Property Rights - Peri-Urban Rangeland Leasing 2010-2014, Independent Impact Evaluation

Productivity

The design encompassed a two-stage randomized selection process to determine which Herder Groups will receive the leasing slots that are available for the project. In the first stage of the design, all Herder Groups located in areas deemed fit for the project were allowed to submit applications for the available slots. These applications are cleared as meeting environmental and social assessment criteria and were scored by local selection committees, according to a set of predefined criteria. Those that pass this stage were short-listed for the second stage of selection. In the second stage of selection, the lease slots were randomly assigned to the short-listed candidates. Some candidates were randomly selected to receive a leasing slot (the Treatment group) while other candidates were not (the Control group). Random assignment led to the creation of two virtually identical groups at baseline. The only difference was that the Treatment group was offered the lease and other associated project assistance while the other group (the Control group) was not. As a result, any changes observed between the two groups over time could be attributed to the project.

PHASE I

Baseline

1. All herder households that applied to participate in the PURP Phase 2 were included in the survey (total 1240 interviewed out of 1492 targeted)
2. applicants who did not pass the full screening process and so were rejected from the project (total 345 interviewed out of 628 targeted)
3. neighbor herder households of accepted and rejected groups (total 326 interviewed out of 532 targeted)
4. a random sample of herder households from soums where the project was being implemented (total 1649 interviewed out of 1895 targeted).

Follow-up

1. All herder households that participated in Phase 1 of PURP were included in the survey
2. Non-project households that were interviewed in the baseline survey, were also included in the follow-up survey. Response rate for this category is lower because some households were deemed "low priority" based on propensity score matching with project households. See the Phase 1 Follow-up report for more details on the sampling procedure.

PHASE II

Baseline:
All households that were members of groups that applied to the project were included in the survey (total 923 interviewed). Moreover two neighbor households were intended to be surveyed for each group, randomly chosen from a list provided by a firm that had mapped the households in the areas (total 420 interviewed). For project applicants, power calculations were performed for one key outcome variable, average daily milk yield per milking cow (liters): Baseline value = 2.19, Std Dev. = 1.3, MDE = 0.25

Follow-up (Wave 2):
Sample from baseline was augmented by any PURP treatment and control households that were missed in the baseline survey (total 24).

Additionally, since few groups in the baseline survey had two successful neighbor interviews, neighbors were re-sampled in Wave 2. If a group had one or two neighbors interviewed in the baseline survey, then the same neighbors were to be interviewed in Wave 2. If the group did not have a full set of two neighbors in the baseline, then a list of all neighbor households within ten kilometers of the lease area were given by the herder group leaders. The survey firm then attempted to locate these households. The first two households within 5 kilometers of the lease boundary were to be interviewed. If there were not two households within 5 kilometers, then neighbors up to ten kilometers away could be interviewed. In total 143 new neighbors were added to the sample for Wave 2.