Beyond Income: How Agency and Confidence Shape Lives Across Africa

A new study by researchers from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the World Bank’s Africa Gender Innovation Lab, and CUNEF Universidad is challenging the way governments and development agencies think about poverty. The research suggests that economic progress is shaped not only by income, education, and jobs but also by psychological factors such as confidence, goal-setting ability, and a person's belief that they can influence their own future.

Conducted under the Measures for Advancing Gender Equality (MAGNET) initiative, the study developed new tools to measure these traits across six African countries. The findings show that people who feel more capable, motivated, and in control of their lives are often better off economically and socially.

Measuring What Traditional Surveys Often Miss

Most development surveys focus on what people have, including income, assets, education, or employment. However, they rarely measure what people believe they can achieve.

To address this gap, researchers created four new scales to measure goal-setting capacity, agricultural self-efficacy, livelihoods self-efficacy, and locus of control. These tools were tested among farmers, entrepreneurs, refugees, factory workers, young women, and nationally representative populations in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The study found that the tools worked well across different settings and could reliably measure how people view their own abilities and opportunities. This gives governments and development organizations a practical way to track an important but often overlooked dimension of human development.

Agency Linked to Better Jobs, Higher Earnings and Food Security

One of the strongest findings is that psychological agency is closely linked to economic success.

People who scored higher on goal-setting and self-efficacy measures were more likely to work, work longer hours, and earn higher incomes. Those with greater confidence in their ability to manage livelihood activities were also more likely to run businesses and generate profits.

The research found that livelihood self-efficacy, a person's confidence in managing resources, making decisions, and pursuing income opportunities, was the strongest predictor of employment and earnings. Individuals with higher levels of agency were also less likely to experience food insecurity.

For policymakers, this means that programmes focused solely on financial support or skills training may not achieve their full impact if they overlook psychological barriers. Building confidence and decision-making abilities may help people make better use of economic opportunities already available to them.

A Powerful Tool for Advancing Women's Empowerment

The study carries particularly important lessons for gender equality policies.

Across most countries, women reported lower levels of agency than men. Yet the agency had a stronger impact on women's outcomes. Women with higher levels of confidence, goal-setting ability, and perceived control over their lives were more likely to participate in paid work and have a greater voice in household decisions.

The findings suggest that economic empowerment programmes could become more effective by combining financial support with mentoring, leadership training, confidence-building activities, and psychosocial support.

Researchers also found that women with stronger livelihood self-efficacy were less likely to report experiences of intimate partner violence. While the study does not prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship, it highlights the potential role of agency in improving women's safety, autonomy, and bargaining power within households.

What This Means for Development Policy

The study's biggest message is that development is not only about creating opportunities but also about ensuring that people feel capable of using them.

For governments, the new measurement tools provide a way to identify hidden barriers to progress that traditional economic indicators often miss. They can help policymakers understand why some individuals thrive while others struggle despite facing similar economic conditions.

The findings also support integrating confidence-building, goal-setting, mentoring, and behavioural support into employment, entrepreneurship, agriculture, and women's empowerment programmes. Such interventions are often inexpensive compared with large infrastructure or financial programmes but could significantly improve outcomes.

As countries face challenges ranging from unemployment and food insecurity to climate shocks and inequality, the research offers a simple but powerful lesson: strengthening people's sense of agency may be just as important as providing material resources. Confidence, aspirations, and belief in one's ability to succeed are not abstract concepts. They are measurable factors that can influence livelihoods, well-being, and long-term development outcomes.