Technical Assistance and Property Rights in Nicaragua
Evaluation Description
The Property Regularization and Rural Business Development projects are part of Nicaragua’s five-year Compact that was signed in 2005. The projects are designed to reduce poverty and increase investment by a) decreasing the cost and time to conduct land transactions and increasing tenure security (Property Regularization), and b) increasing value-added and productivity among farmers (Rural Business Development).
The impact assessment of these two projects will estimate both the individual and combined impact of these two projects on beneficiary household income and other measures of welfare. The evaluation methodology relies on the randomized sequencing of geographic regions, with 40-50 regions in each of the groups described below. Some regions were selected randomly to receive business services early; some regions were selected randomly to receive regularized property titles early, and some regions were selected randomly to receive both treatments early. All other eligible regions will receive the program later in the Compact term. To estimate impact, the average income of those receiving one or both services early will be compared to the average income of those who have not yet received the services. For more information on the program see the Nicaragua Country Page.
Data Collection
The evaluation will use household surveys, and community profiles. The household surveys will include approximately 1600 rural households and 600 urban households. Each household will be surveyed three times, 1) baseline (before benefiting from any project), 2) follow up (after first round of implementation, i.e. some will have benefited from Property Regularization and/or Rural Business Project) and 3) final. For each enumeration area, household surveys will be complemented by Community Profiles..
Timeline
