RCT of Farmer-Herder Conflict Resolution Mechanisms in Upper West, Ghana

Last registered on August 06, 2024

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

RCT of Farmer-Herder Conflict Resolution Mechanisms in Upper West, Ghana

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0012874

Initial registration date

July 25, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

August 06, 2024, 10:50 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Gregory Haugan

Affiliation

NORC at the University of Chicago

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Alejandro Ome

PI Affiliation

NORC at the University of Chicago

PI Name

Kaderi Bukari

PI Affiliation

University of Cape Coast

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2023-11-20

End date

2025-01-31

Keywords

Agriculture, Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Governance

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

D74, D02

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Conflicts between Fulbe (also known as Fulani) pastoral herders and settled farming communities in Northern Ghana and the wider Sahel have grown more frequent and violent in recent years. While these conflicts are due in part to competition for scarce resources, exacerbated by climate change and increased migration from the Sahel, complex social forces are also at play, escalating conflicts into violence through interactions between and within social networks and key actors. Within this context, the USAID/OTI Littorals Regional Initiative (LRI) will implement a three-pronged intervention to address tensions between Fulbe herders and non-Fulbe farmers in a set of communities across the Upper West region of Norther Ghana: (1) a facilitated dialogue session between farmers and herders; (2) inter-ethnic mediation committees to resolve disputes; and (3) integrated Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) to increase contact and cooperation between the two groups.

The evaluation of the intervention is conducted as a cluster-randomized control trial in 46 communities across the region, where 23 are assigned to receive all three components of the three-pronged intervention, and 23 are assigned to a control condition. Key outcomes will be: perceptions among Fulbe and non-Fulbe households that disputes are resolved fairly, presence of recent violent conflict, perceived likelihood of future uncompensated crop destruction among non-Fulbe households, and perceived tenure security of Fulbe households. These outcomes are measured through baseline and endline household surveys with both men and women in Fulbe and non-Fulbe households, as well as surveys with community leaders.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Bukari, Kaderi, Gregory Haugan and Alejandro Ome. 2024. "RCT of Farmer-Herder Conflict Resolution Mechanisms in Upper West, Ghana." AEA RCT Registry. August 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12874-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

USAID/OTI Littorals Regional Initiative (LRI) will implement a three-pronged intervention to address tensions between Fulbe herders and non-Fulbe farmers in a set of communities across the Upper West region of Norther Ghana: (1) a facilitated dialogue session between farmers and herders; (2) inter-ethnic mediation committees to resolve disputes; and (3) integrated Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) to increase contact and cooperation between the two groups.

Intervention Start Date

2024-05-06

Intervention End Date

2024-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

(1) Tenure security:
(a) Percentage of Fulbe respondents who say it is unlikely they would be asked to leave the community in the next three years.
(b) Percentage of non-Fulbe respondents who say it is unlikely someone could destroy crops without adequate compensation in the next three years.

(2) Perceptions among Fulbe and non-Fulbe households that disputes are resolved fairly

(3) Presence of violent clashes during most recent rainy season.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

The survey questions measuring the outcomes listed above will be asked to one male and one female respondent in each household. Hypotheses will be tested separately by gender.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

See attached pre-analysis plan.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We conduct baseline and endline surveys (approximately one year apart) with households in 46 communities to form a two-period household-level panel. After the baseline survey, communities are matched using 1-1 matching without replacement, and then one community in each matched pair is randomly assigned to treatment and one to control. See pre-analysis plan for additional details.

After endline, we use an ANCOVA regression to test for the difference in outcomes between treatment and control groups at endline, controlling for baseline values of the outcome variable, fixed effects for district, and household- and respondent-level controls: gender, age, education, dummy for being born in the community, number of household members, dummy for all school-age children in school, number of cattle owned, and farm plot size.

As a robustness checks, we also run a Dif-in-Dif model with community fixed effects, and Dif-in-Dif with household-level fixed effects. The purpose of these is to see if the ANCOVA results remain robust to more demanding models with less statistical power.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Following baseline data collection, NORC conducted a community-level statistical matching exercise. The matching created a set of 23 blocked pairs of communities, where each blocked pair included a set of two statistically similar communities. NORC then randomly assigned one community in each blocked pair to treatment using a program run in an office by a computer. See pre-analysis plan for additional details.

Randomization Unit

Community

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

46 total - 23 treatment and 23 control.

Sample size: planned number of observations

10 Fulbe and 10 non-Fulbe households are surveyed in each of the 46 communities, for a total of 460 Fulbe and 460 non-Fulbe households, and a final sample of 920 total households. Hypothesis tests are run separately for Fulbe and non-Fulbe.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

23 treatment communities (with a total of 230 Fulbe and 230 non-Fulbe households), and 23 control communities (with a total of 230 Fulbe and 230 non-Fulbe households).

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB