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The survey results...show that the Project’s presence in Chad hasglobally contributed to an improvement in the local population’sliving conditions. No evidence observed during the field studynor any survey results suggest that the Project led to an increasein the poverty already existing in the region.

- Socioeconomic Monitoring Survey, February 2004Groupe d’Étude des Populations Forestières Équatoriales (GEPFE)

fter months of field research in the villages of southern Chad, a team ofsocial anthropologists has determined that the Chad/Cameroon

Development Project has significantly improved living conditions for thepeople who live in the oil field and pipeline route areas.

The researchers sampled data for over 3,900 households and conducteddetailed interviews with over 2,800 of them. Information gained from thedetailed interviews was compiled to produce a village-by-villagesocioeconomic index score similar to the United Nations Human DevelopmentIndex. The study index tallied the presence or absence of a set of standardquality of life indicators in each household. The researchers then comparedindex scores for living conditions in Project-area villages with scores for a setof control villages located well outside the Project area.

• Project-area villages scored as high as 8.7 and no lower than 6.5 on thesocioeconomic index depending on their proximity to the Oil FieldDevelopment Area.

• Villages outside the Project area scored an average of 3.6 on thesocioeconomic index, roughly half as high as Project-area villages.

The Project provided funding to an independent NGO to conduct the study insupport of its commitment to follow World Bank environmental andsocioeconomic monitoring guidelines. Given the thousands of field interviewsconducted by the researchers, the study may be the most extensive survey ofsocioeconomic impacts ever conducted for an industrial development project

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in Africa. A similar study with more than 4,000 household interviews is alsobeing compiled for Cameroon.

Note: Data for this study of village-level impacts were collected in 2003, before anydisbursement of oil production royalty and tax payments. The study thus reflects onlythe impacts of local Project economic activity prior to the first flow of oil revenues. Astudy has also been conducted on the Project’s current and projected macro economiceffects, including future oil revenues. That study was summarized in QuarterlyReport #13, in the EMP Monitoring & Management section.

One of the study authors conducts a field interview with a family in southern Chad.The team conducting the study was assembled by a Paris-based NGO, theGroupe d’Étude des Populations Forestières Équatoriales (GEPFE). The detailedresults of the study summarized here will be available on the websitehttp://www.ulb.ac.be/socio/anthropo/tchad of the Université Libre de Bruxelles,Centre d’Anthropologie Culturelle, the academic affiliation of one of the authors.

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This simplified version of a graph from the study demonstrates, as the authors put it,“that the Project has had a notable impact on quality of life.” The graph compares thescores for living conditions in the control villages with the much higher scores found invillages located in the Project area.

• Higher socioeconomic index scores were recorded in the villages locatedclosest to the Oil Field Development Area where Project employment andcompensation have been most significant and longstanding.

• The highest socioeconomic index scores were found in households thathad the most direct economic connections to the Project throughemployment and compensation.

- Households where someone had been both employed by the Projectand also compensated for land use had an average score above 12.

- Households where someone had been either employed or compensatedhad average scores in the range of 8.7 to 9.5.

• Even households with no direct economic connection to the Projectexperienced significantly improved living conditions due to the generalupturn in economic activity in the Project area. Non-beneficiaryhouseholds in the Oil Field Development Area and the pipeline corridorscored an average of 5.3 compared to the average score of 3.6 for thecontrol villages outside the Project area.

The socioeconomic index protocol assigned or subtracted points for thepresence or absence of specific quality of life indicators relating to housing,income, possessions, access to education and health care, infant mortality, andchildhood diseases. The study thus provides insight into a range of specificimprovements in living conditions in Project-area villages.

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• People in the Project area tended to have better housing. Metal roofs andcemented walls were observed five times more often in Project-areavillages compared to the control villages.

• People living in the Project area have better access to improved diets asindicated by their ability to obtain meat and fish.

- Only one-third of the control village families had consumed fish ormeat the day before their interview.

- By contrast, two-thirds of those who had received both Project wagesand compensation at some time in the past had eaten fish or meat theday before the interview.

- Half of those who had received either Project wages or compensationhad eaten meat or fish the day before the interview.

