The Economic Lives of Young Women in the Time of Ebola
The authors 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 find support, receive information on health or reproductive issues and vocational training. Unexpectedly, the post-baseline period coincided with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Our analysis documents 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 significantly 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 effects 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-enroll 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.
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018-12
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| Subjects: | EMPOWERMENT, FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION, YOUNG WOMEN, SKILLS DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN CAPITAL ACCUMULATION, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, AGE OF MARRIAGE, LABOR MARKET, ADOLESCENT FERTILITY RATE, GENDER INNOVATION LAB, AFRICA GENDER POLICY, EBOLA, INFECTIOUS DISEASE, DISEASE CONTROL, TRANSACTIONAL SEX, WOMEN AND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT, WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/149651548746681379/The-Economic-Lives-of-Young-Women-in-the-Time-of-Ebola-Lessons-from-an-Empowerment-Program https://hdl.handle.net/10986/31219 |
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