Harold Alderman, Dan Gilligan, Melissa Hidrobo, Jessica Leight, Michael Mulford, Heleene Tambet REGIONAL WORKSHOP SPIR II Learning Event Co-organized by IFPRI, USAID, CARE, ORDA, and World Vision MAY 16, 2023 - 9:00AM TO MAY 17, 2023 - 5:00PM EAT

1. SPIR II RFSA | 2023 Learning Event
Men can cook: Effectiveness of a light-
touch men’s engagement intervention to
change attitudes and behaviors in rural
Ethiopia
Harold Alderman, Dan Gilligan, Melissa Hidrobo, Jessica Leight,
Michael Mulford, Heleene Tambet

2. Motivation
“Women are bringing home the bacon and frying it up too.” NPR
April 2023
• Growing improvements in gender equity, with increased girl’s school
enrollment and women’s labor force participation, but an area where
gender inequality broadly persists is in the home.
• Even when husband and wife work outside the home, women still perform
a larger share of domestic tasks.
• Social norms about gender roles play a big role in explaining these
imbalances
• Only recently has the importance of addressing gender norms been
acknowledged in poverty alleviation programs.

3. This study
• We investigate the impact on men’s gender equitable attitudes and
behaviors of a graduation model program that seeks to simultaneously
“push” households out of poverty and improve gender equitable norms.
• Strengthening PSNP Institutions and Resilience (SPIR), provided multi-
sectoral livelihoods and nutrition support to food insecure households who
were clients of the Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), with
gender mainstreamed throughout.
• Take advantage of the randomized control trial design and three rounds of
data to identify the impact of SPIR and the male engagement component
on men’s involvement in domestic chores and their gender equitable
attitudes.

4. SPIR Livelihood (L) and Nutrition (N) Interventions
• USAID-funded program supporting the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net
Program (PSNP) from 2016-2021, led by World Vision.
• SPIR I served a total of around 500,000 beneficiaries across two regions of Ethiopia
Intervention Components
L • Village Economic and Social Associations (VESAs)
• Training on Financial literacy, value chains, home gardening, gender
L* • L activities, plus
• Poultry or cash livelihood transfers targeted to the poor
N • Nutrition behavior change communication (BCC)
• Water & Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) activities
N* • N activities, plus
• Timed and Targeted Counseling (TTC) and Community-based Participatory Nutrition Promotion
(CPNP)
• Male engagement groups (after midline)
• Interpersonal Therapy in Groups (IPT-G) for depression (after midline)

5. VESA Gender Dialogue
• 6 sessions lasting about an hour on
1) workloads of men and women (“Daily clock),
2) cooperation and sharing household work;
3) household decision making;
4) improved listening, communication and understanding skills;
5) engaging men in childcare work; and
6) identifying restrictive social norms related to women’s mobility.
• Sessions meet approximately every two weeks and were facilitated by
community facilitators
• Groups of about 20-25 men and women

6. Male engagement groups
• 8 sessions lasting about 2 hours each on
• Gender roles
• Power and early marriage
• Father’s legacy
• Caregiving
• Division of caregiving
• Understanding nutrition
• Approximately 16 men in each group which included both PSNP and
non-PSNP households in an effort to achieve a community-level
‘tipping point’ in shifting attitudes and norms.
• Met twice per month facilitated by trained male facilitators and
advocators

7. Experimental design
• 192 kebeles, stratified by districts (woredas), were randomized to one of the following
four intervention arms with different combinations of livelihood and nutrition activities
Intervention
arms
PSNP L
(VESA+
training on
gender)
N
(nutrition
BCC+
WASH)
L*
(L+ poultry or
cash transfer)
N*
(N+ TTC +
CPNP+ male
engagement
+IPT-G)
T1: L* and N* X X X X X
T2: L* and N X X X X
T3: L and N* X X X X
T4: Control X

8. Core PSNP programing: including seasonal public work payments and direct support transfers (food and cash) from
January to June each year
Livelihoods (L): VESA groups, financial literacy training, agriculture and livestock value chain
development, gender training
Nutrition (N): Nutrition behavior change communication, WASH activities
Enhanced livelihoods (L*):
Poultry/Cash
Enhanced nutrition (N*): Timed and targeted councelling, community-based participatory
nutrition promotion
Enhanced nutrition (N*):
Male Engagement groups
Group therapy (IPT-G)
Timeline
Baseline survey
Feb to April 2018
Midline survey
July to Oct 2019
Endline survey
Feb to April 2021

9. Sample
• 192 kebeles (subdistricts) across 13 woredas (districts) in two regions in
Ethiopia (Amhara and Oromia).
• Baseline sample includes 3,314 PSNP households who had a child aged
zero to 36 months at baseline.
• An additional 768 households including a child under aged two were
added to the sample at midline (supplemental sample).
• We designate the mother of the target-age child as the primary
female
• Her partner, if present in the household, is the primary male.
• Main analysis uses the unbalanced panel sample that includes all men available
at each time period, as this gives us the most power to detect impacts.

