Supporting Women’s Livelihoods at Scale: Evidence from a Nationwide Multi-Faceted Program
Multifaceted programs have proven effective for poverty alleviation, but the “minimum viable product” to achieve impacts is not well studied. Partnering with the Zambian government, we streamline and unbundle such a program—one arm received financial capital, one human capital, one both, and a fourth both plus “consumption stabilizing” transfers. We find large, sustained effects from the streamlined package comparable to best practice graduation programs. Financial capital is similarly effective initially but less persistent; human capital has almost no impact; and stabilizing transfers do not contribute positively. These results suggest a promising middle ground between unconditional cash and complex multifaceted models.
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Copy CitationIoana Botea, Andrew Brudevold-Newman, Markus Goldstein, Corinne Low, and Gareth Roberts, "Supporting Women’s Livelihoods at Scale: Evidence from a Nationwide Multi-Faceted Program," NBER Working Paper 31625 (2023), https://doi.org/10.3386/w31625.Download Citation
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