Evaluation of Starter Pack 2Technical background

Statistical Services Centre

University of ReadingMalawi

23 August 2000

Background

• Objectives of Starter Pack

• Difficulty in measuring the net impact of Starter Pack

Objectives of Starter Pack

• To increase food production, in particular for maize

• To combat household food insecurity, particularly in the most vulnerable farm families

• Provision of legume crops to help improve soil fertility and diet

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Difficulty in measuring the net impact of Starter Pack

• Difficulty in finding a baseline for comparison

• Year to year changes affected by weather• “All farmers” were eligible• Variation in size of effects depending on

farmer characteristics such as wealth, sex, location, etc

•

How to assess the impact of SP?

• Looking at the multi-dimensional aspects of the impact of Starter Pack

• Triangulating the estimates of production and months of food produced through– Year to year comparisons

– Recipients versus non-recipients

– Farmers’ perceptions and experience

– Independent measures of ‘impact’ from each module in the evaluation.

Modular approach

• Module 1: Agronomic Survey• Module 2: Microeconomic Impact and Willingness

to Pay • Module 3: Gender and Intra-household Distribution• Module 4: Sustainable Agriculture and Biodiversity• Module 5: Ground Truth Study for SP Logistics

Unit Starter Pack Register•

Selection of sites

• Random selection of villages and households within villages

• Stratification by FEWS poverty and food security indices (M2), food security index (M3) and sphere of influence clusters (M4)

• An optimal number of sites has been selected within the resources available

• These elements will make it possible to reach generalisable conclusions and capture variability

Module 1: Agronomic Survey

• Consultant: National Statistical Office

• Coverage: National

• 200 Enumeration Areas covering all RDPs in the country

• 2992 households visited

• 3527 individuals interviewed

• Methodology: household survey and field visits

Module 2: Microeconomic Impact and Willingness to Pay• Consultant: Mzuzu ADD, Ministry of Agriculture. Team

leader: Mr Francis Nyirenda

• participatory preliminary study followed by a household survey

• The study visited 120 villages distributed in 30 EPAs. Stratification by Poverty Index and Sphere of influence (VAM 1996). 1,200 households visited

• Quantitative and qualitative methodsof research were combined

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Module 2Map of EPAs coveredand Number of villages visited

Module 3: Gender and Intra-household Distribution• Consultant: Chancellor College. Gender Studies and

Outreach Unit. Team Leader: Dr Lucy Binauli

• Preliminary phase based on participatory workshops

• Main phase based on restricted participatory methods combined with a short questionnaire

• Visited 48 villages in 24 EPAs throughout the country

• Consistent methodology and structured information recording used in all sites to allow integration of results

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Module 3Map of EPAs coveredand Number of villages visited

Module 4: Sustainable Agriculture and Biodiversity

• Consultants: Elizabeth Cromwell (ODI), Patrick Kambewa (Chancellor College), Richard Mwanza (Concern Universal), Rowland Chirwa (Chitedze Research Station) and Kwera (NGO)

• Participatory study of 30 villages randomly selected in the whole of Malawi using the VAM (1996) classification of EPAs by Sphere of Influence

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Module 4Map of EPAs coveredand Number of villages visited

Module 5: Ground Truth Study for SPLU

• Consultants: McNewman Msowoya, Mzuzu ADD, Peter Wingfield-Digby, Ian Wilson

• Census of 54 villages

• Comparison with the registration data for Starter Pack 2

• Comparison with the census 1998 results

• Assessment of the registration process in those villages.

Module 5Map of EPAs covered