In January 2022, the US suspended Ethiopia’s eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, ending Ethiopia’s preferential trade access to the US market, and leading to a major increase in tariffs, the loss of key buyers, and, at some compan...
A four-year study of smallholder farmers in Malawi finds that combining cash transfers with intensive agricultural extension produces larger and more durable gains in crop production and household consumption than either intervention alone.
A study of Indonesia's Kartu Prakerja programme finds that on-demand cash and training assistance can significantly boost self-employment and income among those who genuinely receive it. However, the programme's flexible online design enabled third-p...
An experiment in Nairobi's informal settlements found that parents usually made child-nutrition decisions cooperatively, and that fathers were at least as willing as mothers to allocate resources to their children's meals – challenging the case for u...
A West African TV series in Senegal led to short- and medium-term gains in knowledge and attitudes around violence against women and sexual and reproductive health, though impacts on behaviours were limited, and a podcast version extending content du...
Sharing research evidence with senior rather than junior staff significantly raises the chance it spreads through an organisation, but shifting peer beliefs about the evidence has no clear effect.
Policies based on providing information rely on people engaging with it. But how can we design effective information campaigns when people are tempted to ignore them? Evidence from India shows that when people perceive that they have control over out...
In rural India, subsidising family planning services gets women to the clinic, but pairing subsidies with a ‘Bring-a-Friend’ voucher changes who accompanies them, reduces stigma, and delivers meaningful gains in contraceptive use.
