Researchers Meet Government Officials of Burkina Faso for Preparation of Public Goods Experiment and School Enrollment Survey

A research team for “Impact Evaluation Analyses for the JICA Projects” is currently working on an impact evaluation of JICA’s project ‘School for All (Support to the Improvement of School Management through Community Participation)’ conducted in Burkina Faso of West Africa.

From early to mid-October, JICA-RI’s visiting fellow Yasuyuki Sawada (team leader) and research associate, Eiji Kozuka (research coordinator) visited the country. In the capital city Ouagadougou and their research site Ganzougou Province, they held meetings with officials at the provincial office of Ministry of Education as well as the National Institute of Statistics and Demography (INSD).

The research team has been carrying out field surveys in Burkina Faso since 2009. This year, they plan to implement the following three surveys: 1) a wide area survey (interviewing school principals, teachers, students and parents; 2) a public goods experiment -- a standard method in experimental economics -- (observing how far teachers, parents, and members of the School Management Committee would trust each other and cooperate voluntarily); and 3) a school enrollment survey (measuring enrollment ratio of primary schools.)

In the last field trip in September 2010, Kozuka and the INSD officials checked the contents, methods and operational plans of the above three surveys for full versions scheduled from late November to December 2011. This time, the team provided the INSD with practical trainings on how to implement an economic experiment and performed pretests at six elementary schools in Ganzougou Province.

Before the pretests, Sawada and the members found some facts that could constrain the experiment such as the INSD researchers’ lack of experience in economic experiments, and the difference in mother tongue spoken by the respondents (Mole) and the researchers (French). Still, as the local counterparts have experience in implementing large-scale censuses and are with high capacity and motivation, the team could prepare everything towards the end of the pretests. The problems discovered are expected to be cleared before the implementation of full economic experiments.

Once all the surveys are completed, the INSD will organize the results into panel database by next March and soon afterward JICA-RI research team will proceed with further analyses using the collected data.

RELATED RESEARCH AREA：Aid Strategies

RELATED RESEARCH PROJECT：Impact Evaluation Analyses for the JICA Projects