SAGA Progress Report - West Africa

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SAGA Progress ReportOctober, 2002

II. RESEARCH
6. West Africa

Numerous consultations and meetings with our partner SISERA institutions, USAID, various stakeholders, and policy-makers throughout the region have focused the SAGA research agenda on three of the four major research themes: education, health, and empowerment and institutions. Progress in defining and implementing the specific research activities is quite varied.

A. Education

Our consultations in the West African region quickly focused our attention on issues of the low educational attainment in the region, lagging cognitive skill development, and the large gender bias in schooling. By the early 1990s, the educational system in much of West Africa had fallen into a state of crisis. Reflecting resource inefficiencies and misallocations in the composition of public spending across educational levels, and substantial degradation in the quality of schooling from elementary to higher education, gross enrollment rates both at the primary and secondary levels fell to levels that were low even when compared with the averages for Sub Saharan Africa. Teacher shortages are climbing along with the pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level. In addition to low initial enrollment, grade repetition and dropping out of primary school before completion are serious problems. Various stakeholders were also concerned with the lack of access to secondary schools that may be inhibiting primary, not just secondary, enrollments. But perhaps most important is the particular disadvantage of girls in all grades, as manifested by higher rates of repetition and dropout.

Our partner SISERA and research institutes, as well as USAID, highlighted the need for data and greater analytical work to inform policy in order to address the crisis in education. As an outcome of the formal and informal consultation process with various actors, described in our previous semi-annual report, we developed a research program that will investigate the household, community, and school-level determinants of the following education outcomes in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire: primary and secondary enrollment, school level transitions and progress through school, grade repetition and dropout, and learning—both academic (math and French test scores) and non-academic ("life-skills"). Combining new and existing data sources, we will investigate the household, community, and school determinants of primary and secondary enrollment and progression through school, dropout and repetition, and academic performance:

What are the main determinants—at the household, school, and community levels—of primary and lower secondary enrollment? How do these factors affect the choice of school when there are different alternatives available to the households (e.g., public, private, community school)?
Why do so many children drop out of primary school before completion, or interrupt their primary schooling for significant periods? Do children drop out because they perform poorly in school, i.e., obtain low grades or test scores? Or do children stop going to school (permanently or temporarily) as a result of asset, income, or health shocks to the household, such as the illness of a parent that requires the child to work on the farm or in the home? Are the same factors also associated with grade repetition?
For those who complete primary school, what determines transition to lower secondary school and the progression through secondary school? What is the importance of the distance to school or rationing of places, of academic performance in primary school, or of household economic status (income, wealth)? How do girls’ probabilities of transition to, and continuation in, secondary school differ from boys, and why? Do children who do not continue in school enter the labor market or work in productive activities in the home, and if so, in what specific activities?

For student achievement, we seek to address the following questions:

What are the determinants of student learning as measured by test performance? At the household/individual level, what are the roles of maternal and paternal schooling and household income? Is poor health and nutrition of the child a significant deterrent to learning?
What are the effects on learning of school and teacher factors such as teacher qualifications and gender, and how do these vary by grade level? Do girls who have a female teacher score better on tests? How do school and classroom management factors—staff management and monitoring practices, pedagogical practices, the use of double shifting and multi-grade systems, etc.—affect learning?
Beyond standard academic skills, is schooling effective at imparting knowledge of important 'life skills' such as good health practices that non-schooled children are not able to learn, or learn as well? What kinds of schools or school characteristics are associated with better acquisition of these skills?
Do children who stop their schooling after several years of primary education, or after completing primary school, retain the skills and knowledge they have learned, or is this knowledge lost?

Institutional linkages

The project will be a collaborative research effort that will involve, in addition to Cornell, institutions in Senegal such as Confemen Education System Analysis Program (PASEC), Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée (CREA), the Ministry of Education, the national statistics agency (Direction de la Prevision et de la Statistique), and Institut National de l’Enseignement Appliqué et de la Didactique (INEAD); and in Côte d’Ivoire, Ivoirian researchers at Ecole Nationale supérieure de Statistique et d'Economie appliqué (ENSEA) and Centre Ivoirien de Recherche Économique et Sociale (CIRES), as well as French researchers from Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). Given the expense of data collection associated with this activity, we are also actively working with the French Ministry of Development Cooperation and the World Bank to secure funding for local survey costs.

Activities during previous six months

Most of the previous six months was dedicated to working with our partners to define specifically the education policy questions on which we would focus, and the methods and data needs for the research. Most important in this regard was a formal workshop hosted by Cornell and CREA, with participants from Ministries of Education in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, representatives of various international organizations and donors, and non-governmental organizations. A number of other less formal consultations in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire have taken place during the three trips that David Sahn and Peter Glick have taken to the region during this period. Most recently, David Sahn traveled to Senegal to meet with the Ministers of Education from Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting of Ministers of Education. During this last visit, we also worked on final research plans based on the surveys we plan on conducting, and began discussions with the Ministry of Education and various stakeholders in terms of specific research papers that would be prepared in the first half of 2003.

