Manisha Shah, UCLA
Abstract: Adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa have some of the highest rates of unplanned pregnancy and intimate partner violence across the globe. We implement a randomized controlled trial offering females free access to contraceptives, behavior change programming to male partners through soccer, and a goal-setting activity around staying healthy in order to improve female adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes in Tanzania. We find that offering male partners a soccer intervention, which educates and inspires young men to make better SRH choices, reduces female reports of intimate partner violence (IPV). In addition, we find that female adolescents who participate in the goal-setting activity also report decreases in intimate partner violence. Impacts are larger among females who were already sexually active at baseline. Supply side factors such as access to free contraceptives have no significant impact on adolescent SRH outcomes.
Bio: Manisha Shah is Professor of Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Shah also serves as Director of the Global Lab for Research in Action. Shah is also a Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Faculty Affiliate at UC Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action, The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and The Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor.
A recording of Dr. Shah’s presentation is available here.
