training for adults, or young men, we can postulate a number of circumstances in which young women might benefit from skills trainings more than from cash transfers: (i) in settings where young women have limited agency over how to use cash; (ii) in settings where wage jobs are available, and certification is more likely to improve chances of obtaining these jobs relative to cash; (iii) in settings where high-quality training, both foundational and technical, is not readily available even for those who are willing to pay, such as conflict-affected settings; or (iv) where secondary outcomes of training programs are critical, such as self-esteem or knowledge of sexual and reproductive health, but vocational training is the only way to get families to allow girls to participate. For these reasons, a key research priority is to test cash versus skills training (as well as cash plus skills) for young women in a variety of settings to determine the conditions under which one is likely to perform better than the other. GIL researchers will soon evaluate such a test among youth in Kenya and Benin.

# **4.2 Capital**

**_How do young women access capital to start businesses?_** More research is needed to first document the constraints precluding young women’s access to capital to start a business, as much of the existing research focuses on adult women, and often on those who already own enterprises. With a better understanding of how young women start businesses (through savings versus borrowing) and how their preferences and constraints regarding the use of money differ from those of young men and/or adult women, practitioners and researchers will be better positioned to design and test girl-friendly financial services and products to alleviate those constraints.<sup>29</sup> As young women’s limited collateral can limit her access to credit, GIL is studying the use of psychometric tests as an alternative to collateral. Preliminary results of the pilot suggest high repayment rates and returns.

We also need to understand whether young women are more or less affected by challenges that impact adult women such as risk of expropriation from family members or increased risk of sexual harassment from obtaining control over economic assets. A study by GIL in Côte d’Ivoire is currently examining the relationship between risk of expropriation and employment decisions and earnings, by evaluating a program offering forced saving mechanisms to agro-processing employees.

# **4.3 Time, family formation and care responsibilities**

**_How, when, and for which subgroups does employment affect young women’s fertility?_** Existing evidence is mixed with regard to the impacts of increased labor force participation on young women’s fertility preferences, choices, and behaviors. More traditional TVET-style programs, such as the EPAG program in Liberia, have not documented significant impacts on fertility outcomes, while club-based approaches, such as the ELA program in Uganda, have dramatically lowered fertility and increased contraceptive use.<sup>30</sup> One important question should examine whether there is an optimal age threshold when job training programs have an effect on sexual behavior. For example, while the EPAG program

> 29 GIL currently has studies underway in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria examining the impact of various financial products (e.g. inkind versus cash transfers and savings products) on adult women’s agricultural profits and the redistribution pressure faced by women.

> 30 See Section 3.6 for description of ELA and EPAG programs.

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