month (TZS 659,548), and the median profit was 205 dollars (TZS 306,850). Participants were 43 years old on average, and employed 1.3 workers, in addition to themselves. The baseline characteristics of participants are reported in table 2.

<mark>The intervention was widely advertised and ‘branded’ with the purpose of creating a sense of ownership and pride in the entrepreneurs. The virtual incubator was named MKUBWA (an acronym for “Program to grow entrepreneurship and women entrepreneurs”, but a word that also means big, large, or great in Kiswahili). It had its own logo and issued ID cards to all women, including those in the control group; the same ID number was used for the M&E, the impact evaluation, the surveys carried out by TGT,</mark><sup>5</sup> <mark>and all communication with TGT. Moreover, in order to keep the women interested in the program and minimize attrition, during the period September 2010-March 2012 TGT organized and delivered (through NGOs operating in Dar es Salaam) four ‘complementary’ sessions to all women, including those in the control group, on HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, and family planning.</mark><sup>6</sup> <mark>To recruit participants for this intervention, a promotional campaign took place in December 2009-January 2010 that reached about 6,000 women (via radio, leaflets, and through various NGOs). About 3,400 women expressed their interest by contacting TGT. Of those, 2,200 met the selection criteria (based on a set of questions included in the application form) and were admitted to the next stage of the selection process. This next step involved a presentation session during which women were informed of the details of the program and the existence of a registration fee to be paid by those selected and were invited to re-submit a more detailed application.</mark>

# **4. Data collection and identification strategy**

From all program applicants, based on funding constraints, 850 were selected and 821 participated in a baseline survey for this experiment in June-July 2010 before starting the intervention. After the interview, the 821 entrepreneurs were randomly assigned to either the control group, the basic training group (group 2), or the enhanced training group (group 3). When conducting the randomization, we stratified on three dimensions: geographical district, sector of activity, and the type of gift received by the participants at the time of the interview.<sup>7</sup> The entrepreneurs in our sample resided in four districts in or around Dar-es-Salam, and their activities were classified into nine distinct sectors, as detailed in Table 1.

> 5 Such as the short survey at the application stage, the participants’ feedbacks after training sessions, the in-depth survey run during the first coaches’ visit, etc.

> 6 These sessions were considered to be unrelated to the intervention, but were useful to maintain the engagement with all women, as confirmed by the feedback received, with potential positive impact on the response rate in the endline survey.

> 7 Each interviewee received a gift as an incentive to participate in the interview. Two types of gifts were randomly assigned – a personal gift (a _kanga_ , the traditional fabric used as a wrap) or a business-related gift (a book to register revenues and costs). This was an additional experiment not covered here.

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