Impact evaluation design
The evaluation followed a cluster randomized design in India and Malawi and a quasi-experimental (matched) design in Mali and Niger. A quasi-experimental design was used in Mali and Niger because the program aimed to build upon a previous intervention that had begun in 2015, so working in new (randomized) areas was not feasible. In Mali and Niger, we thus matched comparison villages to intervention villages on key criteria including population size, distance from the main road, and number of schools and health centers. We assessed balance at baseline (