New research project investigating the assessment of rural transformation in Africa
16 April 2012
Professor James Copestake has been awarded £423,351 for a three year project, titled ‘Impact assessment based on self-reported attribution in complex contexts of rural livelihood transformations in Africa’.
The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and Department for International Development.
The project will address the issue of how to assess the impact of development activities intended to benefit poor men, women and children caught up in complex processes of rural transformation in Africa. It will focus particularly on the work of two NGOs; Self Help Africa and Farm Africa, in Malawi and Ethiopia.
More specifically it will assess scope for rigorous and cost-effective impact assessment based on systematic monitoring of economic security at the household level combined with in-depth interviewing to elicit self-reported attribution by respondents. This approach can be contrasted with both participatory approaches to impact assessment, and those that rely on statistically inferred attribution using either randomised control trials or quasi-experimental methods.
Further information
If you would like to find out more about this project then please contact Professor James Copestake.
