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General

Study Overview

Title:

Evaluating the effectiveness of household energy interventions in rural Senegal using experimental and quasi-experimental methods

Study is 3ie funded:

No

Study ID:

RIDIE-STUDY-ID-59c9e0f49a591

Initial Registration Date:

09/26/2017

Last Update Date:

10/20/2021

Study Status:

Ongoing

Change History for Status

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	In Development

Location(s):

Senegal

Abstract:

More than 95% of Senegal’s rural population uses fuelwood in dirty, traditional stoves for cooking, with significant productivity, health, and environmental costs. Against this backdrop, the Government of Senegal has launched ambitious efforts to promote widespread diffusion of cleaner energy technologies that lessen this burden. In collaboration with local partners, this study aims to inform such efforts in Senegal and beyond through three main research questions: 1. Can suppliers of locally produced, low-cost, clean cooking technologies be encouraged to cater to demand for their products in previously unserved areas? 2. Are low-cost cooking technologies that can be easily manufactured locally sufficiently effective at delivering environmental, health and social benefits relative to traditional or more improved alternatives? 3. Is biogas an effective household energy solution relative to traditional or improved biomass alternatives? Thus, this study will investigate approaches to encourage adoption of household energy technology, and evaluate whether such devices—that may play a critical role in meeting global energy access needs—indeed deliver expected benefits.

Registration Citation:

Peters, J. and Jeuland, M., 2017. Evaluating the effectiveness of household energy interventions in rural Senegal using experimental and quasi-experimental methods. Registry for International Development for Impact Evaluations (RIDIE). Available at: 10.23846/ridie120

Categories:

Energy
Health, Nutrition, and Population
Private Sector Development

Additional Keywords:

Rural development

Secondary ID Number(s):

PW3.08.SN.IE (International Initiative for Impact Evaluation [3ie])

Principal Investigator(s)

Name of First PI:

Jörg Peters

Affiliation:

RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research

Change History for Affiliation

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	RWI - Leibniz-Institute for Economic Research

Name of Second PI:

Marc Jeuland

Affiliation:

Duke University

Study Sponsor

Name:

International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)

Study Sponsor Location:

India

Research Partner

Name of Partner Institution:

L'Université Gaston Berger, CERER, Ministry of Petroleum and Energy of the Government of Senegal, and GIZ

Change History for Name of Partner Institution

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	L'Université Gaston Berger, CERER, Ministry of Energy of the Government of Senegal, and GIZ Senegal

Location:

Senegal

Intervention

Intervention Overview

Intervention:

This study entails a three-pronged intervention. (1) Stove-supply intervention: Producers/vendors of locally made ICS will be incentivized to target unserved areas where reliance on both fuelwood/traditional stoves and demand for modern alternatives is high. The main objective is to connect producers and potential customers to yield increased production, sales, and uptake of ICS. Expected beneficiaries are private ICS producers, vendors and peri-urban/rural Senegalese households. (2) Stove impacts intervention: A locally produced biomass ICS will be distributed to households and impacts (relative to traditional as well as more advanced alternatives) will be studied in real-world settings. Expected beneficiaries are the Government of Senegal (which is promoting these ICS as part of its energy access efforts) and rural Senegalese households. (3) Biogas intervention: The potential of biogas to deliver welfare benefits relative to traditional alternatives will be evaluated. The main objective is to shed light on the magnitude of benefits versus costs of a capital-intensive technology. Once again, the Government (which is also promoting biogas) and households are expected beneficiaries.

Change History for Intervention

Changed On

Previous Value

09/13/2018

This study entails a three-pronged intervention. (1) Stove-supply intervention: Producers/vendors of locally made ICS will be incentivized to target unserved areas where reliance on both fuelwood/traditional stoves and demand for modern alternatives is high. The main objective is to connect suppliers and potential customers to yield increased production, sales, and uptake of ICS. Expected beneficiaries are private-sector ICS producers and peri-urban/rural Senegalese households. (2) Stove impacts intervention: A locally produced biomass ICS will be distributed to households and impacts (relative to traditional as well as more advanced alternatives) will be studied in real-world settings. Expected beneficiaries are the Government of Senegal (which is promoting these ICS as part of its energy access efforts) and rural Senegalese households. (3) Biogas intervention: The potential of biogas to deliver welfare benefits relative to traditional alternatives will be evaluated. The main objective is to shed light on the magnitude of benefits versus costs of a capital-intensive technology. Once again, the Government (which is also promoting biogas) and households are expected beneficiaries.

Theory of Change:

see PAP

Multiple Treatment Arms Evaluated?

Yes

Implementing Agency

Name of Organization:

RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Duke University, L'Université Gaston Berger, CRDES, CERER, Ministry of Petroleum and Energy of the Government of Senegal

Change History for Name of Organization

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	RWI Essen, Duke University, L'Université Gaston Berger, CERER, Ministry of Energy of the Government of Senegal, and GIZ Senegal

Program Funder

Name of Organization:

International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)

Type of Organization:

NGO (International)

Intervention Timing

Intervention or Program Started at time of Registration?

