Business Training for Women in Ahmedabad, India

Original source

Evaluation summary

Permission for School’s use is unestablished.

Used in these cards

Aspirational Video Modeling

"The aspirations portion of the training included a short video about SEWA clients who used good financial practices to increase their income and raise themselves out of poverty."

Caste-Specific Restriction Threshold Effect

"Treatment effects were concentrated among women constrained by more severe social restrictions. Upper-caste women who received training were more likely to take a loan within four months and to expand sales... However, the training did not seem to help Muslim women, who may have been so highly restricted that they could not start businesses at all, or scheduled-caste women, who faced fewer restrictions on social interactions."

Goal-Oriented Financial Literacy Training

"At the end of the first day of training, women were asked to write down their six-month financial goal, and during the second day, they worked in groups to identify steps to meet that goal."

Housewife-to-Entrepreneur Occupational Shift

"Four months later, the training increased hours worked for all women, but only those trained with a friend reported a significant increase in sales. Women trained with a friend were also 4 percentage points (40 percent) less likely to report their occupation as housewife."

Peer-Accompanied Business Training

"Women trained with a friend doubled their demand for loans and expanded their business activity, resulting in higher household income."

"According to this index, Muslim women faced the most severe restrictions, followed by upper-caste women. Scheduled-caste women faced the least severe restrictions."

Programme details

J-PAL: Business Training for Women in Ahmedabad, India

Read the source ↗

Details of the intervention: invitation groups, two-day course, day-one goal and day-two group planning. Researchers listed: Erica Field, Seema Jayachandran, Rohini Pande and Natalia Rigol.

School’s suggested learning loop

PDSA means Plan–Do–Study–Act. Here the stages use plain labels: Plan, Try, Learn and Adjust.

School proposes the PDSA loop as a delivery-learning aid; it is not the tested protocol described in the cited source. Before trying a change, agree what to test, the team's prediction and what to record. Afterwards, keep, change or stop the test; repeat only when useful. A small delivery test does not establish cause and effect.

Method card limits

Keep companionship optional. School's proposed feedback loop was not tested as part of this summary. Attendance or borrowing alone does not establish a successful business outcome.