KALAHI-CIDSS Community Development Grants 2012 (Philippines)

Abstract

This study is an impact evaluation of the KALAHI-CIDSS (KC) program. The impact evaluation's key research questions can be divided into the following four themes:

1. Socio-Economic Effects: Does KC increase household consumption? Does KC increase labor force participation?
2. Governance Effects: Does KC increase government leader responsiveness to community needs? Does KC reduce corruption and increase transparency?
3. Community Empowerment Effects: Does KC increase participation in local governance? Does KC increase collective action and contribution to local public goods?
4. Social Capital Effects: Does KC build groups and networks? In what ways are these networks applied? Does KC enhance trust?

In order to isolate KC's effects, a randomized control trial evaluation design was chosen. The impact evaluation sample consists of 198 municipalities (with 33 to 69 percent poverty incidence), spread over 26 provinces and 12 regions. The 198 municipalities were paired based on similar characteristics (99 pairs) and then randomly assigned into treatment and control groups through public lotteries. The sample size is large enough to be able to detect MCC's projected eight percent change in household income as well as other smaller effects. As part of the impact evaluation, baseline quantitative data were collected in the study area from April to July 2012. The quantitative data came from 5,940 household surveys in 198 barangays (one from each municipality) and 198 barangay surveys implemented in these same barangays