The study aims to evaluate and assess the impact of the STAR+ program. The STAR+ program is an adaptation to an existing livelihood intervention developed and delivered by BRAC called Skills Training for Advancing Resources (STAR), a six-month apprenticeship training facilitating school dropouts with technical, vocational, and soft skills. It has been acknowledged that the STAR project requires further adaptations to better support the inclusion of people with disabilities, as people with disabilities are overrepresented amongst the program’s dropouts. As such, the STAR+ program was developed by BRAC to better support disability inclusion.
Researchers: Dr Narayan C. Das; Morgon Banks; Calum Davey; Hannah Kuper; Afsana Adiba
Partners: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Timeline: 2021–2024
Status: Completed
Method: Mixed methods
Contact: Dr Narayan C. Das; narayan.das@bracu.ac.bd
Context
The STAR+ program is an adaptation to the BRAC program called Skills Training for Advancing Resources (STAR), a six-month apprenticeship training facilitating school dropouts with technical, vocational, and soft skills. The STAR project requires further adaptations to better support the inclusion of people with disabilities, as people with disabilities are overrepresented amongst the program’s dropouts. As such, the STAR+ program was developed by BRAC to better support disability inclusion. The programme intends to cover 12 categories of disabilities: physical disability, autism, intellectually challenged, mental illness, eyesight impairment, speech impairment, hearing impairment, eyesight and hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, multiple disability, and other disabilities. The objective of the proposed evaluation is to assess the impact of the STAR+ program.
Publication
Journal article: Process evaluation of a disability-inclusive employment programme: examining the design and implementation of STAR+
Objectives
The study has the following objectives: (1) to evaluate the impact of the STAR+ program on employment and earnings among youth with disabilities; (2) to estimate the impact of STAR+ on poverty, participation, and quality of life among young people with disabilities; (3) to explore what aspects of the STAR+ program were most important for affecting desired impacts among young people with disabilities; (4) to examine challenges and enablers to the implementation and delivery of STAR+ from the perspective of participants and implementers.
This study is relevant to SDG 1 (No Poverty), particularly to ending poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Methodology
The impact evaluation will involve a cluster-randomized controlled trial (cRCT), with complementary qualitative research and process evaluation. The cRCT will involve 750 youth with disabilities who are selected to receive the STAR+ intervention (treatment group) and 750 youth with disabilities who meet the STAR+ eligibility criteria but are not offered the STAR+ intervention at this time (control group). Both groups will be asked to participate in baseline and endline surveys, with the endline survey conducted about 12 months after the completion of the intervention. BIGD will also conduct in-depth interviews with people with disabilities in the intervention and control arms of the cRCT at both baseline and endline. BIGD will conduct 15–20 in-depth interviews with implementers of the STAR+ program. Data from these interviews will be used to complement findings from the cRCT on the impact of STAR+, and contribute towards the process evaluation.
Findings and Recommendations
Findings identified three key adaptations made to STAR+ delivery. First was the appointment of ten Disability Inclusion Facilitators [DIFs] to work within ten branch office catchment areas that delivered STAR+. DIFs were a planned adaptation after the initial stages of STAR+ design, trained and introduced to the program by consortium partner Light for the World through additional funding. In clusters where they were present, DIFs gave input into learner and trainer identification and monitoring, provided practical support to learners during apprenticeships and classroom training and assisted with the delivery of sensitisation workshops. DIFs were an additional point of communication between key stakeholders (youth, parents/caregivers, and MCPs) and assisted with the implementation of reasonable accommodations in classrooms. In non-DIF containing clusters, responsibility for this delivery fell wholly to BRAC staff, trainers and partner OPDs. As DIFs functioned as additional resources for the intervention to draw on during delivery it is plausible that youth with disabilities may have derived additional benefits from their involvement.
The findings of this process evaluation identify the active involvement of parents/caregivers and family members, particularly of youth with communication impairments and difficulties travelling independently, as an important way in which implementers tried to ensure these beneficiaries received the intervention on the same basis as other learners. The presence of family members was also viewed as necessary to help some learners, including those with some hearing, physical and speech impairments, to travel to and from workplaces and training institutions.
Finally, the findings of the process evaluation suggest that the extent of ad-hoc adaptations made by implementers to the selection of Master Crafts Persons could play an important role in outcomes for youth with disabilities. District managers were the main decision-figure in MCP selection. One district manager interviewee viewed MCP selection as the most important aspect of the intervention delivery, as without the right MCPs motivated by social responsibility and not money, youth with disabilities would not be adequately trained as per the program objectives.
