Evidence Generation
Asia
Evidence Generation
Asia
Funded by IPA’s Entrepreneurship and Private Sector Development program, and with the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) and The/Nudge Institute, researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation in India to measure whether soft skills coaching sessions, specifically intrapersonal versus interpersonal soft skills coaching, in a government-led Graduation program can effectively improve the economic and psychosocial well-being of women in extreme poverty. Results will be available in 2027.
Women in extreme poverty face compounding constraints that limit their ability to engage in stable livelihoods, including limited assets, restricted social networks, and psychological barriers such as low aspirations. Graduation programs have demonstrated strong impacts in supporting households to build income and assets to move out of extreme poverty; regular coaching by mentors to develop business and life skills is regarded as a critical driver of impact.1 At the same time, growing evidence suggests that soft skills (personal initiative, emotional regulation, and relationship building) are important skills to develop to improve both economic and psychosocial well-being.2 In this context, soft skills coaching can be an effective addition to graduation programs that can strengthen outcomes for women and their families.
Despite the promise of soft skills development within Graduation programming, delivering it in government-run systems poses a challenge. Specialized external providers are costly and difficult to sustain. In contrast, frontline community workers may be a more scalable alternative, but only if they can implement skills sessions with quality consistently. This creates a significant research and policy need to understand the cost-effectiveness of the approach within an existing graduation program, which can inform the integration of soft skills into future programs.
JH-SAY is a government-led Graduation program in Jharkhand, India targeting approximately 16,000 vulnerable tribal and Scheduled Caste households in extreme poverty, providing asset transfers, consumption support, financial linkages, and group-based livelihood training through community coaches. The soft skills intervention adds two structured, digitally supported curricula to this program: both emphasize core skills (e.g., identifying strengths and values; setting aspirations and goals; problem-solving) while one emphasizes intrapersonal features of those skills plus additional intrapersonal skills (personal initiative, emotional regulation) and one emphasizes relational versions of those skills and additional interpersonal skills (interpersonal communication, relationship-building).
The curricula are delivered over nine weeks in two phases. The first phase focuses on aspirations and goal-setting before the disbursement of livelihood grants; the second focuses on recognizing personal strengths, taking initiative, and problem-solving after grant disbursement. Coaches use tablets loaded with a custom Life Skills App hosting role-modeling films, concept-explainer videos, and structured session guides, alongside a printed flipbook to facilitate group activities.
In collaboration with the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) and The/Nudge Institute, researchers are measuring whether intrapersonal or interpersonal soft skills coaching sessions in the JH-SAY program more effectively improves the economic and psychosocial well-being of women. The study covers the active JH-SAY cohort across three districts, with approximately 295 community coaches serving 9,000 women. Coaches are divided into three groups:
Researchers will measure women’s soft skills acquisition, self-efficacy, aspirations, and readiness to initiate economic activities. They will also assess their early economic engagement, including time allocated to income-generating activities, savings behavior, and investment in productive assets.
Results will be available in 2027.
1. Bossuroy, Thomas, Markus Goldstein, Bassirou Karimou, Dean Karlan, Harounan Kazianga, William Parienté, Patrick Premand et al. "Tackling psychosocial and capital constraints to alleviate poverty." Nature 605, no. 7909 (2022): 291-297.
2. Barrera-Osorio, Felipe, Adriana Kugler, and Mikko Silliman. "Hard and soft skills in vocational training: Experimental evidence from Colombia." The World Bank Economic Review 37, no. 3 (2023): 409-436.
Adhvaryu, Achyuta, Namrata Kala, and Anant Nyshadham. The skills to pay the bills: Returns to on-the-job soft skills training. No. w24313. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018.
