What we do
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Impact evaluation of DRIVE Program financial services component
Background
The De-Risking, Inclusion, and Value Enhancement of Pastoral Economies (DRIVE) program was launched through an agreement between the World Bank, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Republic of Kenya, the Ministry of Finance of Somalia, the Republic of Djibouti, and the implementing partner PTA Reinsurance Company (ZEP-RE).
The objectives of the DRIVE program are to enhance pastoralists’ access to financial services for drought risk mitigation, include them in the value chains, and facilitate the livestock trade in the Horn of Africa. Component 1 (C1) of DRIVE focuses on increasing access to financial services and Component 2 (C2) works to improve livestock value chains and facilitate livestock trade.
This research project uses an adaptive randomized control design to simultaneously assess the impacts of C1 while also testing implementation strategies for increasing those impacts. This research is performed in close collaboration and coordination with ZEP-RE, the DRIVE implementing partner, which allows the DRIVE project to integrate lessons learned through the experimentation process into its programming as those lessons are learned.
Activities and outputs
We have developed and implemented the adaptive randomized control design. At its heart, this design is based on developing and implementing operational strategies that improve the delivery of DRIVE, which we call DRIVE+, thereby increasing the value and take up that DRIVE offers potential clients in the drylands.
Our research launched in 2023, with the first round of a longitudinal survey of over 3,000 households across DRIVE’s operational region. At the same time, we worked with DRIVE implementing partners and clients to identify barriers to adoption. Inadequate and inaccessible services—specifically product understanding and grievance processes—were identified as key issues by clients. We therefore developed and implemented low-cost, language specific, accessible approaches for providing these services and provided them to a randomized sub-set of the survey households. The research is ongoing as to the impact of those interventions on product understanding, take-up, and perceptions of the DRIVE product.
In 2025, we are launching another round of data collection and a set of re-randomized treatments aimed at increasing outreach services and community engagement by DRIVE community mobilizers. At the same time, we continue to collect the household survey.
Partners
AIID Africa, Cornell University, Georgia State University, Global Research Consultancy Services, International Livestock Research Institute, Policy Studies Institute, University of Amsterdam, University of Edinburgh, University of Nairobi, Utrecht University, Wageningen University and Research, ZEP-RE
Funders