Activities anticipated over the next six months

Over the next three months, we will work with our collaborators to prepare the surveys scheduled to commence in January 2003. In the interim, we will complete the field test, redesign the questionnaire, and so forth, through a series of meetings, both in Ithaca and Senegal. Depending on the political situation, we may postpone our fieldwork in Côte d’Ivoire. We also plan on beginning preliminary data analysis and arranging for a team from Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire to visit Cornell.

B. Health

In our initial review of the West African Regional Program’s (WARP) priorities articulated in their request for participation in the SAGA project, there was a clear and overwhelming focus on HIV/AIDS among health concerns. In May 2002, David Sahn and Peter Glick traveled to Bamako to meet with the USAID Mission to discuss potential research areas that were consistent with this strong interest in the HIV/AIDS epidemic expressed by WARP as well as of the SISERA institutions participating in SAGA. Peter Glick subsequently traveled to Dakar and Abidjan for further discussions with USAID and other personnel, as described below.

A significant amount of research has been done on the macroeconomic impacts of AIDS in Africa. However, less has been done, especially by economists and other social scientists, on the demand for and effects of services that can prevent the spread of HIV.

For this reason, the general focus of our meetings was research on HIV prevention. This also reflects the strong emphasis placed by WARP on HIV prevention as well as the overarching motivation of the rising concern over HIV/AIDS throughout the region.

Evaluation of Voluntary HIV Testing and Counseling (VCT) interventions quickly emerged as the most appropriate specific focus of our research. Many African countries are planning to scale up VCT, which in all but a few countries still remains largely inaccessible to most residents. Much hope is now being placed on VCT as a prevention strategy for Africa. Côte d’Ivoire is the most appropriate site for our research on VCT, at least for the first phase of the activity. Factors contributing to this are: (1) high HIV prevalence and increasing involvement of the authorities in promoting HIV prevention in Côte d’Ivoire; (2) the significant expansion of VCT sites throughout the country planned over the next several years; (3) the high level of cooperation and communication among various donor groups and research institutions operating in the country; (4) the fact that the findings from Côte d’Ivoire should have broad regional relevance, in part because other countries will experience an increase in prevalence rates and a consequent need for more testing; and (5) the wealth of local research expertise and experience in analyzing HIV and related behaviors. This includes both the SISERA institution CIRES and ENSEA. For example, a very productive meeting was held with a team of ENSEA researchers to discuss methodological and data issues. All parties expressed a very high level of interest in this research and willingness to participate or cooperate with the Cornell/SAGA efforts.

A great deal of thought has already gone into the design of the research, reflecting the inputs of these parties. A feasible methodology would be to conduct population-based behavior surveys in the catchment areas of one or more planned VCT centers. In Côte d’Ivoire, numerous urban or peri-urban sites are planned over the next few years that will be operated or funded by a range of organizations. Knowing in advance exactly where new VCT sites will be opened would allow us to conduct both base-line and follow-up (post-intervention) surveys. Communities slated to receive the services later (due to limited resources, expansion is necessarily staggered) would serve as natural controls. In terms of both survey design and the estimation of demand for services and behavioral responses, the analytical requirements for this research are very much in line with the experience and capabilities both of Cornell and of its potential partners.

Institutional arrangements

CIRES, the Ivorian SISERA institution, has enthusiastically endorsed the idea of collaborative research with Cornell on HIV prevention under SAGA. As the SISERA institution, CIRES would be Cornell’s main Ivorian partner in this research. However, this does not preclude joining forces with ENSEA to take advantage of their experience in demographic and economic survey research. This collaboration would be supported by CIRES. A request has recently been made to Dr. Koffi N'Guessan, director of ENSEA, for collaboration with Cornell and CIRES.

A detailed description of the proposed research has recently been sent to several key USAID officials, including Warren Buckingham, Senior Technical Advisor for HIV/AIDS, Carleene Dei, and other experts. We are anticipating their comments and suggestions on the research.

Activities over the previous six months

In May, 2002, Peter Glick and David Sahn traveled to West Africa to explore the potential for conducting HIV-related research. In Bamako, Peter Glick and David Sahn met with Carleene Dei, the director of WARP. Later, Peter Glick continued to Dakar to meet with Felix Awantang, the WARP Health Strategic Objective Team Leader. In Abidjan, he met extensively over a period of a week with Dr. Jim Allman, Project Manager of FHA/AIDS for USAID. He also met several times with personnel of CIRES, including Dr. Barry Mody, Assistant Director. (The director, Dr Quattara, was out of town). Also consulted with was Dr. Koffi N'Guessan, the director of ENSEA which has done a great deal of HIV survey related research in the country. Finally, meetings were held as well with a number of key public health officials involved in HIV prevention.

