Availability of geospatial data and related opportunities for geospatial analysis should be reviewed early in the evaluation design process as geospatial data can be key in telling the story of land use change. A geospatial expert should be part of the oversight to ensure accuracy of the analysis. For the Land Administration Reform Activity (LARP) evaluation, the World Bank conducted household panel surveys and used satellite imagery from the Government of Lesotho from 2013 and 2016 to understand changes in land use. However, it was not an easy process. LARP evaluation’s baseline geospatial data was inaccurate. The World Bank found that many of the spatial locations gathered were in South Africa rather than Lesotho. This led to significant level of effort to try and locate the original parcels for the panel survey. In the end, the World Bank was able to locate the majority of parcels using other means. The World Bank and other current MCC evaluations include geospatial expertise as key personnel when evaluations call for exploration, collection, or analysis of geospatial data.
For analyzing land use change, the initial evaluation design had not considered using geospatial data—only a household survey. As such, the evaluation was dependent on existing data that had been collected by others. The World Bank was able to use 2013 and 2016 imagery that the Government of Lesotho had obtained to review changes in land use, but it would have been better if the World Bank was able to obtain data before 2013 to see the changes in land development that was occurring leading up to the systematic regularization effort and beyond 2016. MCC has been working with geospatial experts to help understand when and how we should obtain, share and use geospatial data for understanding outcomes like land use change.