• Nearly all of the households in the Project area (90%) reported usingmosquito nets for malaria prevention, a result of the Project-funded RollBack Malaria campaign. By comparison, 10% of control village householdsreported using mosquito nets.

• Children in all southern Chadian households suffer from a high rate ofdiarrhea or fever. However, households outside the Project area reportedthese illnesses in two-thirds of the interviews compared to less than half inthe Project area households.

Note: The study authors report that child mortality rates remain very highthroughout southern Chad, perhaps because it is too soon for improved livingconditions to have made a long term difference in medical care and survivabilityfor those who become ill. About two thirds of the deaths noted during the studyperiod were children under five years of age and death rates were comparable in allof the surveyed villages.

• Project salaries and compensation have made it possible for households inthe Project area to possess items such as bicycles, cattle, oxcarts, ploughsand radios at twice the rate of households in the control villages.

• School attendance did not appear to have been significantly influenced bythe improved living conditions in the Project area. The authors point outthat education is highly valued in the culture of southern Chad and schoolfees are very low. Therefore, where schools exist they are fully utilized andattendance levels generally do not correlate to income. (The survey wasconducted prior to the beginning of the construction of a number ofschools as part of the Project’s community compensation program.)

• Extensive interviews of people who had migrated to the Project area inhopes of jobs or other types of economic gain revealed that residents ofspontaneous settlements such as Komé Atan:

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- Generally were experiencing much better living conditions thanresidents of control villages (average socioeconomic index of 7.6compared to 3.6).

- Had, however, slightly lower living conditions compared to otherresidents in the Project area (average socioeconomic index of 7.6compared to 8.7). The difference was primarily due to the poor qualityof materials used to build the temporary dwellings found inspontaneous settlements.

The point scoring system of the socioeconomic index used a methodologysimilar to the one used for the United Nations Human Development Index.

- Points were added for such items as dwellings with metal roofs,dwellings constructed of baked versus mud bricks, recent access tomodern medicines, possession of agricultural items like plows or cattle,and ownership of equipment such as sewing machines or bicycles.

- Points were subtracted for negative quality of life indicators such asrecent diarrhea, fever, or deaths of children under five years old.

The standard survey forms used in the interviews made it easy to observe andrecord the presence of concrete quality of life items such as metal roofs orplows and tally them for the index. This approach helped the interviewerverify, clarify, or correct the claims of the householders. The protocol was thusaimed at overcoming a challenge faced by all field researchers conducting suchsurveys anywhere in the world. It is a fact of human nature that people tend togive misleading answers to outsiders because they wish to either inflate theirsuccess or hide it for various reasons. In fact, this issue appears to be aparticular challenge presented by the cultures of southern Chad. As theauthors explain:

“The ease and vigor with which villagers elude questions, turn around thetruth or just plain lie is remarkable. This attitude originates in afundamental cultural trait, where knowledge and power are intimatelylinked and where deceit or hiding information from others is considered aneffective way of protecting oneself.”

The study’s quantitative, statistical methodology was thus aimed atovercoming these cultural traits in order to obtain the most reliable datapossible. As shown in the study, the main motives for disguising reality werejealousy, fear of expressing one’s opinion regarding a third party, or the hopethat a particular answer might result in some sort of personal advantage.

Another important factor in obtaining quality statistical data was thecomposition of the research team. Three Chadian research assistants joinedtwo veteran field researchers from GEPFE, who have many years of experiencedoing studies in West Africa. The assistants were carefully trained to use thestandard questionnaires. Because the assistants shared ethnic and languagebackgrounds with the interview subjects, they were adept at detecting andcorrecting misleading responses. The supervising veteran researchers also

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conducted interviews themselves and performed daily quality control crosschecks on the survey forms recorded by the research assistants.

One of the most significant impacts of the Project has been improved housingthrough use of mortared baked bricks, metal roofs, or cement floors.

Residents of Project-area villages are twice as likely to have meat or fish in theirmeals, indicating they have better diets than those living in the control villagesoutside the Project area.

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Farmers in the Project-area are much more likely to have plows and cattle,improving their chances of harvest success.

Following the Project-funded Roll Back Malaria campaign, roughly 90% of theProject-area households have mosquito nets for malaria prevention compared toonly 10% in control villages.

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