Social registry targeting in Mauritania

Last registered on January 31, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Social registry targeting in Mauritania
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015027
Initial registration date
December 13, 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
December 17, 2024, 8:41 AM EST

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

Last updated
January 31, 2025, 11:20 AM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Bordeaux

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-12-22
End date
2026-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Can social registries identify potential beneficiaries for social protection interventions at scale–in countries with low administrative capacities? The objective of this research is to answer this question in the context of Mauritania, which is currently updating its national social registry. Specifically, will explore targeting options offered by the new innovative process implemented by the social registry for improving targeting efficiency and legitimacy. While the identification of beneficiaries previously was based on community-based targeting (CBT), it has now moved largely to a system based on scoring, combined with community adjustments. In addition, the number of beneficiaries per village (quota) is now determined by the actual score of households, while it was previously based on imprecise poverty estimates at the commune level. We are implementing a 2 x 3 RCT design with the government of Mauritania to test the improvements introduced by the new process. In doing so, we are exploring questions related to the selection of beneficiaries of social programs related to thresholds, inclusive combination of methods, and legitimacy among local communities.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Stoeffler, Quentin, Frieda Vandeninden and Margaux Vinez. 2025. "Social registry targeting in Mauritania." AEA RCT Registry. January 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15027-1.1
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We partnered with the government and the World Bank to study the improvements introduced by an updating of the social registry. Mauritania was one of the first countries of the Sahel region to implement a social registry and to reach national coverage by 2020. The social registry includes 28% of the population and is used by more than 20 programs, including its national food and cash transfer programs. The government has started to update and expand the social registry in 2023, which should be completed by the end of 2024. In doing so, the government introduced a series of important improvements of the social registry process:
- While the identification of beneficiaries was based on community-based targeting (CBT), it has now moved largely to a system based on scoring combined with community selection.
- The number of beneficiaries per village (quota) is now determined by the actual score of households, while it was previously based on imprecise poverty estimates at the commune level.
Intervention Start Date
2024-12-22
Intervention End Date
2025-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We are focusing on outcomes of targeting efficiency and legitimacy.
For targeting efficiency, we will focus on targeting errors and poverty reduction simulations based on the following primary outcomes:
- Per capita consumption
- Food security (FCS)
- Multidimensional poverty
For legitimacy, we will measure the satisfaction with the targeting process and outcomes.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
We will consider a wide range of secondary outcomes to understand the determinants of targeting (especially community selection). These outcomes include:
- connections (e.g. elite capture)
- socio-demographic variables
- sources of income (including agricultural and non-agricultural activities)
- assets
- mental health
- psycho-socio measures
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This research will assess whether these improvements lead to changes in targeting in terms of efficiency, legitimacy and impacts. We will test three main hypotheses:
a. The union of scoring (60 to 80%) and CBT (20 to 40%) reduces exclusion errors compared to traditional hybrid methods that selects the intersection of PMT and CBT, while improving the legitimacy of the targeting scheme.
b. Targeting thresholds have important effects on targeting outcomes, with higher selection rates leading to lower levels of targeting errors and higher legitimacy.
c. The two previous improvements translate into larger impacts of social programs that rely on the improved targeting mechanism of the updated version of the social registry.
To test the efficiency, legitimacy and impacts of these innovations of the social registry, we will conduct a randomized control trial (RCT) comparing different targeting mechanisms. Specifically, we will test the improvement in terms of selection quota by randomizing this innovation at the commune level. Then, at the locality (village) level, we will randomly allocate targeting as a scoring mechanism, a community-based targeting method, or a combination of both (with the union approach).
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is conducted on a computer by the research team.
Randomization Unit
Randomization is conducted at the level of the localité (equivalent to the village in Mauritania).
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
We randomized 330 localités (villages).
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan to collect data among 3960 observations (12 households per localité).
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We have 55 localité per treatment arm (330 localités randomly allocated to 6 treatment arms of equal size).
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We conducted power calculations based on nationally representative data (2019 LSMS data) and using similar studies (such as Premand & Schnitzer, 2021) for calibrating Minimal Detectable Effects. These calculations indicate a required sample size of approximatively 4000 households for the baseline survey. With this sample size, we will be able to detect a difference of 0.2 sd in per capita consumption between two treatment arms.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
HML IRB
IRB Approval Date
2024-11-24
IRB Approval Number
2733
IRB Name
ANSADE
IRB Approval Date
2024-12-20
IRB Approval Number
000562
Analysis Plan

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