Ghana CompactGhana Water and Sanitation Sub-Activity Evaluation
Project Description
The Rural Development Project’s Community Services Activity of the Ghana Compact complements the Agriculture Project by investing in education, water and sanitation, and rural electrification infrastructure in districts targeted for assistance under the Agriculture Project, and by enhancing the capacity of local governments to deliver the related services. As part of this Activity, MCC funding will be used to construct boreholes, extensions of small-town water systems, and an extension of the Tamale urban water system to surrounding communities. These investments are intended to improve health, reduce the incidence of illness and loss of productivity due to unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation and hygiene, and reduce the time required to procure potable water.
Evaluation Description
The impact evaluation will seek to answer the following questions:
- How has the investment in water systems improved health conditions for the beneficiary communities?
- Are the improvements in health conditions attributable to the improved water systems, and why?
- Have the improvements in health resulted in increased availability of labor for economic activities?
The evaluation will use a matching design to compare treatment and control communities, and a difference-in-difference estimator will be used to assess the Activity’s impact. Although the Activity is administered to communities, the principal unit of observation and analysis is the household.
Data Collection
A household water use survey will be conducted for this evaluation. The survey will sample 550 households in both the treatment and control communities for a total of 1,100 households. Baseline data was collected in October 2010 by Pan African Field Services, Ltd. (Panafields) in collaboration with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). The follow up survey will be conducted following the completion of the Compact program in 2012.