NCT06631768

Gendered Misallocation of Labor: Evidence From Malawian Farmers

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 989 (actual)
• Sponsor: Nicholas Rahim · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The investigators will conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial across districts in Malawi to evaluate the effect of providing free casual labor to pregnant farmers and female farmers on agricultural output, maternal and child health outcomes, child development, and social networks.

Detailed description

This will be a cluster randomized control trial (RCT), where 75 of the districts in which One Acre Fund (1AF) currently operates within in Malawi will be randomly selected for inclusion in this study. Of these 75 districts, 38 will be randomly selected to implement the intervention. The intervention constitutes a voucher offered to all female famers who are currently enrolled in the 1AF program who are pregnant and/or have a child ages 1 years and below that entitles the recipient to a set number of days of labor from casual workers employed by local 1AF offices. The remaining 37 districts will serve as the control group. Data will be collected at baseline during the planting season and endline at the conclusion of the harvest season. Data collected will pertain to agricultural output, individual and household demographics, obstetric history and outcomes, mental health, maternal health, child health and development, and social networks.

Conditions

• Maternal and Child Health Outcomes

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Casual labor subsidy	Eligible participants will be offered a voucher that can be redeemed for a set number of days of agricultural labor from casual laborers hired by local One Acre Fund offices. Casual laborers receive standard training in line with the trainings currently offered by the organization to participating farmers.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-08-16
• Primary completion: 2025-09-07
• Completion: 2025-09-07
• First posted: 2024-10-08
• Last updated: 2025-09-16

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Malawi