Project Plan VIDA-PEEP, IFAD Impact Assessment Surveys 2017

In August 2011, implementation began on the project Plan VIDA-PEEP (PPV), an initiative financed jointly between IFAD and the Bolivian Government as part of the country's National Development Plan. It aimed to reduce extreme poverty in rural areas and improve the livelihoods of households residing in vulnerable municipalities in the departments of Potosi and Cochabamba through capacity building, financing of rural development projects, and by supporting citizenship and social inclusion. The project lasted five years in total and was completed in December, 2016.

The project was designed around two main components. The first component aimed at increasing means of production and at strengthening productive assets and management practices. This would be achieved through financial support to communities for the implementation of rural development projects and to municipalities for the realization of production infrastructure projects. The second component consisted of community training and capacity building focused on organizational and productive capacity. It included campaigns aimed at documenting unregistered people in targeted municipalities which would lead to increased social inclusion and access to basic and financial services. In Bolivia, such documentation has been shown to mitigate cases of political and social exclusion (Harbitz and Tamargo 2009).

This impact assessment looks at the effects of rural development projects funded by Plan VIDA on the livelihood of rural households residing in beneficiary communities (i.e., Component 1). In particular, the evaluation focuses on a specific category of projects - Community Based Productive Investments (Proyectos Inter Comunales - PICs) - which account for more than 90 per cent of total beneficiary households reached by Plan VIDA at completion and also constitute the vast majority of the recipients of capacity building activities (i.e., Component 2).

This impact assessment investigated whether the Plan VIDA project, with its unique mechanisms, contributed to well-being of beneficiaries, measured through key outcome indicators of economic mobility, resilience and nutrition to respond to IFAD's strategic objectives and goals and to Bolivia's National Development Plan.

To answer these questions, the ex-post evaluation applied a quasi-experimental design approach that combines statistical methods and qualitative analysis to identify a valid counterfactual. As sufficient data were not collected at baseline of the project, the research team relied on one round of data collected between August and September 2017 that is, about eight months after project completion. Data were collected from 2,751 household including beneficiaries of the project, indirect beneficiaries (those in the same community but not direct recipients of intervention), and households which serve as a control group.

For more information, please, click on the following link https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/-/publication/impact-assessment-plan-vida-bolivia.