SAGA Progress Report - Technical Assistance

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SAGA Progress Report
April, 2004

III. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Technical assistance under SAGA has included three types of activities: formal training workshops, support to SISERA’s research competition, and support to individual SISERA institutes in proposal preparation, planning research projects, and executing those projects.

Workshops

Kenya

In March, 2004, Chris Barrett co-led a SAGA workshop on the integration of qualitative and quantitative poverty methods. The workshop was hosted by KIPPRA, with about 50 participants from government ministries, the Central Bureau of Statistics, ILRI, ICRAF, Tegemeo, IPAR, KIPPRA, the University of Nairobi, and Kenyatta University. David Nalo, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Planning and National Development, gave the keynote address. The workshop received local radio and newspaper coverage. John Omiti and Walter Odhiambo are preparing a workshop proceedings volume.

East Africa

As it turns out, not everyone interested in combining qualitative and quantitative methods resides at Cornell! The East African Poverty Analysis and Data Initiative (PADI) at the World Bank contacted SAGA in January, 2004 about the possibility of a training workshop for East African participants. Because we, too, had planned such a workshop, we agreed to collaborate. In the end, SAGA did not contribute to the funding of this workshop because of our budget crisis, but we did send frequent collaborator Paul Shaffer as a resource person.

South Africa

SAGA’s June, 2003 training workshop at the Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) of the University of Capetown (UCT) led to demand for further such workshops in South Africa. In March, 2004, Ravi Kanbur, Paul Cichello, and Stephen Younger worked with the DPRU to offer a two-week training course in poverty and inequality analysis for the Department of Social Development (DSD), the government agency charged with design and management of most of South Africa’s transfer payments. The workshop was held in Pretoria at the government’s information technology training center. The course covered both theoretical and empirical aspects of poverty and inequality analysis, with daily hands-on training with Stata software in a computer lab.

As with our previous workshop, participants’ feedback was quite positive, with great demand for follow-on courses. Managers from the DSD also expressed interest in the possibility of collaborative research to analyze the data that they collect as part of their transfer payment schemes. Staff at DPRU agreed to a series of discussions about possible topics.

SISERA Proposal Review

As per the mode of operation described in last year’s report Stephen Younger continues to pre-screen proposals submitted to SISERA’s research competition. This includes recommendations to improve proposals, where appropriate, and suggestions for international experts to "coach" proposals through the preparation and review process. To date, we have reviewed 52 proposals, eight of which SISERA has funded, with two being multi-year projects.

In January, 2004, Stephen Younger attended the first meeting of researchers supported by SISERA’s SAGA grants. Most researchers have only recently received their funds, so progress is limited to date. But the two-day meeting allowed plenty of time for discussions of proposed topics and methods.

Support to Research at SISERA Institutes and Other African Institutions

In Madagascar, Mamisoa Razakamanantsoa, a researcher at the Institut National de la Statistique (INSTAT), visited Cornell in November to work with Peter Glick and David Sahn on the preparation of analysis files for a national health survey. Formal and informal training was provided in this area, in addition to the preparation of preliminary descriptive statistics from the surveys.

In preparation for the upcoming national education survey, five Malagasy researchers visited Cornell in February and March , 2004: Tahina Razafindramary, Arsène Ravelo, and Voahangy Rahelimanantsoa from the Ministry of Education, and Tiaray Razafimanantena and Harivelo Rajemison from INSTAT.

Bart Minten provided technical assistance in Madagascar on the development of a program of education research. In addition, he has continued to work with INSTAT and FOFIFA on a wide range of issues such as training in assessing the benefits of public provided services and the impact of user fees.

In Tanzania, Stephen Younger brought together Joachim de Weerdt, a young Belgian researcher, and researchers at ESRF. Joachim is doing a follow-up survey of the people interviewed in the famous Kagera HIV/AIDS surveys of ten years ago. He has generated sufficient funds to carry out the survey, but not to fund analysis of it. By putting him in contact with ESRF, with whom he has worked before, we hope to bring about a joint proposal to SISERA’s research competition that would analyze some aspects of this very exciting new survey.

In Uganda, Stephen Younger continues to provide support to young professionals at EPRC who are carrying out SAGA-related research. Projects include an analysis of poverty changes in Uganda (Ashie Mukunge and Ibrahim Kasirye), demand for health care services (Sarah Ssewanyana), tax incidence (Margaret Banga), and agricultural commercialization and poverty (Godfrey Bahiigwa).

Planned Activities

Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Workshops

Initial consultations with SISERA directors revealed great interest in the simultaneous use of qualitative and quantitative methods for poverty analysis. Fortunately, Cornell is at the forefront of this emerging field. (See, e.g., Kanbur, Ravi, ed., 2003, Q-Squared: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods of Poverty Appraisal. Delhi: Permanent Black.) After consultations with SISERA, we recently sent invitations to SISERA institute directors to participate in a series of workshops on this topic. The first workshops will be in-country, bringing together qualitative and quantitative researchers to compare and contrast (amicably!) their methods and findings on poverty. Cornell will provide at least one expert to facilitate these discussions. The ISSER workshop mentioned above is a model for this meeting. The goal is to complete these workshops by mid-2004. Then, following the international conference on Qual/Quant to be held in Toronto in June, 2004, SAGA will organize a continent-wide methodology workshop, bringing together one or two qualitative and quantitative researchers from each in-country workshop and a group of international practitioners. The goal of this meeting will be to foster research proposals that use qualitative and quantitative together in poverty analysis.

SISERA Directors’ Meeting

Stephen Younger or David Sahn will attend the annual SISERA directors’ meeting to be held in early June. After an initial flourish, the pace of SISERA research proposals and the requests for technical assistance activities have slowed. Our attendance at this meeting will, we hope, refocus SISERA directors’ attention on SAGA and the potential resources it has to offer them.

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