January 2020 CAN PUBLIC WORKS ENHANCE WELFARE IN FRAGILE ECONOMIES? GENDER INNOVATION LAB The Londö Program in the Central African Republic The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) Authors: Arthur Alik-Lagrange, Niklas Buehren, Markus Goldstein, Johannes Hoogeveen conducts impact evaluations of development interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa, seeking KEY FINDINGS to generate evidence on • We evaluated the Londö public works program, which provided how to close gender gaps in temporary employment and a bicycle to beneficiaries selected through earnings, productivity, assets, public lotteries in the Central African Republic. The evaluation focused on and agency. The GIL team is the impacts of the program on households’ welfare between 2 and 21 months currently working on over 60 impact evaluations in more after participation. than 20 countries with the aim • We find that the program enhances the productivity of participants in a lasting of building an evidence base way, with an approximate 10 percent increase in monthly earnings and a small with lessons for the region. impact on the number of days worked, well after they finished participating in The impact objective of GIL is the program. This improvement takes place through different channels for men, increasing take-up of effective who intensify agricultural production and diversify in small manufacture activities, policies by governments, and women, who diversify into small trade activities. development organizations, and the private sector • Londö increases the beneficiary households’ durable goods, such as to address the underlying furniture and cellphones, and productive assets, such as agricultural causes of gender inequality in tools and livestock – thereby building household wealth. It also significantly Africa, particularly in terms of improved their ability to cope with shocks. women’s economic and social • However, women coming from the poorest households experience much empowerment. The Lab aims to do this by producing and lower impacts on productivity and assets than men and women from delivering a new body of less poor households, which indicates the need for specific provisions for evidence and developing a widows and ultra-poor women in this type of intervention. compelling narrative, geared • The provision of bicycles increases mobility for male beneficiaries, but towards policymakers, on what works and what does not for women, likely due to gender norms, risks and bike-riding skills, and not work in promoting gender other related constraints affecting women specifically. equality. http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-gender-innovation-lab THE LONDÖ PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAM With about a quarter of its population displaced, over half in need of assistance, and a high level of casualties and destruction, the Central African Republic (CAR) is currently home to a severe humanitarian crisis. Uneven geographic distribution of public investment, chronic poverty, high unemployment and weak institutions are among the structural problems that have contributed to the proliferation of non-state armed groups, which currently One of the features that separates Londö from other control large portions of the country and its economy. As public works programs is that beneficiaries are selected a result, CAR ranked 188 out of 189 in the United Nations through lotteries open to individuals aged 18 or above. Development Programme’s Human Development Index in The public lotteries are not only fairly held but also 2019. transparent to all participants in order to prevent any distrust or suspicion. In each sous-prefecture, lotteries The Londö public works program is a multiphase project which is still ongoing. It provides temporary employment took place during which 250 beneficiaries were selected. to 35,500 vulnerable households through participation Work teams of 25 workers were subsequently formed in a workfare scheme. Selected through large public based on lottery rankings. While no gender quotas were lotteries, beneficiaries are offered the opportunity to work imposed by the program, the project’s communication for 40 days under the program at a subsistence wage rate strategy was designed to encourage women to apply, (CFA 1,500 per day - approximately 3 USD) and receive a and as of June 2019, 34 percent of all Londö beneficiaries bicycle that they can keep after successful completion of were women. the program. The provision of a bike aims to ensure means of transportation to the worksites. A core objective of the The program has been rolled out since 2016 in various intervention is to provide the most vulnerable with the means regions of the country, including areas not controlled by to escape extreme poverty and rebuild social cohesion in the government and where the conflict that had started in the aftermath of the conflict. 