Sahel Women Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Initiative Impact Evaluation - Baseline Survey, 2018

The SWEDD is a regional project aiming to accelerate the demographic transition by addressing both supply- and demand-side constraints to family planning and reproductive and sexual health. To achieve its objective, the project targets adolescent girls and young women mainly between the ages of 8 and 24, who are vulnerable to early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and early school drop-out. The project targeted 9 countries of the Sahel and Western Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) and is expanding in other African countries. The SWEDD is structured into three main components: component 1 seeks to generate demand for reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child health and nutrition products and services; component 2 seeks to improve supply of these products and qualified personnel; and component 3 seeks to strengthen national capacity and policy dialogue.

The World Bank Africa Gender Innovation Lab and its partners are conducting rigorous impact evaluations of key interventions under component 1 to assess their effects on child marriage, fertility, and adolescent girls and young women’s empowerment. The interventions were a set of activities targeting adolescent girls and their communities, designed in collaboration with the government of Mauritania. These were (i) safe spaces to empower girls through the provision of life skills and SRH education; (ii) Cash transfer to cover girls’ expenses (transportation cost, food…); (iii) support to income-generating activities (IGA) with the provision of grants and entrepreneurship training and finally (iv) community sensitization by religious and village leaders. The latter two have the objective to change restrictive social norms and create an enabling environment for girls’ empowerment.

These data represent the first round of data collection (baseline) for the impact evaluation. The sample comprises 5,324 households and girls living in the regions of Assaba, Guidimagha, Hodh Charghy et Hodh Gharby.

The information gathered from the survey may aid decision makers in the formulation of economic and social policies to:

• reduce fertility and child marriage by improving access to contraceptive methods and improving reproductive health knowledge.
• foster women’s empowerment through enhancing their access to economic activities.

The survey can be an important source of information for planners to know how to improve the quality of people's living standards, in particular women’s living conditions. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Children and Families and the Ministry of National Education of Mauritania would benefit from the data of this survey, together with other public organizations working on girls and women empowerment and reproductive health. District Authorities, Research Institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations and the general public will also benefit from the survey data.