The College of Southern Nevada’s Department of Human Behavior‘s Anthropology Program recently hosted RMC’s Research Associate Cynthia Juniper to present Evaluating Services for Texas Opportunity Youth (ESTOY): A community-based participatory approach. Students studying qualitative research methodology from several different departments attended.
RMC’s Cynthia Juniper attends Aspen Institute OYF Fall Convening 2024
RMC’s Research Associate Cynthia Juniper attended the Aspen Institute Opportunity Youth Forum Fall Convening 2024 in Aspen, Colorado, from October 28-30, 2024. The Opportunity Youth Forum (OYF) is a gathering of opportunity youth collaboratives representing urban, rural, and tribal communities across the United States working to build and scale reconnection pathways that achieve better outcomes in education, employment, and overall well-being for opportunity youth. Opportunity youth are young adults, 16-24 years of age, who are engaged in neither work nor education. Juniper participated in many sessions, including one led by Tim Richardson of the National Recreation Foundation as seen in the picture (credit to Aspen Institute staff).
Issue 36, October 2024
Nuru Kenya 2024 Baringo County Baseline
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
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
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.
Child Support Guidelines Review
| 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: |
Issue 35, July 2024
RMC’s Juniper presents at TNOYS 41st annual conference
RMC’s qualitative research associate, Cynthia Juniper, presented findings from our Evaluating Services for Texas Opportunity Youth (ESTOY) project at the Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS) 41st annual conference held June 4-7, 2024, in Houston, Texas.
The purpose of the ESTOY evaluation is to pursue a deeper understanding of the experience of opportunity youth whose needs were not met by the community’s traditional education systems. The qualitative research method for this evaluation employed a community-based research design to invite voices from the community to collaborate with researchers in the design of the study, an approach that depends upon the knowledge, insights, and experiences of the individuals who are the subject of a study to assist and guide researchers. The ESTOY evaluation engaged youth and young adults currently enrolled in workforce development services to guide the development of a survey tool to be completed by youth and young adults receiving workforce development services in four Texas communities: Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. The presentation highlights key considerations for preparing for this research, engaging the community, and lessons learned from the process.
You can view the presentation slides here.
PATHS for Texas: Interim Descriptive Statistics, Outcomes, Impacts, Survey Results, and Qualitative Summary 2024 Update
PATHS for Texas: Interim Descriptive Statistics, Outcomes, Impacts, Survey Results, and Qualitative Summary 2024 Update
Authors: Thomas Boswell, Patty Rodriguez, and Heath Prince
Date: July 2024
Publication Type: Report, 49pp.
Executive Summary
The data presented in this report represent individuals who participated in PATHS for Texas from its start date in 2020 through June of 2024. As of June 2024, 2,524 individuals registered to participate in the PATHs for Texas program from four Texas Workforce Development Boards (WDB) across the state (Coastal Bend, Gulf Coast, Rural Capital Area, and North Texas). Of the 2,524 individuals who enrolled in PATHS, 2,029 (80%) individuals completed training and earned one or more certificates. When compared to the reference quarter (four quarters prior to earning a certificate through PATHS), on average, PATHS participants increased employment by 5.5 percentage points (from 72.8% to 78.3%), as well as increased their quarterly earnings by $2,574 (from $8,469 to $11,043) eight quarters after earning their certificate. Those who earned certificates in the Business, Hospitality, Information Technology, Medical, Retail, and Transportation and Logistics industries saw increases in employment and earnings compared to the reference period, while those earning certificates in Entrepreneurship, and in the Skilled Trades saw flat or slight decreases in employment, and Insurance, which saw a decline in earnings.
When matched with a comparison group of demographically similar individuals with similar employment histories to determine the impact of program participation, and while there is some variation across the Boards and by outcome measure, it is generally the case that participation in PATHS is associated with a positive, and statistically significant, increase in both unconditional quarterly earnings ($990) and quarterly employment (9.5% percentage points) over the comparison group.
We also report on the outcomes of two surveys completed in the past three years: one survey of active PATHS participants, and one of inactive participants. Responses indicate that flexible training arrangement, follow-up with participants after program completion, and information regarding family counseling services represent growth opportunities for service providers.
Finally, and while it will be expanded upon in next year’s final report, we report preliminary findings from an implementation evaluation of PATHS. Input provided by key stakeholders yielded several lessons learned, including those related to flexibility, collaboration, and leadership. In terms of flexibility, respondents highlighted the value in PATHS ability to pivot its industry focus in response to COVID-19. Regarding collaboration, respondents frequently cited their collaboration between one another throughout the PATHS funding period as a unique experience in the state’s Workforce Solutions space. And, regarding leadership, respondents underscored the importance of an effective and confident managerial presence to the successful implementation of the PATHS for Texas program.
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