Posted on Nov 09, 2022 at 02:30
Metaketa
is a project of field experiments taking place in five countries and is
organized by Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP). This particular study
focuses on women's collective efficacy and political engagement in Malawi.
During the experiment randomized trainings will be conducted for women's
village savings and loan associations, with those in the treatment group
attending facilitated sessions aimed at fostering a sense of gender-based
collective efficacy. At the individual level, new members will be randomly incentivized
to join existing VSLAs. The goal of the study is to determine whether
participating in a women's VSLA alone increases political engagement among
women, and whether participating in training designed to promote collective
efficacy offers an additional benefit.
The study is being carried out in two
districts of Malawi, Mzimba and Zomba, where 100 existing VSLAs were randomly
selected in each district. These VSLAs are comprised of 14 existing members who
were randomly selected, and 6 new members who were nominated to join the VSLAs,
with 3 of them being given seeds. A baseline survey was conducted by IPOR with
200 Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), which were randomly selected
during the identification process in Mzimba and Zomba. Additionally, an elite
survey was conducted on all Village Development Committee (VDC) chairpersons
where the VSLAs are allocated.
The
intervention aspect consists of four sessions, with the first session being an
informative session on local government structure and development processes
targeting both control and treatment groups. Sessions two through four have
been designed to promote a sense of
gender-based collective efficacy and will only be administered to 100 treatment
groups. After attaining the training sessions,
VSLAs are expected to compete in proposal writing and 10 VSLAs will have a
chance to win 1 Million Kwacha each as community grant for their area. For
far, IPOR has conducted baseline and session one intervention and currently
anticipating the commencement of session two.