Rationale

There is a need to conduct RIMS baseline surveys for the four provinces in Vietnam: Tuyen Quang, Gia Lai, Ninh Thuan and Dak Nong is required by IFAD for its projects in Vietnam and the RIMS baseline surveys are expected to be conducted by the project offices. However, there is additional need from IFAD as donor agency to perform, in addition to the RIMS surveys, a reliable and quantifiable evaluation of the impact of its projects in these provinces. In response, IFAD Vietnam Country Office and Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN), an independent research organization engaged in doing research, problem-based training and disseminating of knowledge aimed at resolving the pressing national problems of economic growth, poverty reduction, human survival, development and welfare, supporting this effort, have suggested that combining the RIMS baseline surveys with the impact evaluation is necessary to save cost and time (here after referred to as RIMS Plus Impact Evaluation Baseline Survey). It is expected that by conducting these RIMS Plus Impact Evaluation Baseline Survey, IFAD will not only be able to fulfill the RIMS requirement but also be able to estimate the impacts of its programs. In this programme other provinces will also be participating, specifically for annual impact surveys: Ben Tre, Bac Kan, Cao Bang and to some extent at two provinces Ha Tinh and Tra Vinh. As Monitoring & Evaluation is one of the main areas identified in APMAS, APMAS has great interest to support this coaching programme and ensure improvement of capacities of the stakeholder in implementing IFAD's M&E RIMS Survey. This programme is therefore is implemented with co-financing between APMAS and IFAD Vietnam Country Office.

Description

In many developing countries and Vietnam is not an exception, project impact evaluation will often not be planned until the project is well underway, or even nearing completion. As a consequence, the project may not have any systematically collected base-line data, with no clear definition of a control group and the objectives of the program. In addition, as the project is nearing completion there is considerable time-pressure to complete the evaluation making it difficult to collect longitudinal data. Fortunately, with early attention to the evaluation issues, it is possible that IFAD project would be able to avoid these deficiencies in evaluation.

Quasi-experimental methods refers to a situation where randomization of the treatment is not possible, but the impact evaluator could use baseline and follow-up surveys of treatment and control groups to approximate as close as possible to the true randomization and at the same time supplement with statistical methods to try to control for selection bias, confounding factors, and differences in treatments. This method will be the backbone of the support of DEPOCEN in implementing this programme.

In short, there are four main activities, which will be covered during this programme, namely:

• Capacity Building and Technical Assistance in RIMS baseline surveys at four provinces Tuyen Quang, Gia Lai, Ninh Thuan and Dak Nong and Designing/Implementing Quasi-experimental impact evaluation for Tuyen Quang Province where the project is just beginning (RIMS Plus Impact Evaluation Baseline Surveys).  
• Capacity Building and Technical Assistance in Annual Impact Surveys mainly at three provinces Ben Tre, Bac Kan, Cao Bang and to some extent at two provinces Ha Tinh and Tra Vinh.
• Quality control, supervision and distant support for the implementation of RIMS Plus Impact Evaluation Baseline surveys and Annual Impact Surveys in all participating provinces
• Data analysis and progress report for all data collected from the survey

Objective

• Capacity building in M&E RIMS Plus Baseline for M&E Manager and Staff of IFAD-supported projects in Tuyen Quang, Gia Lai, Ninh Thuan and Dak Nong. This will introduce, demonstrate and train target groups in using the quasi-experimental impact evaluation approach.
• Capacity building in Annual Outcome/Impact Survey Process for M&E Managers and Staff of IFAD-supported projects in Ben Tre, Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Ha Tinh and Tra Vinh. This will introduce, demonstrate and train target groups in conducting all steps in Impact Survey: population identification and sampling frame construction, control group identification, sampling strategy design, selection and training of enumerators, and questionnaire design.
• Ensuring Gender Mainstreaming within M&E RIMS Plus Baseline and Outcome/Impact Survey processes and indicators.
• Development of M&E RIMS Plus Baseline, Quasi Experimental Impact Evaluation and Annual Outcome/Impact Survey guidelines and manuals in English and Vietnamese
• Development of M&E RIMS Plus Baseline and Annual Impact Survey Reports for provinces as mentioned.

Target Participants

M&E Managers and Staff of IFAD-supported projects in provinces of Tuyen Quang, Gia Lai, Ninh Thuan, Dak Nong, Ben Tre, Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Ha Tinh and Tra Vinh.

Delivery

Combination of classroom trainings, field works, mentoring and coaching, on-site and distance.

Main Learning Points

• Working with key indicators 
• Population identification and sampling frame construction
• Identification and construction of control group
• Sample design and selection
• Recruitment of enumerators
• Questionnaire design and modification, testing and finalization
• Translating, Reviewing the questionnaire and Training enumerator
• Preparing a survey manual guide in Vietnamese
• Fieldwork demonstration and supervision
• Data entry supervision and quality control, utilizing software tool: CSPro
• Data cleaning, analysis and quality control of report writing
• Data Analysis, utilizing software tool: SPSS

Contacts

Ms. Atsuko Toda
Country Programme Manager
IFAD Vietnam Country Office
Unit 304, UN Apartment Building
2E Van Phuc, Kim Ma Str, Ha Noi
T. + 84 (043823 7231;
F. + 84 (04) 3823 3819
E. at.toda@ifad.org

Mr. Agus Nugroho
APMAS Project Coordinator
Asian Project Management Support Programme (APMAS)
Vice President - Research Office
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
PO Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathum Thani 12120 , Thailand
T. +66 (0)2 524 5551
E. anugroho76@ait.ac.th