The Research, Evaluation and Learning (REL) unit has completed and submitted a number of project reports to clients over the past few months. While the unit has ongoing projects, it continues to scout for new business opportunities. Below is a summary of completed projects, ongoing projects and submitted proposals for new opportunities.
Completed Projects
Midline Impact Study of the Babator Irrigation Farm Hub (BIFH)
The midline impact study sought to assess the changes in incomes and livelihoods of beneficiaries at Babator and surrounding communities. The study covered over 204 households from both intervention and control communities in the Savannah region. The evaluation was commissioned by AgDevCo and conducted by PDA in collaboration with Bath Social Development Research (SDR). The evaluation adopted a mixed method approach. PDA led the qualitative and quantitative data collection. The QUIP methodology was employed in gathering qualitative data for the evaluation. The quantitative data was analysed by PDA. While Bath SDR led the qualitative analysis, the REL team triangulated the qualitative findings with the quantitative and developed a comprehensive report for the evaluation. Statistical techniques and methods such as frequencies, cross-tabulations, chi square test, t test and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) were employed to assess the impact of the project on beneficiaries.
Beyond Beans Community Needs Assessment – Phase two
After successfully completing community needs assessment in 8 communities for Beyond Beans, PDA was commissioned again to expand the needs assessment to 15 cocoa growing communities within Beyond Beans’ operational areas in the Suhum and Samreboi cocoa districts. The community needs assessment sought to lead communities in identifying their needs and support community members in finding solutions to identified needs. Needs were classified into pressing needs (short-term needs) and future needs (long-term needs). The assessment employed different participatory approaches in revealing the needs of the various communities. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), Key Informant Interviews (KII), In-depth interviews (IDIs), Social mapping / Community Census and Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) techniques were employed. The ‘dream community drawing’ (which allowed participants to put on paper various things they would want to see in their dream community) and the 10-stone scoring technique (which guided community members in segregating their needs in order of preference into short- and long-term needs) were the two PRA techniques that were used to engage participants in the FGDs. The REL team has submitted the needs assessment report on 15 communities to Beyond Beans.
Sinapi Aba Savings and Loans (SASL)’s Alternative Collateral Pilot Evaluation
Gender, women empowerment and serving women is paramount and serves as the focus of SASL’s operations. This is what drives them to continuously improve their products in order to better serve women entrepreneurs. An assessment by their project management team revealed that women lack the capacity to provide sufficient collateral in securing funds to run their business.
To address this challenge, the SASL team developed a new product – the Alternative Credit Collateral Product – which accepts other forms of collateral such as household appliances, moveable assets, cash flow statements, and undocumented assets, among others.
PDA, together with Collaborative impact, was commissioned to evaluate the Alternative Credit Collateral Product. The Before and After design of project evaluation was adopted in evaluating the product. PDA through the REL team led the development of qualitative interview guides, trained and deployed enumerators to the field. PDA also analysed the quantitative data of 105 clients from SASL’s Management Information System (MIS) database for the baseline, midline and endline evaluations. In addition, qualitative data was analysed and triangulated with the quantitative findings to make the business case that expanding the range of acceptable collateral, it is possible for Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) to provide much-needed capital to women entrepreneurs and help them grow their businesses without increasing the risk of default.
Fourth Round of Tony’s Chocolonely Living Standard and Welfare Survey.
PDA was commissioned by Tony’s Chocolonely as their research partner to undertake a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)/ Living Standards and Welfare Survey (LSWS) data collection in its partner cooperatives in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The data collection has been happening for the past three years, and this year is its fourth round. The survey aims to provide Tony’s with reliable data on the standard of living and poverty levels of the farmers who produce their cocoa. The data will also serve as a baseline for future studies/surveys among the same group of respondents. PDA programmed the questionnaire (CAPI design) for electronic data collection in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, trained enumerators and pretested the survey tool. The team also managed the quantitative database and processed the data using Stata for analysis.
Endline Evaluation of Financial Inclusion for Enterprise Development (FINEDEV) Project
This was a five-year project commissioned by Opportunity International Canada (OIC) in partnership with two implementing institutions in Ghana, Sinapi Aba Savings and Loans (SASL) and Opportunity International Savings and Loans (OISL). The project aimed to grow Small, Medium Enterprises (SME) and increase employment especially for women through the provision of loan facilities. The evaluation adopted the Qualitative Impact Protocol (QuIP) – a qualitative approach – to assess the impact of the loans on the growth of the SMEs, including increased profits and employment, among others. The endline evaluation was conducted by PDA and Bath SDR. PDA led the training of researchers, data collection and quality-assured all transcripts. The REL team also supported the development of interview and FGD guides/tools, as well as leading the planning and coordination of the entire data collection exercise.
Ongoing Projects
“I Am Aware” Monitoring and Evaluation Support
‘I Am Aware’ is a civic accountability program implemented by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD). The ‘I Am Aware’ (IAA) project is a citizen empowerment campaign which seeks to provide the citizenry with user-friendly information on the state of service delivery in Ghana to assist and empower them to demand for better services. Through this, duty bearers are put on their toes to provide what is due citizens, leading to an increased responsiveness and accountability on the part of service providers.
PDA’s role on the project focuses on the assessment and monitoring of activities by the various IAA partners in the IAA districts to support the project’s effective implementation. This includes the development of project outcome mapping and an evidence-based learning framework, support in developing smart (CAPI) monitoring systems/platforms for real-time data capturing, processing and visualization, as well as tools for documenting learnings and lessons. PDA also supports with the organization of learning workshops to discuss emerging findings with relevant stakeholders and also carry out periodic field monitoring and snap evaluation of project goals and objectives in the 8 IAA districts on the Phase III of the project. Thus far, PDA has paid monitoring visits to some districts, as well as shared some reports with CDD. Currently, PDA is preparing to conduct the endline evaluation.
Impact Partner for Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works in Ghana
PDA working with SDD-UBIDS and Mobile Web Ghana as the Impact Partner Organization (IPO) for Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works in Ghana. The IPO team is providing impact monitoring and technical support to the Foundation in the implementation of the Young Africa Works in Ghana. The IPO, led by PDA, has just completed a nationwide baseline data collection to set the benchmark for impact monitoring. Data processing and reporting for the baseline assessment are currently ongoing.