This impact evaluation uses random assignment at the village level to estimate impacts of the NECS and IMAGINE projects on enrollment, attendance, learning and other education outcomes for primary school-age children in Niger. Wave 1 (baseline) data were collected in 2013. Wave 2 (follow-up) data were collected in 2016.
The evaluation found the improvements in school infrastructure and school resources and the girl-friendly features created under the IMAGINE project have largely been sustained seven years after school construction.
The NECS project alone had a 9.5 percentage point positive impact on primary school enrollment, an 11.1 percentage point positive impact on attendance (measured on the last day that school was open), a 0.15 standard deviation positive impact on normalized local-language test scores, and no impact on French-language test scores. Villages where NECS was combined with IMAGINE infrastructure investments experienced a 10.3 percentage point positive impact on primary school enrollment, a 13.6 percentage point positive impact on attendance, a 0.21 standard deviation positive impact on normalized local-language test scores, and no impact on French-language test scores. The impacts of both projects on enrollment and attendance were slightly larger in magnitude for girls than for boys, but these differences in impacts were not statistically significant.