The general focus of these meetings was research on HIV prevention, reflecting the strong emphasis placed by WARP on HIV prevention as well as the overarching motivation of the rising concern over HIV/AIDS throughout the region. Evaluation of Voluntary HIV Testing and Counseling (VCT) interventions quickly emerged as the most appropriate specific focus of our research, with Côte d’Ivoire as the most appropriate site, at least for the first phase of the activity. Factors contributing to this focus on VCT, and on VCT in Côte d’Ivoire, are (1) high HIV prevalence and increasing involvement of the authorities in promoting HIV prevention in Côte d’Ivoire; (2) the significant expansion of VCT sites throughout the country planned over the next several years; (3) the high level of cooperation and communication among various donor groups and research institutions operating in the country; (4) the fact that the findings from Côte d’Ivoire should have broad regional relevance, in part because other countries will experience an increase in prevalence rates and a consequent need for more testing; and (5) the wealth of local research expertise and experience in analyzing HIV and related behaviors. This includes both the SISERA institution (CIRES) and ENSEA. For example, a very productive meeting was held with a team of ENSEA researchers to discuss methodological and data issues. All parties expressed a very high level of interest in this research and willingness to participate or cooperate with the Cornell/SAGA efforts.

In terms of institutional arrangements, Dr Mody of CIRES enthusiastically endorsed the idea of collaborative research with Cornell on HIV prevention under SAGA. As the SISERA institution, CIRES would be Cornell’s main Ivorian partner in this research. However, this does not preclude joining forces with ENSEA to take advantage of their experience in demographic and economic survey research. This collaboration was supported by Dr Mody. A request has recently been made to Dr. N'Guessan, director of ENSEA, for collaboration with Cornell and CIRES.

A detailed description of the proposed research has recently been sent to several key AID officials, including Koffi N'Guessan, Senior Technical Advisor for HIV/AIDS, Carleene Dei, and others. We are anticipating their comments and suggestions on the research.

Activities anticipated in the next six months

Dr Mody and his colleagues will prepare a detailed proposal that CIRES will submit to SISERA for research funding for their part in this work. We have also been and will continue to be in contact with officials at CDC in Abidjan and Family Health International about plans for opening VCT sites around which the surveys can be conducted.

Unfortunately, the recent violence in Côte d’Ivoire has thrown these plans into doubt. Given the effort expended, and the fact that Côte had been selected as the ideal site for our HIV research under SAGA, this is very disappointing. We are in the process, essentially, of regrouping. Given the great importance of AIDS to African development, it is worth the effort to redirect attention elsewhere geographically while not losing focus on the overall topic. Therefore, we are considering other countries where similar research could be carried out under SAGA. Kenya remains a possibility, since good contacts have been made with IPAR and others, and VCT is expanding there, too, as in Côte d’Ivoire.

In addition, we are exploring another alternative, which is to analyze many HIV issues using secondary data sources from Africa. Owing to the availability (primarily) of Demographic and Health Survey data from many countries, there is a great deal of analysis that can be done. For many countries, these surveys have been fielded more than once in the past decade, with detailed modules on HIV/AIDS knowledge, testing, and sexual behavior. The existence of multiple rounds makes is possible to examine how behaviors and knowledge have been changing over time as the epidemic, and general awareness of it, has expanded. Understanding how these changes are related to socioeconomic variables as well as location (e.g., rural, urban) will help better pinpoint gaps in knowledge and behavior that prevention and education programs can target.

C. Institutions and Empowerment

As part of the SAGA agenda, we are launching a research program on community schools. This research topic cuts across cuts thematic categories of education and empowerment and even touches on other themes as the community school is conceived as holistic. This topic has considerable potential for the discourses, with policy implications, on promising paths in the search for educational models that can promote and sustain social progress in Africa. Despite numerous official declarations about the need to provide basic education for all, many African countries still face difficulty in enrolling the last 10-25 % of the children of primary school age. Community schools are considered a viable and even more realistic alternative to reach these groups. However, while a few countries like Senegal and Mali have a longer tradition of the form of community school that is officially recognized, it is still a marginal phenomenon in other countries. Furthermore, even where it has been popularized, it is controversial in part because some perceive and treat it as the "private school" of the poor.

