The Effects of Adult Women Education - Impact Evaluation of a Program in Chiapas

The study presents the findings of a qualitative evaluation of a women education program in Chiapas, implemented by the Mexican
microfinance Ngo, Alternativa Solidaria (AlSol). The paper tries to assess the effects of the intervention on women’s income and household’s living standards, women’s empowerment and mobility, women’s and children’s
health conditions and confidence in modern health posts, as well as children’s primary and secondary school enrollment. In the last section I moreover try to explore which participants’ or implementation characteristics positively influence women’s performance in the program. The experimental design is based on cross sectional data on program beneficiaries and non beneficiaries. Propensity score matching was applied to available baseline data to reduce observable pre-program differences between treatment and control groups. Results suggest that the program has a positive and significant impact on women’s income,although no immediate repercussion on the household living standard is detected. Similarly, women’s probability of participating in intrahousehold decision making augments in 4 out of 9 analyzed cases. Probably due to a potential bias in wellbeing perceptions of more educated women, the outcome on individuals’ health conditions remains ambiguous, whereas the utilization of modern health providers and the probability of children’s school enrollment increase through treatment participation. Finally, less remote areas, smaller microfinance groups and women dealing with higher loan amounts are associated with better exam test scores. The findings may have useful implications on AlSol’s program implementation and future expansion plans.