Women Agribusiness Leaders Network Impact Evaluation 2014: Baseline Data (Ethiopia)

Abstract

The Women in Agribusiness Leaders Network (WALN) uses a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to differentially assess the impact of the first stage traditional training program and a second stage mentorship which is carried out by the trainees in the first stage training. Half the mentors and mentees eligible to participate in WALN were randomly assigned to receive the business training and mentoring interventions, respectively. The other halves, called the control groups, did not receive the interventions. Comparing the treated groups to the control groups allows us to calculate the impact of the program on the outcomes measured through data collection. ACDI/VOCA, the program implementer, created a pool of eligible applicants based on a pre-determined set of selection criteria that were applied to information that applicants provided in their application forms. Potential mentees were also nominated at the same time that applicants (later to become mentors) were applying to the program. The pool of eligible applicants became the sample for the baseline survey, the data for which has been added in this package. Treatment was randomly assigned to eligible applicants who also responded to the baseline survey. The program operated in AGP target woredas of five regions of Ethiopia: Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Addis Ababa and SNNPR. The impact evaluation covers the business training and mentoring activities across all regions. Mentor randomization was stratified by region and firm-size tercile. Mentees of treated mentors were randomly assigned to receive mentoring, stratified by each mentor’s pool of eligible mentees. Mentees nominated by control mentors were also included in the impact evaluation but were not assigned a mentoring treatment status.