Location
Cambodia. Location within country: Battambang, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Kampot, Koh Kong, Kratie, Mondulkiri, Preah Vihear, Prey Veng, Pursat, Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, Tboung Khmum (15 provinces)
Project Description
In order to enhance the accountability of service providers and local officials and, as a result, improve the quality of service delivery, the Cambodian government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and bilateral donors have – with assistance from the World Bank through the Voice and Action Program (VAP) – developed the Social Accountability Framework (SAF). Whereas evaluations of social accountability interventions in other contexts indicate that such interventions have been unsuccessful due to a failure to provide service providers and local officials with incentives to change their behavior, the design of the SAF builds on lessons from the body existing research by providing for coordinated interventions by both state and non-state actors.
The Voice and Action Program (VAP) Impact Evaluation (VAP-IE) will use a randomized controlled trial conducted across 42 districts in 15 provinces of Cambodia to determine whether the coordinated interventions mandated by SAF improve the quality of educational, health, and commune services provided to villagers in rural Cambodia and increase villagers’ engagement with local government. Evidence from the VAP-IE will be used by national authorities, NGOs, bilateral donors, and the World Bank to inform future funding and design decisions related to the National Decentralization Reform.
At the baseline, Angkor Research’s involvement in this large-scale, randomized control trial included instrument review/translation (with back-translation), primary CAPI data collection (tablet-based), data management, analysis and reporting to evaluate the effects of I-SAF on a range of household and service delivery indicators at the commune level. The sample is representative of the I-SAF program implementation areas, and covered 336 villages in 22 provinces of Cambodia. On the supply side, Angkor Research conducted interviews with 140 health centers, 168 commune councils, 168 primary schools, and 336 village chiefs (812 IDIs). 3,455 households were targeted for quantitative interviews, out of which 3,363 were completed (97.3% response rate). Data collection also included photos of local government offices, and GPS locations.