientos and Villa 2013;Bastagli et al. 2019;Blattman et al. 2016;O'Brien et al. 2013). When reductions in labour supply are observed, these are often attributed to specific groups, such as the elderly or individuals in casual work arrangements, and not to the influence of the cash transfer itself (Ardington, Case, and Hosegood 2009;Cheema et al. 2014;Kassouf and De Oliveira 2012). ...
The productive impacts of cash transfer (CT) programs have not been widely studied, though interest in this area is growing, with existing evidence generally pointing to rather positive findings. Notably, one key takeaway from the (limited) available research is the debunking of a common criticism drawn against cash transfers and social assistance, more in general – namely, the assumption that social programs disincentivize or discourage work. Even less is known about the sustainability of CT impacts, as these interventions are typically designed as short-term programs. To address this gap, we conducted a quasi-experimental study of a universal unconditional cash transfer initiative in rural Uganda. Our study examined whether effects on savings, debt, investment, incomes, assets and labour allocation (if any) persisted after the end of the transfer. Despite the concurrent outbreak of COVID-19, our findings revealed several sustained impacts, particularly on savings, (agricultural) incomes and business ownership.
... Their evidence again highlighted gender-based heterogeneity in responses to business training. Blattman et al. (2016) evaluated the impact microenterprise support had on extremely poor war-affected women in Northern Uganda. The intervention included the provision of $150 cash, five days of business skills training specifically designed for women in vulnerable socioeconomic conditions, and ongoing supervision. ...
Women can improve their socioeconomic status, enhance their agency, and increase their bargaining power in household decision-making, including regarding fertility choices and financial matters, by gaining knowledge, skills, and information. This systematic literature review applies a gender lens to analyse educational interventions and training programs that have promoted women's empowerment and gender equality in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. We used an electronic database to generate an initial pool of 5,560 articles and whittled that selection down to 39 papers that were published in high-impact economics journals and employed causal identification methodologies. Afterwards, we manually added 18 relevant studies to arrive at a total of 57 reviewed articles. This review considers interventions with proven impacts, from school feeding programs and health initiatives to vocational training and childcare support initiatives. Our findings indicate that these development programs can significantly boost women's and girls' enrolment in education, employment, and economic autonomy while addressing barriers like social norms and mobility constraints. Key outcomes include increased employment and income, improved health practices, delayed marriage, and fewer early pregnancies. However, the fact that the findings are mixed for certain types of interventions, such as those that included men in women-focused programs, underscores the need for context-sensitive strategies to effectively address structural gender inequalities.
... The indemnity payments from insurance provided households a lump sum cash transfer, that could have incentivized purchase of lumpy assets, or investments in education. This would parallel prior studies on the effects of cash transfer interventions (Angelucci, Attanasio, and Di Maro, 2012;Haushofer and Shapiro, 2016;Blattman et al., 2016;Baird, McIntosh, and Özler, 2019). ...
... Second, we further expand on the work of Blattman et al. (2016), examining how exploratory search addresses the constraints of SMEs with limited in-house research and development, enabling the discovery of predeveloped innovative ideas. Our study highlights how explorative search expands SMEs' sensing capabilities by encouraging them to move beyond their current knowledge base and explore new ideas, market trends, and innovations. ...
... Limited access to opportunities, social marginalization, and uncertainty about the future can lead people in poverty to feel lower optimism and less agency over their fate (Chetty et al., 2022;Markus & Stephens, 2017;Sheehy-Skeffington, 2020;Sheehy-Skeffington & Rea, 2017). A recent literature on multi-faceted approaches shows that combining economic interventions and psychosocial support can yield sustained impacts on poverty reduction and welfare over time (Banerjee et al., 2021;Blattman et al., 2016Blattman et al., , 2017Lang et al., 2023;. Some of our prior research in Niger tested a multi-faceted program that included a package of economic support plus two psychosocial interventions designed to boost women's agency-a community film event on community aspirations, values, and norms and a one-week training on life skills like goal setting, problem solving, and decision-making. ...
Poverty is multidimensional, associated not only with a
lack of financial resources, but also often social-psychological constraints, such as diminished agency and aspirations.
