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An increase in savings can lead to substitution away from informal risk-sharing arrangements (IRSAs), which can reduce the capacity to manage risk. We conduct a field experiment that promoted mobile bank savings among vulnerable women in Kenya. The savings promotion increased mobile bank savings and reduced risk sharing. However, we show that reduced risk sharing did not reduce the capacity to manage risk. Promoting savings directly improved the ability of women to cope with negative shocks and had no adverse spillover effects on the untreated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While the few studies that have looked at the association between stunting and aflatoxin exposure have found surprisingly large effects, the results remain inconclusive due to a lack of randomized controlled studies. This protocol describes a non-blinded, cluster-randomized controlled trial with the specific objective of testing the impact of reduced aflatoxin exposure on (individual) child linear growth.Methods/design: Participants were recruited from among households containing women in the last 5 months of pregnancy in 28 maize-growing villages within Meru and Tharaka-Nithi Counties in Kenya. Households in villages assigned to the intervention group are offered rapid testing of their stored maize for the presence of aflatoxin each month; any maize found to contain more than 10 ppb aflatoxin is replaced with an equal amount of maize that contains less than this concentration of the toxin. They are also offered the opportunity to buy maize that has been tested and found to contain less than 10 ppb aflatoxin at local shops. Clusters (villages) were allocated to the intervention group (28 villages containing 687 participating households) or control group (28 villages containing 536 participating households) using a random number generator. The trial, which is funded by United Kingdom (UK) aid from the UK government, the Global Food Security Portal, and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, is currently ongoing.Discussion: This study is the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test for a causal impact of aflatoxin exposure on child growth. Whether or not this relationship is found, its results will have implications for the prioritization of aflatoxin control efforts by governments in affected regions, as well as international donors.Trial Registration: American Economic Association RCT Registry # 0000105 . Initial registration date: 6 November 2013, last updated 30 December 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the vulnerable, even small shocks can have significant short- and long-term impacts. Beneficial shock-coping mechanisms are not widely available in sub-Saharan Africa. We test whether an individual precautionary savings intervention can reduce a shock-coping behavior common in sub-Saharan Africa that has negative spillovers: transactional sex. Among a set of vulnerable women, we randomly assigned an intervention that promoted savings in a mobile banking account labeled for goals and emergency expenses. We find that a majority of individuals adopt the mobile account and the intervention led to reductions in transactional sex as a shock-coping response, and a decrease in symptoms of sexually transmitted infections. Changes are sustained in the medium-term among sex workers, but not among other vulnerable women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Notwithstanding the growing concern about the negative impact of aflatoxin (AF) on human health, there is a dearth of evidence on the socio-economic determinants of AF exposure in low and middle income countries. Objectives We used detailed socio-economic data to quantify to what extent socio-economic characteristics explained differences in serum AFB 1 -lysine adduct level in adult women from a rural area in Kenya's Eastern Province. Methods We first explored the relationship between serum aflatoxin level and a number of household, farm, and individual characteristics using cross-sectional data on 884 mothers (pregnant or with a child under 24 months). We then used regression analyses to estimate the extent to which the combined characteristics could predict serum aflatoxin levels. We finally used the estimated regression models to predict changes in AF level when changing a women's characteristics from the most disadvantaged group (setting all socio-economic characteristics to the lowest tertile) to the most advantaged group (highest tertile). Results AF was detected in all women. The median level of serum AB 1 -lysine adduct was 7.47 pg/mg albumin. Higher exposure levels were significantly associated with poverty: predicted serum aflatoxin levels in women living in the worst socio-economic conditions were 4.7–7.1 times higher than those with the best socio-economic status. Conclusions The results of our study, the first to show the significant association between poverty and aflatoxin exposure, highlight the need to better understand the strategies used by better-off families to mitigate AF exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]