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

Country
Ghana
Region
Upper West

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
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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 (Hidden)
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

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
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

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
NORC Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2023-11-02
IRB Approval Number
23-09-1472
IRB Name
COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESEARCH, PUBLICATION AND ETHICS at Kwame Nkrumah University
IRB Approval Date
2023-11-13
IRB Approval Number
CHRPE/AP/1014/23
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre Analysis Plan

MD5: 3e1298538198a2a52bc05fa7e373fe14

SHA1: 4c45d36f346ab7ebee860b19337c30c41f84e503

Uploaded At: July 25, 2024

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials