SAGA Briefing Report
November, 2003

• Household Panel data survey—
  Pending confirmation of funding from SISERA. Establishing a major panel data set for Ghana. Ghana, despite its rich household survey data sets, lacks a quantitative longitudinal panel. Proposal has been developed by ISSER and CEPA, with help from Cornell-SAGA, and has been submitted to SISERA.

• The Role of Rural Factor Markets in Reducing Poverty, Risks and Vulnerability in Rural Kenya.
  Led by the University of Nairobi Department of Agricultural Economics in cooperation with the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR), the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) and the Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development. This study will collect primary data from a sample of farmers in Vihiga and Kakamega districts in western Kenya in order to investigate the role of access to rural factor markets in influencing poverty, risk and vulnerability among the rural poor.
  
  
• A Study of Producer Organisations in Liberalised Kenyan Economy.
  Led by Tegemeo in collaboration with KIPPRA, the University of Nairobi and IPAR, will collect primary data in 24 Districts in Kenya, building on existing panel data from throughout the country Tegemeo has collected previously. The objective of this study is to understand the factors that drive meso-level institutional change in producer and credit cooperatives, self-help groups and private companies within the agricultural sector and the impact of those changes on market participation, incomes, risk exposure and general welfare of farmers in Kenya.
  
  
• Effects of Market Price Volatility On Production Patterns and Apparent Retreat Into Subsistence Farming By Kenyan Smallholders.
  Led by KIPPRA, in collaboration with IPAR, Nairobi and Tegemeo, is collecting survey data in Makueni and Kakamega districts to analyze the effects of the changing food market structure on price distributions and crop production patterns and marketing strategies among small-scale farmers.
  
  
• Enhancing Access, Accountability and Empowerment for the Poor through Decentralization and Participation Case for agricultural extension services.
  Led by IPAR in cooperation with Tegemeo, KIPPRA and the University of Nairobi, is conducting primary data collection in Kakamega and Makueni Districts to establish the extent to which decentralization of agricultural extension services strengthens popular participation, local accountability and empowerment of the poor by enhancing access to agricultural extension information, as well as how this affects efficacy in serving the poor.

• Facilities survey.
  Detailed questionnaires were administered to the main public clinic or hospital and the main private facility serving the 80 communities covered by the survey. The surveys were designed with the help of and administered by medical professionals. They contain information on physical characteristics of the facility, availability of equipment, medicines, skilled personnel and other supplies, and personnel policies, and feature direct observations by medical professionals of facility health practitioners with their patients.
  
  
• Health District survey.
  With decentralization, financial and organizational decision making shifted to the country’s 111 health districts. These surveys provide information on the relations of the health district authority with local facilities on the one hand, and the central health authority, on the other.
  
  
• Household welfare and health care survey.
  These surveys are administered to households previously surveyed in selected communities in the 2003 nationwide household survey. They collect a range of data on household welfare and health care usage in particular, including perceptions on the quality of local public and private services.
  
  
• Client survey.
  Exit surveys of patients of the health facilities chosen for the facility surveys, gathering information on perceptions of the quality of care and costs of services. The Ministry of Education has also asked our help in designing and implementing several school and education focused surveys. They are in the planning stages, and we expect them to begin in the spring of 2004. We have secured financing for the surveys from the World Bank.

• PASEC survey and tests of academic achievement.
  A cohort of students in randomly selected rural and urban public primary schools were given scholastic tests in the second grade and again in the fifth grade to chart academic progress.
  
  
• Household survey.
  The current research visits the children in the original cohort for the PASEC tests (whether still in school or not), as well as a random sample of similar-aged children at their homes and conducts detailed household interviews. The surveys are standard household surveys but are adapted to elicit specific information related to the schooling history of the children, e.g. past events such as family illness that may have affected performance or attendance at school. All school age students are also administered tests of academic knowledge and knowledge of ‘life skills’.
  
  
• School survey.
  Detailed information was collected from local primary and lower secondary schools, including but not limited to the school covered by the original PASEC study. The information involves various aspects of school quality and pedagogical practice, especially practices that may differentially affect enrollment and learning of girls and boys.
  
  
• Community survey.
  Local leaders and officials were interviewed to gather information on the local environment that may affect the demand for schooling and its quality, including, for example, the extent of community involvement in the operation of local schools.
  
  

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