Impact Evaluation for Business Development in El Salvador

Project Description

The goal of the MCC El Salvador Compact is to improve the lives of Salvadorans through strategic investments in education, public services, agricultural production, rural business development, and transportation infrastructure. Specifically, through the Productive Development Project (PDP), MCC funding aims to: (1) provide technical assistance to farmers and business development services; (2) support capital investment to selected applicants for commercial activities; and (3) provide credit guarantees and technical assistance to financial institutions in the Northern Zone. For more information see the El Salvador Country Page.

Evaluation Description

The evaluation will estimate the impact of the provision of training, technical assistance and in-kind goods on producers in three value chains: dairy, handicrafts, and horticulture. (The other value chains including fruit, forestry, and tourism are not included in this evaluation because of the longer-term nature of their benefits. Furthermore, services to the forestry value chain may be discontinued. The evaluation described here covers activities 1 and the parts of activity 3 that are tied to activity 1. The evaluation plan for activity 2 is still under development.)  The main outcomes for all three value chains are: beneficiary income, employment generation and investment. In addition, the evaluation will address impacts on intermediate outcomes, such as business practices and plans, technology adoption, product diversification, and value chain integration. Because all of the PDP beneficiaries cannot be served in one year, but will be served over the course of four years, the evaluation design is a randomized rollout. Under this design, all eligible beneficiaries identified by the implementer will be offered the intervention; however, the timing of service delivery will be randomized. For more information see the evaluation’s design report.

Data Collection

The data for this evaluation will be collected through household surveys of eligible beneficiaries in all three value chains. The handicraft survey will interview 750 artisans, and the samples will be 595 and 647 for dairy and horticulture, respectively. The baseline for handicrafts was completed in 2009 and other two will be completed by July 2010. The first round of follow-up surveys will be completed in 2010 for handicrafts and 2011 for the remaining two value chains. The second and final round of surveys will be completed in 2011 and 2012.

Timeline