Female Empowerment and Local Governance in Indonesia

Women’s interests remain underrepresented in local policymaking despite the implementation of community-based and participatory planning and budgeting programs in much of the developing world. Male dominance in neighborhood institutions may make it difficult for women’s voices to be heard even if female attendance quotas in village planning and budgeting meetings are met. This RCT evaluates the effects of an intervention in Indonesia which will train 1) neighborhood-level women’s groups and 2) neighborhood association leaders about the importance of gender inclusivity and strategies for increasing women’s participation at the neighborhood level and better representing women’s interests in hamlet and village-level policymaking. The experimental design will test whether a supply-side strategy that targets neighborhood association leaders is more effective than a demand-side strategy that targets only women’s groups