10. Estimation strategy
• We estimate impacts of each treatment arm compared to the control arm
at midline and at endline
• We conduct equality tests of coefficients across each treatment to see if
impacts vary by treatment arm
• We conduct equality test of coefficients across each round to see if
impacts vary by round
• SE are clustered at the kebele level
• Correct for multiple hypothesis testing
• Outcomes:
• Men’s involvement in domestic tasks (standardized index composed of three
indicators)
• Men’s gender equitable norms (standardized index composed of three indicators)

11. Results: Men’s involvement in domestic
chores
• Midline:
• Significant improvements in
men’s self reported behavior
across all treatment arms of
0.12-0.18 SD
• Size of impact is similar across
all arms
• Endline:
• Significant improvements in
men’s self reported behavior
across T1 and T3 of 0.26-0.29
SD
• Size of impact is significantly
different across T1 and T3
compared to T2
• Size of impact at endline is
significantly larger for T1

12. Results: Men’s gender equitable attitudes
• Midline:
• significant improvements in
men’s attitudes across all three
arms of 0.9-0.11 SD
• Size of impact is similar across
all arms
• Endline:
• At endline, significant
improvements in men’s attitudes
in T1 of 0.15 SD
• Size of impact is significantly
different across T1 and T3
compared to T2
• Size of impact is significantly
smaller for T2

13. Robustness and other outcomes
• Results are robust to using a balanced sample
• Results are similar when using women’s reports of their
husband’s behaviors
• Results are robust to dropping households where women also
received IPT-G as part of N*
• Childcare: we find no impacts on men’s self reported childcare
activities
• Smaller sample
• High self reported engagement in childcare activities

14. Conclusion
• At midline all treatment arms improved men’s gender equitable
behaviors and attitudes but impacts were only sustained or improved
at endline for the treatment arms with N*.
• The main difference in the N* component between midline and
endline was the male engagement groups which were rolled out after
the midline survey.
• A multi-faceted graduation model with gender components improves
men’s gender equitable attitudes and behaviors but without
reinforcement on interventions directly targeting men’s attitudes and
behaviors, these improvements are unlikely to persist.

15. Appendix

16. BASELINE
3314 households
3314 women
2807 men
MIDLINE PANEL
3220 households
3132 women
2482 men
94 households
attrited at
midline
MIDLINE
SUPPLEMNTAL
748 households
746 women
600 men
ENDLINE PANEL
3076 households
2994 women
1977 men
ENDLINE
SUPPLEMENTAL
718 households
693 women
482 men
18 households
found at endline
17 women / 3 men
ENDLINE
TOTAL
3812
households
3704 women
2462 men
+ +
+
MIDLINE
TOTAL
3968
households
3878 women
3082 men
=
=

17. Outcomes
• Men’s involvement in household domestic activities in last three days
• household chores,
• meal preparation and cooking,
• collecting firewood and water
• Men’s gender equitable attitudes:
• Husband is not justified in beating his wife under different circumstances (5 circumstances)
• Acceptable for a woman to travel alone to different places (3 places)
• Five questions on gender equitable attitudes

18. ASTE
Midline Endline
(1) (2) (3) (4)
Male's
involvement in
tasks
Perceived
gender
attitudes
Male's
involvement
in tasks
Perceived gender
attitudes
T1 0.115** 0.111*** 0.294*** 0.153***
(0.050) (0.042) (0.061) (0.050)
T2 0.117** 0.088** 0.093 -0.028
(0.047) (0.043) (0.057) (0.052)
T3 0.177*** 0.085* 0.264*** 0.079
(0.050) (0.045) (0.063) (0.049)
Test: T1 = T2 0.970 0.560 0.000 0.000
Test: T2 = T3 0.258 0.949 0.004 0.014
Test: T1 = T3 0.255 0.536 0.620 0.075
N 3,069 3,079 2,454 2,460