Profile: Sidra joined CERP on September 2017 as a field researcher for Education Program. Through traveling across Punjab, she gained an intensive fieldwork experience. Afterward, she joined Women's Mobility Project as a field researcher and with time, she has become a Training and Career Counselling Officer for Job Asaan which is also an initiative of Punjab Commission on the Status of Women. Sidra graduated in 2017 with her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences. Sidra wants to make a difference with the work she does and that is why she believes she has ended up here. 

 Title: Institutional Reform and Women’s de facto Rights

Principal Investigators: Dr. Erica Field (Duke University) & Dr. Kate Vyborny (Duke University)

Implementing partners: Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW)

Donors: Economic Development and Institutions (EDI), Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)

Project type: Phase 1: Pilot project Phase 2: Large-scale project

Start Date: 1^st March 2017

End Date: (Not specified)

Project Background

One important constraint on women’s de facto legal rights in Pakistan is the fact that government officials who carry out basic legal functions such as marriage registration and the processing of inheritance of property often follow their own judgment. These people are ill-informed on details concerning the law, or respond under pressure from interested parties rather than complying strictly with the law.

Policy Implication

In the proposed pilot project, CERP will work in close collaboration with PCSW on the initial stages of rigorous impact evaluation of two major initiatives designed to address these challenges and ensure women’s de facto rights in two key areas: their legal share of inheritance, and key rights in marriage. To do so, we will evaluate (1) an initiative to impose new procedural requirements and incentives for government officials involved in property transfer, and (2) the first ever initiative to train approximately forty thousand (40,000) marriage registrars in thirty-six (36) districts of Punjab. Thus, the initiative targets extremely broad population of beneficiaries: all women in Punjab, the largest province of Pakistan. 

Project Evaluation

If the study identifies an effect of either or both reforms on legal practices, it will prepare the ground for a future full-scale study of the impacts on women and their families through a household survey sampled directly from the administrative data.

Profile: Waleed Zafar is the Communications Associate at Center for Economic Research in Pakistan. He has previously worked as a Research and Communications Manager at FACES Pakistan. During his time at FACES Pakistan, he worked to uplift the rights of Afghan refugees and also assisted in Punjab government's Human Rights Ministry project of "Promoting Value Education through Peace Education in Punjab". Waleed holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from LSE and a Master's degree in Public Policy from Center for Public Policy and Governance (CPPG). 

Profile: Azam Nazir is a Field Coordinator on the Social Compact team. He completed his DAE (Civil Engineering) from Govt. College of Technology (Raiwind) Lahore in 2016. His responsibilities involve coordinating with the Research Team to help with implementation in the field, supervising all surveying activities, and recording data obtained from field activities. His research interests include social welfare, finance, and survey management. Prior to joining CERP, Azam worked in the Communications & Works Department of the Govt. of Punjab as an Assistant sub-Engineer.