What are the impacts of vocational education on labor markets, migration patterns, and health and fertility outcomes in Kenya?

An intensive counseling program for job seekers at risk of long-term unemployment in France helped them find work sooner than the standard low-intensity counseling program, and the counseling was more effective when provided by a public agency than by private contractors.

Researchers examined whether intra-household risk-sharing mechanisms such as financial transfers between spouses operate efficiently in Western and Nyanza Provinces of Kenya and found that intra-household insurance to protect against economic shocks was inefficient among daily income earners.

Researchers sought to test whether intensive job counseling with a private provider is an effective means of increasing employment rates, even for a population with such a low attachment to the labor market. Results suggested that job-counseling increased employment rates among counseled individuals, and somewhat reduced their dependence on welfare. However, take-up of the service was low, and the cost of the program exceeded the savings generated from lower welfare payments.

In Western Kenya, researchers evaluated the impact of two preventive approaches—community-based testing and free condom provision—on behavioral and biological outcomes. Neither community-based testing, free condoms, nor these interventions offered together reduced the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections or risky sexual behaviors among youth.

In India, researchers partnered with Bandhan Konnagar to evaluate the impact of a multi-faceted livelihoods program known as the Graduation approach, which aims to encourage occupational change among people living in extreme poverty. The Graduation approach had large and positive effects on economic well-being and health over the long term, even ten years after the productive asset transfer.

In Indonesia, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation with seaweed farmers to observe both the impact of participating in a program that determined optimal seaweed production methods and receiving summarized results of the program on the adoption of optimal farming inputs. They find that simply participating and observing outcomes in the program did not change key input choices in the production of seaweed. Instead, farmers changed their practices only after they were presented with summaries on results from the program.

Career counseling for young, college-educated job seekers in France helped them find work sooner, but this improvement came at the expense of jobs for those who did not receive counseling, and it did not translate into a long-term increase in employment rates.

Researchers examined the impact of doubling teacher salary on student and teacher performance in Indonesia. This intervention had some positive effects on teachers: they reported higher levels of satisfaction with their jobs and less financial stress and were less likely to have a second job. However, doubling teacher salary had no effect on teacher knowledge, student test scores, or self-reported teacher attendance.

Researchers in Indonesia compared the effectiveness of two methods of identifying the low-income households: a community method where villagers ranked households according to perceived wealth, and a proxy-means test which relied on measures of consumption and assets. The community methods of selecting who qualified for the cash transfer program were less accurate than proxy-means tests overall, but they greatly improved local satisfaction and better matched the low-income individual's own concept of poverty.

Researchers conducted two randomized evaluations in the health sector in Uganda to evaluate whether community monitoring could impact public health worker performance and subsequent health utilization and outcomes. They found community monitoring, when combined with information on health provider performance and user’s entitlements, led to better quality and more frequently utilized health services, and ultimately improved health outcomes. However, community monitoring alone had little impact.