Replication Data for: Building Infrastructure and Cohesion: Evidence From a Field Experiment in War-torn Eastern Congo

A defining feature of contemporary Community-Driven Development (CDD) interventions in war-torn countries is their pursuit of transformative objectives, seeking to involve and reshape local decision-making institutions in the process. In recent years there has been a push for a programmatic overhaul of CDD approaches, including more realistic goal-setting focusing on infrastructure provision and capacity building of local institutions. We investigate, through a large-scale field experiment involving 446 villages in war-torn Eastern Congo, the effects of a CDD program that embodied these innovative features. Our strategy allows us to identify causal impacts of the CDD intervention, in its basic form consisting of a $100,000 envelope to finance an infrastructure project with an emphasis on ‘local content’, as well as when augmented with a complementary conflict mitigation component. We find largely null results across the four families of outcomes: infrastructure access and quality, social cohesion, (violent) conflict, and economic well-being. We conclude with a discussion of policy implications and avenues for further research.当代战乱国家社区驱动发展（Community-Driven Development, CDD）干预项目的核心特征，在于其秉持转型性目标，并在实施过程中吸纳并重塑地方决策机制。近年来，学界与实务界推动对CDD模式进行系统性革新，其中包括设定更务实的目标，聚焦基础设施供给与地方机构能力建设两大方向。本研究依托在战乱刚果东部446个村庄开展的大规模田野实验，探究具备上述创新特征的CDD项目所产生的效应。本研究的识别策略可以精准剥离CDD干预的因果影响：基础版项目提供10万美元额度的资金，用于资助侧重"本土导向"的基础设施项目；同时还设置了搭配补充性冲突缓解模块的处理组。研究结果显示，在基础设施可及性与质量、社会凝聚力、（暴力）冲突以及经济福祉这四类结果指标中，绝大多数未呈现显著的处理效应。最后，本文将讨论本研究的政策启示与未来可拓展的研究方向。