Underprivileged students in the Dominican Republic face a series of barriers to access post-secondary education. Despite existing scholarship programs, application rates for financial aid offered by the government are extremely low, and poor and rural students are much less likely to apply for and receive financial aid. Researchers partnered with the Ministry of Higher Education to evaluate the role of barriers in higher education decisions and the types of aid that can encourage vulnerable groups to pursue a degree.

Researchers are evaluating the impact of providing additional information and resources to those who have completed skills training programs on employment outcomes.

In partnership with the Association of Volunteers in International Service, researchers evaluated the impact of the Women’s Income Generating Support (WINGS) program, an initiative which provided low-income Ugandan individuals, mainly women, with financial grants, business skills training, and ongoing supervision on individuals’ economic outcomes. The WINGS program improved individuals’ earnings and access to nonfarm business opportunities in postwar Uganda.

Researchers partnered with the Government of Sierra Leone to evaluate the impact of community monitoring and nonfinancial awards programs on health care utilization and health outcomes. Both programs improved clinic utilization, patient satisfaction, and symptom reporting during the 2014 Ebola crisis. Further, community monitoring improved child health and reduced mortality among Ebola patients.

Researchers evaluated the impact of its science and technology teacher training program on the educational interests and academic achievement of affected students. Student outcomes improved in the short-run during the year the teacher received the training and worsened in the year after teachers received the training.

In Niger, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of providing training and conditional or unconditional cash transfers on farmers’ adoption and use of an environmental technology, their resulting land use, agricultural production and profitability, and labor allocation. Providing farmers with training led to a substantially higher probability of adopting the technology, while the conditional or unconditional cash transfers had no additional effect on farmers’ decision to adopt.

Researchers introduced a soft skills component into a vocational training program in the Dominican Republic to assess the interaction between job and soft skills training on labor market outcomes and expectations. Women experienced increased employment rates and wages in the short term, which dissipated over time; men, on the other hand, experienced negative or no impacts on employment rates and wages in the short term, and no effects in the long term.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of an academic tutoring and career counseling program designed to reduce educational inequalities between native-born and immigrant children. Can tutoring and career counseling help improve the educational outcomes of high-ability immigrant students? Results showed that offering tutoring and career counseling closed the educational gap between native-born and immigrant boys in Italy.

Researchers studied the effects of a university policy in South Africa to promote racial integration, by randomly allocating incoming students to roommates of a different race. The policy reduced negative racial stereotypes among white students, improved attitudes and behaviors towards members of other races, and improved academic performance among black students.

Can television shows change how people think and act? In Nigeria, researchers evaluated the impact of MTV Shuga, a drama featuring educational storylines about HIV/AIDS on viewers’ sexual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. The study shows that exposure to MTV Shuga improved viewers’ knowledge and attitudes, increased HIV testing, reduced risky sex, and among women, led to fewer sexually transmitted infections.

Researchers re-examined data from previous studies in Ghana, India, and Sri Lanka to better understand the impact of credit and cash grant variations on micro-enterprise profits. Their results suggest that the gender gap in micro-enterprise performance was not due to ability, but rather to women’s financial resources often being redirected to their husbands’ businesses.

In Malawi, researchers offered micro-entrepreneurs either single or multiple lockboxes to evaluate the impact of the boxes on savings and other business and financial outcomes. Individuals offered multiple lockboxes saved more than those offered a single lockbox, suggesting that providing lockboxes may be a cost-effective way to promote savings.