Mozambique Compact

Mozambique’s Rural Water Supply Project Evaluation

Logic Diagram

Evaluation Description

As part of the five year Compact between the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Government of Mozambique, the Rural Water Supply Project (RWSP) aims to reduce the incidence and severity of water related diseases and the burdens associated with collecting water. Approximately 600 rural communities in the Northern Provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado may participate voluntarily in the project, which aims to increase access to groundwater through safer and more accessible sources. Communities qualify and are prioritized in the program based on objective criteria. See the Mozambique Country Page for more information.

Using data collected at the household and community level, the proposed impact evaluation and research’s goals are to:

  1. Evaluate the economic and health impacts of the RWSP in the communities where it is implemented, and
  2. To generate new knowledge regarding innovations that can enhance the sustainability and economic benefits of rural water supply systems in developing countries.

Data Collection

The research team will use an experimental approach to the impact evaluation. Following a community-based assessment of the 600 MCA target communities, a subset of the participants will be randomly assigned to a program of technological and methodological innovations in rural water supply (RWS). These communities will constitute the treatment subset. (Because communities qualify and are prioritized for the Rural Water Supply Project based on a set of objective criteria, the participant groups are not random. However, the evaluation team will strive to randomize assignment to the treatment or control subsets within these larger participant groups.) This treatment subset will be compared to two control subsets. The first will be randomly selected from the pool of communities that do not receive any RWS innovations but do receive the standard borehole with hand-pump. The second control subset will be randomly selected from the pool of communities that qualified for an improved water source but were unable to receive one because of the project’s financial constraints.

The team will collect household level baseline and follow-up data on the three subsets and conduct a mid-term assessment using focus groups and other qualitative techniques.