Fewer than half of the girls living in Burkina Faso in 2004 attended primary school. In the same year, only a quarter of all girls were enrolled in the last grade of primary school. To address these issues, the government of Burkina Faso launched “Burkinabé Response to Improve Girls’ Chances to Succeed,” or BRIGHT, in 132 villages throughout 10 provinces in the country, where primary school enrollment rates were the lowest nationwide. Starting in 2005, BRIGHT funded the construction of primary schools, one in each village, and implemented complementary interventions. The schools had had three classrooms, one each for grades 1 to 3. To sustain the program’s success beyond its first three years, the Burkina Faso government extended BRIGHT in 2009 by constructing three more classrooms, one each for grades 4 to 6, and by continuing the original complementary interventions.

Mathematica and its partners recently completed a midterm evaluation of BRIGHT’s seven-year impact on enrollment, attendance, test scores, health, and child labor. This report includes key findings from the evaluation and presents a preliminary benefit-cost analysis of the program, estimating its economic rate of return.

French version available.