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Abstract
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This proposed evaluation aims to examine the impact of a multi-component productive inclusion intervention on poor, social safety net program beneficiaries in Ghana. To be carried out by the government, the treatment comprises of the provision of microenterprise skills training, start-up lump sum cash grants, mentoring and coaching, linkages to market opportunities, and financial inclusion activities. In line with the Graduation Approach, the program seeks to durably lift beneficiaries out of extreme poverty. The evaluation will be based on a randomized phase-in design, with randomization into phases performed at the community level. Impact will be evaluated by comparing outcomes at baseline and at follow-up and between phase-1 and phase-2 communities. Treatment is expected to be staggered by at least one year.
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After
This evaluation examines the impact of the Complementary Livelihood and Asset Support Scheme (CLASS) - a multi-component productive inclusion intervention on poor, social safety net program beneficiaries in Ghana. To be carried out by the government, the treatment comprises of the provision of microenterprise skills training, start-up lump sum cash grants, mentoring and coaching, and financial inclusion activities. In line with the Graduation Approach, the program seeks to durably lift beneficiaries out of extreme poverty. The evaluation will be based on a randomized phase-in design, with randomization into phases performed at the community level. Impact will be evaluated by comparing outcomes at baseline and at follow-up and between batch-2 and batch-3 communities. Treatment is expected to be staggered by at least one year.
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Trial Start Date
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August 03, 2020
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October 18, 2021
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Trial End Date
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August 07, 2023
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December 31, 2022
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Last Published
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June 04, 2020 02:22 PM
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October 14, 2021 10:25 AM
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Intervention (Public)
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The intervention targets 25,000 beneficiaries from extremely poor households in the Upper East, Upper West, North-East, Northern and Savannah Regions. Beneficiaries will receive (i) training in life skills, entrepreneurship, business management; and vocational skills; (ii) start-up lump sum grants; (iii) coaching and mentoring; (iv) marketing and support to link to on-going agricultural activities; and (v) access to finance support (through village savings and loan associations (VSLA) and local banks).
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The Complementary Livelihood and Assets Support Scheme (CLASS) facilitates income generation activities (IGAs) for 30,579 beneficiaries from the Labor-Intensive Public Works (LIPW) program and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfers program. Under CLASS, the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development (MLGDRD) will first carry out market feasibility studies of various livelihoods projects and through its zonal offices, the ministry will facilitate the selection of communities and households to undertake productive activities in selected projects. Selected individuals will benefit from life skills and micro-enterprise skills trainings; provision of start-up lump sum cash grants; and mentoring and coaching.
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Intervention Start Date
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August 03, 2020
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November 30, 2021
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Intervention End Date
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August 07, 2023
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December 31, 2021
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Experimental Design (Public)
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The intervention will be implemented in three phases. Phase one will target 52 (out of 252) communities to receive while phases 2 and 3 each target 200 communities. Phase 2 and 3 communities will serve as the evaluation communities from which baseline community, individual, and household surveys will be conducted. After the baseline surveys are completed, intervention services can be initiated in 100 of them (selected at random from the 200). The remaining 100 would receive intervention services between 1-2 years after the first set of 100 evaluation communities receive intervention services.
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The intervention will be implemented in three phases. Phase one will target 136 (out of 455) communities to receive the treatment while phases 2 and 3 each target 153 and 206 communities, respectively. Phase 2 and 3 communities will serve as the evaluation communities from which baseline community, individual, and household surveys will be conducted. Per sample and power calculations, the experiment requires a minimum of 180 communities (and 15 individuals per community). As such, 180 communities are randomized into the experiment - 90 treated (batch 2) and 90 control (from batch 3). The baseline survey is conducted from all 180 communities (2,700 individuals). After the baseline surveys are completed, the intervention can be initiated in 90 of them (batch 2) towards the end of 2021. The remaining 90 experimental communities are left untreated until at least the end of 2022 (or 1 year after the end of the treatment of batch 1 communities).
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Randomization Method
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Randomization will be done in STATA.
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Randomization done in STATA 16.
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Randomization Unit
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Community and individual level randomization
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Community randomization into treatment/control areas.
