Integrating Economic Strengthening and Family Coaching to Reduce Work-Related Health Hazards Among Children of Poor Households: Burkina Faso

Africa

Burkina Faso

Labour Market

Business training and capital transfer

L Karimli; L Rost

2018

Karimli, Leyla, Lucia Rost, and Leyla Ismayilova. “Integrating Economic Strengthening and Family Coaching to Reduce Work-Related Health Hazards Among Children of Poor Households: Burkina Faso.” Journal of adolescent health 62.1 (2018): S6–S14. Web.
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Journal contains a link to Associated data: ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT02415933.

2018

Economic Strengthening and Family Coaching (non-official)

2015-2017

Tests the effect of economic strengthening alone and in combination with family coaching on a child’s hazardous work and work-related health outcomes. Tests the association between hazardous work and child’s health outcomes.

Female caregivers of a 10- to 15-year-old child and one 10- to 15-year-old child was enrolled in the study (360 female caregivers and 360 children).

Three parallel groups: Trickle Up, Trickle Up Plus, and waitlist (control group). Intervention implemented for 24 months. I – Trickle Up: Economic strengthening was targeted to female caregivers as primary beneficiaries and consisted of four main components: (1) formation of women’s informal savings group using the Village Savings and Loan Association model; (2) livelihood planning and household management training offered to the savings groups; (3) seed capital grant (US $100) to start or expand livelihood activities offered individually to each woman participant; and (4) one-to-one mentoring on livelihood development offered to each woman participant by trained field workers. II – Trickle Up Plus: economic strengthening was integrated with family coaching intervention and offered economic strengthening described previously plus a family coaching component aimed to raise the awareness of all household members on child protection issues, including hazardous child work, and labor-related child separation, and early and forced marriage. The curriculum for the family coaching component was developed by the Burkina Faso Ministry of Social Action and implemented by a local community-based organization; III – Control Group or waitlist (no intervention).

• Children’s exposure to work-related hazards and abuse.
• Child’s work-related health outcomes: injuries, open wounds; dislocations,
  sprains, strains, stomach problems/diarrhea; fever or frequent headaches; and in the past year, because of work, had extreme fatigue.
• Association between different forms of hazardous work and child’s work-related health outcomes.

Clustered Randomized Trial

Study design: authors used data from the integrated economic strengthening

intervention implemented in the Nord Region of Burkina Faso. The intervention used an open-label cluster-randomized design with three parallel arms: Trickle Up, Trickle Up Plus, and waitlist (control group). To avoid cross-arm contamination and potential conflicts among community members, randomization was conducted at the village level. All participants from villages assigned to the Trickle Up arm received an economic strengthening intervention, and all participants from villages assigned to the Trickle Up Plus arm received the economic strengthening intervention plus the family coaching component. The intervention was implemented for 24 months. All the participants in the control arm were planned to receive the intervention in 2017 upon completion of the study.
Sample: Participants were selected in three stages. First, 12 villages, with comparable population size, ethnic composition, distance from an urban center, and socioeconomic status of residents, were selected in the Nord Region of Burkina Faso. A total of 360 households from 12 villages participated. Villages were randomly assigned to three study arms: economic intervention alone, economic intervention integrated with family coaching, and control. In each household, one female caregiver and one child aged 10 to 15 years were interviewed.
Survey Instrument: repeated measures data were collected at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months. The interviewer-administered surveys were conducted separately with 360 children and 360 female caregivers at or near the participant’s home. The survey instruments were pretested and reviewed for cultural appropriateness and conceptual equivalence by the local Community Collaborative Board consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Social Protection, the University of Ouagadougou, and national child welfare experts.

Children in the integrated arm experienced a significant reduction in exposure to hazardous work and some forms of hazards and abuse. Results for children in the economic strengthening only arm were more modest. In most cases, child’s health was significantly associated not with specific forms of work per se, but with the child’s exposure to hazards and abuse while doing this form of work. We found no significant effect of the intervention on a child’s work-related health.

Child Labour

Households

Local

Children that were exposed to the combined intervention of economic strengthening and coaching experienced significant reduction in exposure to hazardous work and some forms of hazards and abuse in Burkina Faso. Results for children in the economic strengthening only arm were more modest.

In most cases, child’s health was significantly associated not with specific forms of work per se, but with child’s exposure to hazards and abuse while doing this form of work. The authors do not find significant effect of intervention on child’s work-related health.

N. A.