abstract: 'Introduction: There is little evidence on the impact of livelihood

  interventions amongst people with disabilities. Effective programmes are

  critical for reducing the heightened risk of poverty and unemployment

  facing persons with disabilities. STAR+ is a skills development and job

  placement programme targeted to out-of-school youth with disabilities

  (ages 14-35) living in poverty. It is a disability-targeted adaptation

  to an existing, effective intervention (STAR), which has been designed

  to address barriers to decent work for people with disabilities. This

  protocol describes the design of a cluster randomised controlled trial

  of STAR+ in 39 of the 64 districts of Bangladesh. Methods: BRAC has

  identified 1500 youth with disabilities eligible for STAR+ across its 91

  branch offices (typically a geographical areas covering about 8 km

  radius from local BRAC office) catchment areas (clusters). BRAC has

  limited funding to deliver STAR+ and so 45 of the 91 branches have been

  randomly allocated to implement STAR+ (intervention arm). The remaining

  46 branches will not deliver STAR+ at this time (control arm).

  Participants in the control-arm will receive usual care, meaning they

  are free to enrol in any other livelihood programmes run by BRAC or

  other organisations including standard STAR (being run in 15 control

  branches). The cRCT will assess the impact of STAR+ after 12 months on

  employment status and earnings (primary outcomes), as well as poverty,

  participation and quality of life (secondary outcomes). Analysis will be

  through intention-to-treat, with a random mixed effect at cluster level

  to account for the clustered design. Complementary qualitative research

  with participants will be conducted to triangulate findings of the cRCT,

  and a process evaluation will assess implementation fidelity, mechanisms

  of impact and the role of contextual factors in shaping variations in

  outcomes. Discussion: This trial will provide evidence on the impact of

  a large-scale, disability-targeted intervention. Knowledge on the

  effectiveness of programmes is critical for informing policy and

  programming to address poverty and marginalisation amongst this group.

  Currently, there is little robust data on the effectiveness of

  livelihood programmes amongst people with disabilities, and so this

  trial will fill an important evidence gap.'
affiliation: 'Banks, LM (Corresponding Author), London Sch Hyg \& Trop Med, Int Ctr
  Evidence Disabil, London, England.

  Banks, Lena Morgon; Davey, Calum; Shakespeare, Tom; Kuper, Hannah, London Sch Hyg
  \& Trop Med, Int Ctr Evidence Disabil, London, England.

  Das, Narayan; Adiba, Afsana, BRAC Univ, BRAC Inst Governance \& Dev, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

  Davey, Calum, London Sch Hyg \& Trop Med, Ctr Evaluat, London, England.

  Ali, M. Mahzuz, BRAC Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

  Fleming, Coral, BRAC UK, London, England.'
article-number: '1022'
author: Banks, Lena Morgon and Das, Narayan and Davey, Calum and Adiba, Afsana and
  Ali, M. Mahzuz and Shakespeare, Tom and Fleming, Coral and Kuper, Hannah
author-email: morgon.banks@lshtm.ac.uk
author_list:
- family: Banks
  given: Lena Morgon
- family: Das
  given: Narayan
- family: Davey
  given: Calum
- family: Adiba
  given: Afsana
- family: Ali
  given: M. Mahzuz
- family: Shakespeare
  given: Tom
- family: Fleming
  given: Coral
- family: Kuper
  given: Hannah
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1186/s13063-022-06987-2
eissn: 1745-6215
files: []
journal: TRIALS
keywords: Disability; Livelihoods; Randomised control trial; Bangladesh
language: English
month: DEC 17
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '33'
orcid-numbers: Banks, Lena Morgon/0000-0002-4585-1103
papis_id: 5966d48a52cf9ec51f071c7a8f6f304f
ref: Banks2022impactdisabilitytarg
times-cited: '0'
title: 'Impact of a disability-targeted livelihoods programme in Bangladesh: study
  protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial of STAR'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000899954300001
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '1'
volume: '23'
web-of-science-categories: Medicine, Research \& Experimental
year: '2022'