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Planned Number of Clusters
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200 communities
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180 communities
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Planned Number of Observations
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2630 beneficiaries
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2,700 households
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Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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1,315 treated, 1,315 control beneficiaries
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90 treated communities (1350 households), 90 control communities (1350 households)
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Power calculation: Minimum Detectable Effect Size for Main Outcomes
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6 percent difference in household food expenditure. Using the latest round of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS 7), we estimate the control-group mean household food consumption in North Ghana to be GHC349.09/month with a standard deviation of GHC164.
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Using the latest round of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS 7), we estimate the control-group mean household food consumption in the northern regions of Ghana to be GHC349.09/month with a standard deviation of GHC164. After the intervention, we expect our sample to detect a minimum of 6 percent increase in household food expenditure among households in treated communities. The intra-cluster correlation used corresponds to 0.016, which was used in an impact evaluation of a related program in the same region in 2016 (see pre-analysis plan for details).
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Keyword(s)
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Finance, Firms And Productivity, Labor, Other, Welfare
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Agriculture, Finance, Firms And Productivity, Gender, Welfare
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Intervention (Hidden)
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The Complementary Livelihood and Assets Support Scheme (CLASS) facilitates income generation activities (IGAs) for 30,579 beneficiaries from the Labor-Intensive Public Works (LIPW) program and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfers program. Under CLASS, the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development (MLGDRD) will first carry out market feasibility studies of various livelihoods projects and through its zonal offices, the ministry will facilitate the selection of communities and households to undertake productive activities in selected projects. Selected individuals will benefit from life skills and micro-enterprise skills trainings; provision of start-up lump sum cash grants; and mentoring and coaching.
Per guidelines prepared by MLGDRD, district authorities identify and rank all communities with LEAP and LIPW households based on the district’s poverty profile. Each district is then required to select a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 7 communities. Preparatory activities and community fora are then set up prior to beneficiary selection. Information and sensitization campaigns are carried out by the District CLASS Implementation Teams (DCIT) under the guidance of the Zonal Office. The sensitization programs are aimed at informing all potential beneficiaries about the purpose and objective of CLASS and its implementation modalities. Within selected communities, at most 1 adult per household will be eligible only if they are LEAP or LIPW beneficiaries; and that their poverty levels are within the extremely poor category. Individuals indicate three preferred IGAs as part of enrolment by the Rural Development Coordination Unit (RDCU). Prospective beneficiaries must either be interested in commencing a new IGA or seeking additional investment for an existing IGA that is on the DA’s positive list.
Once beneficiaries are selected and enrolled, they are put into groups of 10-25 across communities based on their IGAs. These groups are to be formed for the purposes of training as beneficiaries will not be compelled to work together on collective income generating activities (although they may choose to do so of their own volition to enjoy the benefits of economies of scale). Upon completion of all required trainings and other preparatory activities, each beneficiary will be provided with a lump sum cash grant up to the cedi equivalent of US$200 to assist beneficiaries in setting up, operating, and/or expanding their enterprise activities. The cash grant ceiling is informed by national and international experiences. The cash grants will be disbursed in two to three tranches with the understanding that the release of subsequent tranches will be conditional on satisfactory utilization of the previous tranche(s) and the completion of specific milestones as determined by the supervising DCIT and the approving authority. All beneficiaries who receive the first tranche will be required to either enroll with a Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) or show evidence of savings to qualify for subsequent tranches. All CLASS grants will be disbursed through an electronic payment platform. In this regard an e-payment Service Provider (with offline and biometric capabilities) will be engaged by MLGDRD.
The intervention’s theory of change assumes that immediate outputs from the provision of start-up grants and skills training include enterprise formation, and that outputs from coaching and mentoring include expanded sales and increased market share. The overall development objective or outcomes from the project include (i) increased productivity and incomes; (ii) increased local employment; (iii) increased health and education expenditures; (iv) women’s empowerment; and (v) falling poverty, among other things. The novelty of the productive inclusion intervention lies not in its constituent components, but in the way that components are combined in a holistic way to lift households out of extreme poverty while ensuring they do not slip backward from shocks along the way.
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Did you obtain IRB approval for this study?
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No
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Yes
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Pi as first author
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No
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Yes
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Public locations
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No
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Yes
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Building on Existing Work
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Yes
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