Panel Paper: Improving Girls' Education: Experimental Evaluation of Niger's Imagine Program

Saturday, November 10, 2012 : 3:50 PM
Carroll (Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel)

*Names in bold indicate Presenter

Dan Levy, Harvard University


This report evaluates a primary school construction program in Niger aimed at increasing girls’ enrollment and completion rates in areas with low female school participation. From a sample of 204 eligible villages, sixty-five chosen at random received an IMAGINE school facility.  One-year after school construction completion, girls in treated villages were 8 percentage-points more likely to enroll and 5.4 percentage-points more like to attend school. The program had no impact on girls’ math scores, though there is suggestive evidence it may have had a positive impact on girls’ French test scores.