Threshold BRIGHT I 2007-2008 (Burkina Faso)

Abstract

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) funded a two-year Threshold Country Program (TCP) to increase girls' educational attainment in Burkina Faso through the construction of schools and complementary interventions. The program, locally known as BRIGHT, was implemented in 132 rural villages throughout the 10 provinces of Burkina Faso in which girls' enrollment rates were lowest. The BRIGHT program consisted of constructing primary schools with three classrooms and implementing a set of interventions that included inputs such as separate latrines for boys and girls; canteens; take-home rations and textbooks; and ?soft? components, such as a mobilization campaign, literacy training, and capacity building among local partners. The program was implemented during 2005 to 2008.

Mathematica Policy Research was contracted to conduct a rigorous impact evaluation of the program. The evaluation assessed whether and the extent to which the program affected the school enrollment and performance of children in the 132 villages where BRIGHT was implemented. 2 As part of the Burkina Faso Girls' Education Impact Evaluation, Mathematica oversaw data collection from rural households and schools in that country.

Overview of the Evaluation

The impact evaluation sought to answer three key questions:

(1) What was the impact of the program on school enrollment?

(2) What was the impact of the program on test scores?

(3) Were the impacts different for girls than for boys?

Summary of Results

In general, the main conclusions are that BRIGHT had about a 20 percentage point positive impact on girls’ primary school enrollment, and had positive impacts on Math and French test scores for both girls and boys. The evaluator was unable to separately estimate the impact of each component of the intervention (schools, textbooks, etc.)