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Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2024 Update

March 5, 2025 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2024 Update
Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2024 Update Report Appendices
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Patty Rodriguez, David McCoy, Heath Prince (Principal Investigator), and Thomas Boswell
Date: December 2024
Publication Type: Report, 174 pp.

Introduction
From FY 2016–FY 2023, Travis County invested over $18 million to support a continuum of adult education, training, and employment services to help individuals improve workplace skills, obtain employment, succeed in the workplace, and help employers secure a skilled workforce. Services include High School Equivalency (HSE), adult basic education, and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes; job readiness and occupation-specific training (including, but not limited to, vocational certification and formal higher education opportunities); and job search and job placement assistance leading to employment and earnings gains.

Four of the Travis County workforce development grantees receive county-funded assistance as a consortium, the Workforce Education and Readiness Continuum–Travis County (WERC-TC). WERC-TC providers are Workforce Solutions Capital Area Career Centers, Goodwill of Central Texas, Austin Area Urban League, and American YouthWorks. Four additional community-based organizations maintaining workforce development contracts with Travis County are included in this report: Literacy Coalition of Central Texas, Capital IDEA, LifeWorks, and Skillpoint Alliance. In addition, WERC-TC grantee American YouthWorks also delivers services to participants through Travis County funding that is not WERC-TC.

To understand program participant outcomes and the impact of these services, the county has contracted with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (RMC), an organized research unit in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas, to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of its investments. This report presents findings and analyses of programs funded during a seven-year, on-going evaluation (FY 2016–FY 2023).

Nuru Nigeria 2023 Impact Report

December 20, 2024 Leave a Comment

Nuru Nigeria 2023 Impact Report
Authors: Heath Prince and Thomas Boswell (Ray Marshall Center); Bless Jima, Humshe Yakubu, Amos Emmanuel (Nuru Nigeria); and Casey Harrison, Matt Lineal, Ian Schwenke, and Bethany Ibrahim (Nuru)
Date: December 2024
Publication Type: Report, 19pp.
This report is commissioned by Nuru
Front page photo credit: Nuru Nigeria

INTRODUCTION
In 2023, Nuru Nigeria (NN) intervened with 4,827 farmers across multiple Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Northeast Nigeria. NN’s vision is to cultivate lasting, meaningful choices in the most vulnerable and marginalized communities in the world, starting in Northeast Nigeria. As part of their overall goal, NN aims to equip rural, vulnerable households in these LGAs to improve livelihoods and build resilience capacities to cope with conflict, environment, economic, and social shocks and stressors for stability and prosperity. This is the first independent impact report measuring increases in agricultural yields and incomes following the 5-year Resilience Study carried out by the Ray Marshall Center in partnership with Nuru Nigeria. This study found significant and positive impacts in both absorptive and adaptive resilience capacities for NN-supported farmers.

NN will continue to measure impacts of interventions as they relate to the mission and vision of the organization, diversifying livelihoods for smallholder farmers, increasing yields, incomes, and overall resilience, and building professional capacity of sustainable agribusinesses. In 2023, Nuru Nigeria accomplished the following successful program impacts:

By participating in the diversified livelihood interventions, farmers were able to increase their Crop Equivalent Yield (CEY) of soybeans and groundnuts to 573 kilograms per hectare (kg/ha), representing a 148% increase over the 2019 baseline CEY of 231 kg/ha.
From the sale of these crops, NN-supported farmers were able to earn an average net income of $145 USD, an increase of $132 USD over the 2019 baseline income of $13 USD prior to interventions. These values are inclusive of high inflation rates in Nigeria.
Over 99.7% of loans were recovered from farmers who chose to take input packages with the support of Nuru Nigeria. These loans re-enter the Farmers’ Organization (FO) through a revolving fund mechanism, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the FO structures.
20 FOs were established, 6 of which received baseline SCOPEinsight assessments to highlight a baseline level of agribusiness professionalism. NN will compare against these baseline measurements in future years to gauge improvement in their supported agribusinesses.

Nuru Kenya 2024 Baringo County Baseline

November 20, 2024 Leave a Comment

Nuru Kenya 2024 Baringo County Baseline
Authors: Heath Prince, Thomas Boswell (Ray Marshall Center); Pauline Wambeti, Tom Kosgei (Nuru Kenya); Casey Harrison, Matt Lineal, Ian Schwenke, Bethany Ibrahim (Nuru)
Date: November 2024
Publication Type: Report, 17 pp.
This report is commissioned by Nuru.

INTRODUCTION
Nuru Kenya (NK) is a locally-led and locally-operated NGO working with smallholder farmers since 2008 in Migori County and Homabay County, Kenya. In 2024, NK expanded its reach to scale programs into Baringo and eventually Samburu counties, with the primary goal of supporting rural communities in building resilience and achieving sustainable livelihoods. This baseline report marks the initial data collection phase in Baringo County, serving as a critical pre-intervention reference across various value chains—namely dairy, meat, beekeeping, and shoats (sheep and goats)—in the Baringo North and Tiaty sub-counties.

The survey collected data from 672 respondents across the two sub-counties, providing a comprehensive look at the socioeconomic conditions, climate impacts, and agricultural practices in the region. Findings from this baseline indicate that households engaged in multiple value chains currently achieve an average combined income of approximately $473 USD per year, well below the international poverty line and Kenya’s GDP per capita. Paired with lower than average production across value chain activities, this underscores the need for targeted interventions to improve income stability and resilience in these communities.

