US GOOD BUSINESS LAB FOUNDATION

Testing an advisory service to support rural womens economic empowerment through migration and employment project objectives: to improve the economic and social well-being of rural women in india by supporting their transition from rural areas to urban employment. To address barriers such as early marriage, mobility restrictions, and lack of work preparedness through structured counseling and migration support. To enhance womens autonomy, financial decision-making, and mental health by enabling access to stable employment and safe migration pathways. Accomplishments: the organization, in collaboration with a nonprofit research partner, conducted a field-based intervention funded by a private foundation. The project aimed to evaluate how targeted support services can enhance labour market access and economic outcomes for low-income rural women in india. The intervention was delivered at three rural centers and reached 321 women through structured migration counseling and post-placement support. Pre-migration and post-migration counseling sessions were conducted to prepare women and support their transition to formal urban employment. Follow-up surveys were administered to assess outcomes related to employment status, autonomy, and psychological well-being. Accomplishments: delivered intervention support to 321 women, with over 70% taking up formal employment after migrating to bengaluru. Achieved a 30% reduction in monthly turnover rates and 3.3% increase in monthly attendance among treatment group participants. Observed a 0.28 sd (moderate positive impact) increase in financial decision-making power and improvements in self-esteem and life satisfaction. Continued use of randomized controlled trial methods ensures rigorous evaluation of outcomes across employment, mental health, and empowerment indicators. Long-term goals: to generate scalable evidence on how migration counseling and post- placement support can increase female labor force participation in india. To influence skill development and labour mobility policies by demonstrating the potential of targeted interventions to address structural gender and spatial inequities. To expand the model to underserved regions and collaborate with government and private partners to institutionalize these practices in national skilling programs.

The project aims to resolve critical labor market problems through two key focus areas: energy efficiency technology (eet) adoption among msmes and the clean energy transitions impact on fossil-fuel dependent workers. Through the eet track, the project seeks to understand and dismantle barriers to adopting energy-efficient technologies among energy-intensive textile msmes, with a strong emphasis on improving worker well-being and job quality. By conducting energy audits, primary surveys, and developing a return-on-investment (roi) tool that integrates health and productivity outcomes, the initiative promotes resource optimization and better work environments, directly contributing to improved job quality and health outcomes. In the parallel alternative livelihoods (alt) track, the project aims to address skill gaps and labor market frictions by investigating the impact of the clean energy transition on low-income fossil fuel workers and co-creating livelihood pathways through deep stakeholder engagement and systems thinking. These efforts are firmly rooted in public benefit. All outputsincluding workshops, systems maps, reports, and policy recommendations will be made available as open-access public goods to inform broader policy, industry, and development efforts.