Center for Effective Global Action

Intra-household decision-making dynamics under unequal bargaining power are commonly understood to contribute to both under-utilization of contraception and under-investment in women and children’s human capital. We focus on married adolescents in northern Nigeria, a group particularly vulnerable to such dynamics. We evaluate a life skills intervention, which also focuses on health services and reproductive health, via a cluster-randomized control trial among 1,200 married girls aged 14 to 19. We find that the intervention significantly increases contraceptive use, decreases pregnancy rates, and, according to surveys of girls and health workers, increases access to health services for women and their children. We also find large increases in involvement in household decision-making and decreases in intimate partner violence. The results suggest that life skills and negotiation capacity can alter intrahousehold decision-making, even in the absence of material changes in circumstances. JEL Codes: J12, J13, J16, I12, O15