Besides issues of school effectiveness and general educational process, the community school offers a space for community involvement in decision-making processes. Since the 1990s, in the context of popular movements, liberal democracy and advocacy of NGOs and civil society in general, there have been a call for increased participation of the various stakeholders in public debates and decision-making processes in general. Thus, the overall community involvement in the educational process constitutes an opportunity for empowerment of the population, including the hitherto marginalized groups. Generally, the proportion of the female population that is left out of the formal school system is higher than that of the males. Women, in part as a result of their unequal access to formal education, especially at the higher educational level, are likely to be fewer in number among the school teachers and administrators and also generally among the educational decision-makers. Community schools offer possibilities of participation in the process regardless of the levels of education, gender, and the socio-economic status of the members of the community.

In the summer 2002, N’Dri Assié-Lumumba traveled to Côte d’Ivoire, with a brief stopover in Paris, in order to collect some broad information on the community schools to help prepare a research agenda on this topic. In Paris, she had some fruitful exchange of ideas with, and received documents from, Dr. Dramane Oulai, at the International Institute of Educational Planning, who has conducted research on community schools in Cameroon, Mali, Senegal and Togo, and is currently focusing on Kenya and planning to work on the same topic in Namibia in the near future. Collaboration will continue during the SAGA and IIEP respective studies.

Despite the state of the socio-political situation in Côte d’Ivoire, and in anticipation of any future resolution, it is worth summarizing the preliminary work conducted during the summer visit following a first visit in January 2002. In Abidjan, Dr. Assié-Lumumba had several working sessions with the Ivorian Ministry of Education and worked more specifically with Mr. Kagohi Robalé, technical adviser to the Minister of Education, in charge of the "Non Formal Education" project. This early stage of the project provides a great opportunity for our research to undertake an in-depth study of the process from the first year of the experimental stage to the planned extension of the program. While the project designed by the Ministry will include some form of technical evaluation, the SAGA research will provide a more comprehensive assessment including academic/critical analysis with policy implications and recommendations.

Activities during the previous six months

Dr. Assié-Lumumba had very productive meetings at CIRES, the SISERA affiliate in Côte d’Ivoire. Her meetings with Professor Mama Ouattara, the new director, were very positive. He expressed a strong interest in the different components of the SAGA project. As the CIRES acting director, Dr. Jean-Marie Manso, indicated in January 2002, and Professor Ouattara reiterated, CIRES has a long experience of hosting international students, and thus would welcome the opportunity to host and mentor any laureates of SAGA small grant program who might choose to conduct their research in Côte d’Ivoire. One of the CIRES meetings was extended to the full research personnel. A total number of 19 professors and researchers, including the Director, attended a productive meeting.

At the USAID Mission, Dr. Assié-Lumumba met Mr. Willibrord Shasha, M.D., who is Technical Director of the US-AID FHA in charge of the HIV/AIDS . They discussed the work that is being done in the West African sub-region regarding HIV/AIDS. He explained that any assistance or collaboration must include this focal point.

N’Dri Assié-Lumumba traveled also to Dakar where assisted by SAGA graduate student research assistant Marieme Lô (who is also working on community schools for her Ph. D. thesis), she had a productive visit, meeting key actors in the Senegalese experience of "écoles communautaires de base." These resources have been playing key roles in the development the community schools since 1993. They include: (1) Mr. Mamadou Mara, Chef de la Division Appui au Développement (DADS), Direction de l’Alphabétisation et de l’Education de Base (DAEB); (2) Mr. Allassane Ndiaye, Director of Direction de l’Alphabétisation et de l’Education de Base who has involved in community schools for 8 years; (3) Madame Fatou Diop (with whom Dr. Assié-Lumumba had preliminary discussions on the telephone about the community schools in May 2002 while in Dakar) of Projet d’Apuppui au Plan d’Action (PAPA); and (4) Madame Rokhaya Ndoye of ADEF who played a major role in the initial stage of the community schools.

In Dakar, Dr. Assié-Lumumba also met Dr. Elias Ayuk, who is a program officer at SISERA; Dr. Gilles Forget, the IDRC Regional Director, who was acting Executive Director of SISERA; and Mr. Laurent Elder of IDRC’s project Acacia: Communities and the Information Society in Africa. Although Dr. Assié-Lumumba’s focus during this trip was on community schools, she also mentioned her other interests in ICTs. She met with Professor Abdoulaye Diagne, Director of CREA, who reiterated the Center’s general interest in the SAGA project and specific interest in taking part in the study on community schools. She also visited the USAID Mission in Dakar and had fruitful discussions with Mr. Massar Beye, the Deputy-Director.

Activities anticipated in the next six months

A research proposal on the community schools in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal is in preparation. After the research team, with representation of the Ministry in charge of the community schools and CREA, is formed the research instruments will be elaborated and tested. Despite the ongoing political situation in Côte d’Ivoire, the proposal will be prepared and necessary adjustments will be made as the situation unfolds in next six months. However, the research in Senegal will start in January according to the work plan in the research proposal.

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