Through a series of field experiments, this paper assesses the
causal impacts of culturally wise interventions designed to
build women’s agency on poverty reduction efforts in rural
Niger. Moreover, the study identifies a model of agency
that is “culturally wise” because it is the most motivational
and functional in the study cultural context. Study 1
reports descriptive evidence that an interdependent model
of agency—that is grounded in social harmony, respect,
and collective advancement and that accounts for relational affordances for individual goals—is predominant
in rural Niger. This stands in contrast to a more self-oriented, independent model grounded in personal aspirations,
self-direction, and self-advancement that is more common
in the West. Study 2 explores the psychosocial mechanisms
of a highly effective, multifaceted poverty reduction program that included two psychosocial interventions—a community sensitization and a life skills training, which incorporated both models of agency. Although the results support the role of intrapersonal processes (including enhanced self-efficacy and optimistic future expectations) in driving economic impacts, there is equal, if not greater, support for relational processes (including increased subjective
social standing, control over earnings, and social support).
Study 3 conducts a mechanism experiment to disentangle
the causal effects of interventions grounded in independent agency (“personal initiative”) or interdependent agency (“interpersonal initiative”). The results show that the interdependent agency intervention, which is considered to be most “culturally wise,” led to significant effects on economic outcomes as well as both intrapersonal and relational processes. By contrast, the independent agency intervention showed impacts on intrapersonal processes alone. These findings show the promise of an emerging area of research at the intersection of behavioral science, cultural psychology, and development economics for addressing complex global problems like poverty and inequality.
... They have become increasingly common financialization efforts across Uganda (see, for example, Jones & Amongin, 2023). In northern Uganda, they are popular among donors and NGOs for the way development organizations imagine that they combat the widespread aid-dependency and underdevelopment believed to be driving poverty in the area. 2 According to this logic, savings groups use social capital to increase individual membership access to loans, which NGOs and state actors believe will encourage self-sufficiency after years of relying on humanitarian aid for survival during the war (Benda, 2013;Blattman et al., 2016;Malual & Mazur, 2017). ...
Good governance policies in international development require nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to translate their programs into documents that render NGOs knowable and accountable to their donors. Drawing on multisited ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana and Uganda, we examine the signatures on these documents and the labor of NGO staff to obtain the signatures of aid recipients. We argue that signatures serve as mechanisms that NGO staff use to make their good governance practices traceable and to deter donor suspicion of funding misuse. Staff dedicate significant energy to imagining how signatures may or may not trigger donor suspicion. We posit that despite NGO staff's anxiety over getting signatures right—present, matching, and signed by the correct person—signatures can only ever defer donor suspicion. Such suspicion cannot be eliminated because it is deeply entrenched in racialized logics that position Global North donors as holding expertise and African NGOs as susceptible to corruption. Because NGO staff worry about donor suspicion rather than what aid recipients communicate with their (lack of) signatures, even fake signatures can circulate just as well as authentic ones. Tracing the social dynamics of collecting signatures sheds light on the racialized injustices inherent in Africa's development systems.
... Mah and Yoon (2020) examined using data between 1994 and 2015 the impacts of grants on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, and it was found that grants had a favorable and significant impact on economic growth. Also, according to Blattman et al. (2016), recipient countries have a good return on investment for grants, and grants in the form of loans have a modest effect on growth (Banerjee, 2015). Nevertheless, no matter the amount received in the form of ODA, it is still relevant to developing countries, particularly Sub-Saharan economies, where there are a huge infrastructural gap and budget constraint in funding vital services like healthcare, education, etc. ...
This study outlines the features of financing investment development in Sub-Saharan African countries. Using the financial determinants of GDP, a model was developed based on the method of least squares employing data covering 2004-2018. It was revealed that a positive correlation exists between economic growth and bank loans as well as official development assistance. The results of the model indicate that bank loans and remittances significantly increase economic growth. However, both foreign direct investment and official development assistance (ODA) were found to be ineffective in promoting development, and this is attributable to its investment model (resource-seeking) and the conditions under ODA financing, respectively, in the region. Bank loans were found to be the most influential in promoting sustainable growth in the region. Hence, it is instructive that the reforms are needed and incentives are to be developed to improve the level of the region's financial and banking sector development and facilitate the sustainable socioeconomic development of these economies.
... Christopher Blattman and coauthors find that the ultra-poor, war-affected women in northern Uganda have high returns to a package of (a) $150 cash, (b) five days of business-skills training, and (c) ongoing supervision. 70 Sixteen months after the program, the microenterprise ownership and income of the program participants doubled. In addition, the study finds that while the ultra-poor have little social capital, their group bonds, informal insurance, and cooperative activities can be induced for positive outcomes. ...
This essay provides an account of four interrelated ideas. First, a person who is not poor by the standard conception of poverty can still be functionally poor. Second, poverty is a relationship between the poor and their environment (community, local markets, and local institutions). Third, poverty is a determinant of agency and impedes its exercise. Fourth, promoting agency promotes development. I conclude that agency is central to understanding both poverty and development.