2013 was still ongoing. SOUS-PREFECTURES SURVEYED AND LOCATIONS OF VIOLENT CONFLICT WHAT WE DID » Earnings increase as a result of the program, Public works programs are often used in fragile contexts with both male and female lottery winners such as the CAR to offer safety nets to poor and vulnerable reporting higher monthly earnings of roughly 10 households. In Sub-Saharan Africa, public works programs percent. This improvement seems to stem from are the second-most common social protection instrument. the diversification of income generating activities. However, existing rigorous evidence on their effectiveness As a result, both male and female lottery winners increase their ownership of durable goods. remains limited, and their gendered impacts have scarcely Beneficiaries appear to have primarily bought basic been examined. For this study, the Gender Innovation Lab household equipment such as furniture, mattresses surveyed over 6,000 respondents from 24 lotteries in 12 or irons. Male lottery winners also acquired cell sous-prefectures, including in areas recently affected by phones, which can function as an indirect or direct armed conflicts. As the participants in the program were enabler for economic activities. randomly selected through the lottery process, we are able to compare respondents who were selected with those who were not, which allows us to estimate rigorous program impacts. +4,000 +2,600 WHAT WE FOUND FRANCS CFA/MONTH FRANCS CFA/MONTH • We find no differences in basic socio-economic CURRENT CURRENT background characteristics between those EARNINGS EARNINGS randomly selected and those not selected Between 2 and 21 months after participating in Londö, men through the public lotteries in our survey sample, earn on average an additional ~4,000 Francs CFA/month and which provides evidence that lotteries are an women on average an additional ~2,600 Francs CFA/month, which represents an increase in earnings of roughly 10%. effective and fair way to give the same chance to participate to all. Among the lottery winners, the vast majority eventually participate in the program, » We find an increase in ownership of and 81 percent of the participants report that they productive assets, but only for male have not missed a single day of the public works. beneficiaries – except for livestock which increases for both men and women. This is largely • Participation in the public works increases driven by the acquisition of agricultural assets such beneficiaries’ productivity well beyond the time as oxen, hoes, machetes and plots for cultivation. span of the program, with increases in earnings This gendered impact is consistent with the result and number of days worked. This takes place on earnings: as male beneficiaries intensify their through different channels for men and women. investments in agriculture, they increase their Female beneficiaries tend to engage in a secondary returns on this activity. However, we see that both activity as a result of the program, especially men and women increase their livestock holdings, business and trade activities. On the other hand, which can represent both an investment, e.g. in male beneficiaries both intensify their primary activity draft animals or in livestock held for the production (typically agricultural production), as well as diversify of animal products, as well as a form of saving. into a secondary activity, especially small manufacture » However, female participants from poorer and industrial activities. households do not benefit from increases in » Both men and women beneficiaries work monthly earnings and assets. Such households about a half day longer per month as a result are often female headed, and have lower of the program. However, considering the levels of human capital. This shows the need high number of days worked by respondents for supplemental interventions to adequately (more than 5 days/week), this increase remains address the constraints faced by such vulnerable relatively small. households. • The increase in asset ownership as a result of the program seems to lead to an improvement of the beneficiaries’ household resilience, with increases in savings and a smaller likelihood of having contracted debt for schooling, health services or food, and increases in non-food expenditures (mostly for men). However, respondents do not report improvements in food security as a result of the program. • Men’s mobility is enhanced by the program, but women’s mobility is not. This can be explained by deeply entrenched gender norms, the risks for women to use a bike in a fragile context, and by the fact that fewer women know how to ride a bike in this context. The availability of the bikes distributed by Londö appears to change the way in which men commute to their workplace, as well as the distances traveled and number of locations visited for their work. POLICY IMPLICATIONS • These results suggest that public works interventions can have lasting productive impacts in fragile economies. This is a key point to consider when evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of such programs. In the case of Londö, a direct cost benefit analysis shows that based on the estimated increases in monthly earnings for beneficiaries, the program would break even at the beneficiary level at around 4 years for men and 6 years for women. • Our results also show the importance of taking into account the gendered impacts of social protection programs. We find significant differences in the program’s impact depending on the beneficiaries’ gender and position along the wealth distribution, both on welfare and on mobility. This calls for tailored policy designs in fragile contexts, where women from ultra-poor households tend to be particularly vulnerable. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Markus Goldstein mgoldstein@worldbank.org Fannie Delavelle fdelavelle@worldbank.org Photo credit: Stephan Gladieu / World Bank, Judicaël Montinda 1818 H St NW Washington, DC 20433 USA This work has been funded in part by the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), which is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment through experimentation and www.worldbank.org/africa/gil knowledge creation to help governments and the private sector focus policy and programs on scalable solutions with sustainable outcomes. The UFGE is supported with generous contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.