income generation with age, with 17 being a critical cross over point: up until that age more girls are enrolled in education full time than are only working, and the situation reverses thereafter.<sup>28</sup> Given these age profiles across activity, we split our analysis between girls aged 12-17 at baseline, and those aged 18-25. The Ebola outbreak also impacts these groups through different channels: younger girls are more impacted by school closures, older girls are more impacted by the loss of work opportunities, with both groups being impacted by the collapse of health infrastructure. Moreover, in terms of ELA, the older cohort are more subject to the provision of vocational skills and microfinance due to the program’s eligibility criteria. Third, this split broadly aligns with the separation by age in secret societies in rural Sierra Leone: in turn this might limit information flows or spillovers between younger and older age cohorts.

The left side axis in Figure 4B shows how relationships and sexual activity vary with age. By age 17, the majority are in relationships and sexually active, with more being sexually active than in relationships at each age. The right side axis shows that among older girls, over 10% at each age experience unwanted sex, and there is a weak gradient in age of engaging in transactional sex. These outcomes might all be impacted by the crisis, as economic opportunities collapse, girls have alternative time uses in the presence of ELA, this placing upward pressure on the price of transactional sex.

# **4.4 Participation**

Given the channels through which ELA clubs might mitigate the impacts of the crisis, we expect there to be high demand for ELA clubs. Table 3 describes membership and participation in ELA clubs. Panel A shows that on average, 31% of eligibles in treated villages are registered ELA club members. Panel B then reports statistics from the endline survey. There is widespread knowledge of ELA clubs: 89% of girls in treated villages have heard of them, as have 27% of girls in control villages. Participation rates are more than double membership rates: 71% of girls in treated villages have _ever_ participated in an ELA club meeting or activity. This is only 4% of girls in control villages, so there are very limited spillovers in participation to control locations. In short, there is high demand among young women for access to ELA clubs.

Conditional on ever participating: (i) 82% of young women have participated in life skills (77%

> 28The key exam school stages are as follows. The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), taken at age 15, is required for admission into senior secondary school. The West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), taken at age 18, is required for university/college admissions. The reported magnitude of time allocations across the age distribution are plausible: the youngest girls report spending around 60 hrs/wk on all forms of learning except ELA (formal schooling, other vocational training, church-based schools). Work hours rise to just over 35 hrs/wk for older women in our sample. At each age, respondents report on average spending at least 40 hrs/wk engaged in household chores.

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