Impact assessment in complex contexts of rural livelihood transformations in Africa. Part 1- Longitudinal household income data

The individual household method (IHM) was developed by Evidence for Development as a reliable, standardised method of collecting and using household income data that is suitable for operational use. IHM work involves both in-person data collection and the use of specialised analytical software, open-IHM, which can be used to manage complex household data and produce reports, models and predictions to inform policy-making.

This data set includes anonymised data from project areas Masumbankunda, Malawi; Karonga, Malawi; Tigray, Ethiopia; Assela, Ethiopia.

Please also see related file on Qualitative Impact Assessment (QUIP) data which includes some qualitative data collected from a sub-sample of the same households included in this study (only Round 2 files - Round 1 households were not from the same sample set).<p>How can the impact of development activities intended to benefit poor men, women and children caught up in complex processes of rural transformation best be assessed?
The research set out to develop and evaluate a protocol for impact assessment based on self-reported attribution without the use of comparison groups as an alternative to experimental or quasi-experimental designs based on statistically inferred attribution.
The three year project, starting in September 2012, was led by James Copestake at the University of Bath, and conducted in collaboration with three NGOs - Self Help Africa, Farm Africa, and Evidence for Development. It was jointly funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Department for International Development DFID. The research piloted the approach with four projects: two in Ethiopia and two in Malawi.
Strand 1 comprised a baseline and two rounds of annual monitoring of food security and income at the household level by NGO staff.
Strand 2 comprised two rounds of annual in-depth interviewing to elicit self-reported attribution from intended project beneficiaries.

All data collected from these strands is deposited with UK Data, with this entry comprising the data for Strand 1.</p>