In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), approximately twenty percent of women who bear children experience depression during pregnancy or in the year after their child’s birthday, called perinatal depression, but they are rarely diagnosed or treated. Researchers evaluated the impact of a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program on the mental health, financial empowerment, and parenting decisions of 903 women with perinatal depression in Pakistan. They found that the CBT program reduced postpartum depression. The program also had long-term outcomes: seven years later, a different team of researchers found a reduction in depression rates, an improvement in financial empowerment, and an increase in time- and money-related parental investments, particularly for mothers of girls.

Partnering with Innovations for Poverty Action, Soro Yiriwaso, and UNRIA, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of scaling the bundled VIF model from the previous study on the purchase and use of inputs by small-scale farmers as well as the profitability of agro-dealers.