Our newest publications
Free Secondary Education and Youth Transitions in Ghana
By Nicola Branson, Joana Deladem Kwawu, and Emma Whitelaw
Removing secondary-school fees can influence not only enrolment, but also young people’s subsequent education and labour-market pathways. This paper examines differences in education enrolment level, participation in paid work, or inactivity around the introduction of Ghana’s Free Senior High School (SHS) policy. Using four waves of the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey, we compare the...
Social Protection and Women’s Economic Empowerment
A Comparative Analysis of Formal, Informal, and Mixed Mechanisms in Cameroon
By Mawafo Kamdoum Vladimir Elsy, Karl-I-Bond Menfo Zembong, and Christian Lambert Nguena
As part of a vulnerable group, women need social protection to cope with risky situations. By enabling them to earn an income, social protection contributes to women’s empowerment. However, in Cameroon, social protection is limited to a tiny fraction of the population. This article assesses the effect of social protection on women’s empowerment in...
Blossoming Towns
By Niclas Moneke, Céline Zipfel, and Menna Bishop
Towns and cities create jobs and income. Can the arrival of new jobs also create a town? We study large agro-industrial labour demand shocks in rural sub-Saharan Africa: flower farms in Kenya. Rising production costs in Europe generate a boom in Kenyan cut-flower export production, providing stable wage jobs for mostly low-skilled women. We...
Beyond access: What has Ghana’s education expansion delivered?
New evidence on opportunity, work, gender and wellbeing
By Nicola Branson, Emma Whitelaw, Kwawu Joana Deladem, and Betty Baabo Adzah
At the same time as Africa’s youth population is growing, governments across the continent are increasingly shifting policy focus to participation in secondary education to meet SDG 4. Ghana has already dramatically expanded access to secondary education, first through free, compulsory lower junior high in 1996 and, since 2017, free senior high school. This...
Childcare Subsidies as Employment Policy for the Urban Poor
Evidence from a Voucher Experiment in Addis Ababa
By Biniam Bedasso, Ermias Weldesenbet, and Kehinde Ajayi
Affordable childcare is a central constraint on women’s economic participation and household welfare in Addis Ababa, particularly among low-income households and refugees. This project evaluates a demand-side childcare subsidy through an individual-level randomised controlled trial of 1,240 low-income mothers, including host-community and refugee households. Eligible women were offered a digital voucher redeemable at a...