NK’s entry into Baringo County is supported by the Nuru Collective, a network of locally-led NGOs in East and West Africa, with additional research and program evaluation backing from the Ray Marshall Center (RMC) since 2017. Initial assessments of cooperative organizations in the area, using the SCOPEinsight tool, yielded an average professionalism score of 2.6 out of 5.0 across 18 cooperatives, indicating room for growth in cooperative capacity and structure. NK aims to improve these scores over the coming years, supporting cooperatives to reach a level of sustainability and professionalism that empowers them to deliver core services to members effectively.

The report also addresses the specific climate-related challenges facing Baringo households, capturing insights on rainfall patterns, water access, and climate shocks, such as droughts and floods. The findings underscore the need for resilience-focused interventions, as households across both sub-counties reported frequent exposure to severe climate impacts that affect both livelihoods and food security.

This report also highlights the complex challenges faced by households in Baringo County, including gender disparities, climate impacts, and nutritional deficiencies. Women’s participation in economic and decision-making roles remains limited, climate-related shocks such as drought and flooding are frequent, and chronic malnutrition affects child health. NK is committed to addressing these interconnected challenges through targeted programs that empower women, build climate resilience, and improve nutrition access. With efforts like these, NK aims to create an inclusive and sustainable environment in Baringo where households can achieve both economic and social resilience.

Overall, this baseline report provides a foundational understanding of the needs, opportunities, and challenges in Baringo County, laying the groundwork for NK’s future interventions to foster resilient and
sustainable livelihoods across the region.

Nuru Ethiopia 2023 Impact Report

October 31, 2024 Leave a Comment

Nuru Ethiopia 2023 Impact Report
Authors: Heath Prince and Thomas Boswell (Ray Marshall Center); Tatek Amataw (Nuru Ethiopia); and Casey Harrison, Matt Lineal, Ian Schwenke, and Bethany Ibrahim (Nuru)
Date: October 2024
Publication Type: Report, 26 pp.

Introduction
In 2023, Nuru Ethiopia (NE) offered cooperative and rural livelihood interventions to 28,096 individuals in the South Ethiopia Region. These individuals were members of five distinct cooperative unions to which NE offered support, including members from 203 primary cooperatives. This report samples farmers from two of the NE-supported unions, Hidota (Gamo Zone) and Esipe Dicha (Gofa Zone) with whom NE has supported since 2016 and 2021 respectively. In 2023, the NE interventions led to the following outcomes:

Cooperative Impact:

NE-supported cooperative unions achieved an average SCOPEinsight score of 4.65 out of 5.0, representing a continued improvement over the 4.4 achieved in 2022. This score is associated with very professional agribusinesses and is well above the regional average.
100% of NE-supported cooperative unions achieved net profitability from their business operations in 2023.

Agricultural and Livelihood Diversification Impact:

Combined livelihood diversification and cash crop activities led NE-supported farmers to an average net income of $609 USD. This represents a 162% increase over the 2020 baseline value of $233 USD, and the 4th consecutive year of increased incomes.
91% of farmers adopted the majority of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices.

Gender and Social Inclusion

NE successfully surveyed 657 women using the IFPRI & USAID developed Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI)1. Results indicated NE-supported women scored higher than national empowerment benchmarks.

In 2023, NE solidified its cooperative approach by shifting primary support from individual cooperatives to unions. This allowed resources, training, and capacity building to be cascaded efficiently from unions to their member cooperatives. NE achieved its highest-ever yields and incomes, demonstrating increased efficiency with fewer resources. With exceptionally high SCOPEinsight scores, this report marks the final evaluation for Hidota and Esipe Dicha unions and the transition to a new cohort of unions for future support.

RMC’s Prince interviewed for Science Magazine article on the wage disparity for labor in the Global South

August 26, 2024 Leave a Comment

RMC’s Research Scientist Dr. Heath Prince was interviewed for an article recently published in Science Magazine titled “Rich countries drain ‘shocking’ amount of labor from the Global South: Workers in the Global South—from farm workers to scientists—power the world economy but face a yawning wage gap” (Vol 385, Issue 6709). The article addresses the wage disparity between the Global South workforce and it’s counterparts in the Global North. Dr. Prince touches on the economic impact policies and programs can have on that disparity. View the article here.

Principal Investigator:	Daniel G. Schroeder, PhD
Sponsor:	Office of the Attorney General of Texas
Project Duration:	June 2024 – August 2026
Description:	The Texas Child Support Guidelines project is being conducted by the Ray Marshall Center under an agreement with the Office of the Attorney General of Texas (OAG). Federal and state laws require the OAG to establish guidelines for child support, and to review these guidelines every four years to ensure their adequacy in determining appropriate child support award amounts in divorce cases and other suits affecting parent-child relations (SAPCR). The review will utilize up to date, detailed economic analysis of the cost of raising children in Texas to 1) determine whether the existing guidelines result in fair child support award amounts, and to 2) propose a workable income-shares model to develop new guidelines that take into account both parents’ income levels. Additional topics to be addressed include how to handle parenting-time adjustments, child care costs, and whether a true limit to child support exists, and at what level it should be set.
Reports Available:

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2024 Update

RMC’s Prince interviewed for Science Magazine article on the wage disparity for labor in the Global South

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