Yes

Change History for Intervention Timeline

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	No

Start Date:

10/01/2017

End Date:

08/01/2019

Evaluation Method

Evaluation Method Overview

Primary (or First) Evaluation Method:

Randomized control trial

Other (not Listed) Method:

Additional Evaluation Method (If Any):

Matching

Change History for Additional Evaluation Method (If Any)

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	Difference in difference/fixed effects

Other (not Listed) Method:

Method Details

Details of Evaluation Approach:

(1) Stove-supply intervention: Random assignment of the treatment (a supply-promotion intervention) at the level of the stove vendor will be used to isolate causal impacts of improved supply on production and sales of locally produced improved cookstoves (ICS). (2) Stove impacts intervention: Randomized provision of a locally produced ICS and an advanced ICS at the household level will be used to isolate causal impacts of adoption of various ICS technologies on health outcomes, air quality and fuelwood consumption relative to a control group (no ICS provided). Stoves will be provided at no cost to ensure a sufficiently large sample. (3) Biogas intervention: Given the infeasibility of randomly allocating the capital-intensive biogas technology, causal impacts will be identified by comparing biogas households with observationally similar non-biogas households using covariate matching methods.

Change History for Details of Evaluation Approach

Changed On

Previous Value

09/13/2018

(1) Stove-supply intervention: Random assignment of the treatment (a supply-promotion intervention) at the level of the stove producer/vendor will be used to isolate causal impacts of improved supply on production, sales, and, ultimately, household-level uptake of locally produced improved cookstoves (ICS). (2) Stove impacts intervention: Randomized provision of a locally produced ICS or an advanced ICS at the household level will be used to isolate causal impacts of adoption of various ICS technologies on health outcomes, air quality and fuelwood consumption relative to a control group (no ICS provided). Stoves will be provided at no cost to ensure a sufficiently large sample. (3) Biogas intervention: Given the infeasibility of randomly allocating the capital-intensive biogas technology, causal impacts will be identified by comparing biogas households with observationally similar non-biogas households before and after the provision of the technology to the former (i.e., difference-in-differences with matching).

Outcomes (Endpoints):

(1) Stove supply intervention: Producer-level ICS production and sales; Vendor-level ICS marketing activities and sales. (2) Stove impacts intervention: Objective and subjective measures of health (including, but not limited to, blood pressure, biomarker levels, and self-reported wellbeing); household energy-use patterns; PM2.5 kitchen concentration and primary cook's exposure to PM2.5; objective measures of stove use. (3) Biogas intervention: Household fuelwood consumption, collection time, and/or cost; subjective measures of health.

Change History for Outcomes (Endpoints)

Changed On

Previous Value

09/13/2018

(1) Stove supply intervention: Producer-level ICS production and sales; Producer/vendor-level ICS marketing activities and sales; Household- and community-level ICS adoption. (2) Stove impacts intervention: Objective and subjective measures of health (including, but not limited to, blood pressure, biomarker levels, and self-reported wellbeing); household energy-use patterns. (3) Biogas intervention: Household fuelwood consumption, collection time, and/or cost; subjective measures of health.

Unit of Analysis:

(1) Stove supply intervention: ICS producers and vendors; (2) Stove impacts intervention: Households; (3) Biogas intervention: Households

Change History for Unit of Analysis

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	(1) Stove supply intervention: ICS producers and/or vendors; (2) Stove impacts intervention: Households; (3) Biogas intervention: Households

Hypotheses:

see PAP

Unit of Intervention or Assignment:

(1) Stove supply intervention: ICS vendors; (2) Stove impacts intervention: Households; (3) Biogas intervention: Households

Change History for Unit of Intervention or Assignment

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	(1) Stove supply intervention: ICS producers and/or vendors; (2) Stove impacts intervention: Households; (3) Biogas intervention: Households

Number of Clusters in Sample:

see PAP

Number of Individuals in Sample:

(1) Stove supply intervention: 216 ICS producers and 127 vendors; (2) Stove impacts intervention: 525 households; (3) Biogas intervention: ~200 households

Change History for Number of Individuals in Sample

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	(1) Stove supply intervention: ~200-300 ICS producers and ~70-90 vendors; (2) Stove impacts intervention: 400 households; (3) Biogas intervention: 200 households

Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples:

(1) Stove supply intervention: ¾ treatment, ¼ control; (2) Stove impacts intervention: 175 control, 175 stove A, 175 stove B; (3) Biogas intervention: 100 adopters, 100 non adopters

Change History for Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples

Changed On	Previous Value
09/13/2018	(1) Stove supply intervention: ½ treatment, ½ control; (2) Stove impacts intervention: ~135 control, 135 stove A, 135 stove B; (3) Biogas intervention: ~66 early adopters, 66 late adopters; 66 control

Supplementary Files

Analysis Plan:

3ie_Senegal_full-PAP_Impact arm_final.pdf

Data

Outcomes Data

Description:

(1) Stove supply intervention: Producer/vendor-level survey data on ICS production/sales patterns, geographical outreach, marketing activities; (2) Stove impacts intervention: Household-survey data on demographics, energy use, time allocation, objective and subjective measurements of health outcomes, air pollution exposure, stove use; (3) Biogas intervention: Household-survey data on household energy use, time allocation, subjective measures of health outcomes, productive uses of digester

Change History for Description

Changed On

Previous Value

09/13/2018

(1) Stove supply intervention: Producer/vendor-level survey data on ICS production/sales patterns, and geographical outreach of producers/vendors; (2) Stove impacts intervention: Household-survey data on household demographics, energy use, time allocation, objective and subjective measurements of health outcomes, and air pollution exposure; (3) Biogas intervention: Household-survey data on household energy use, time allocation, subjective measures of health outcomes, productive uses of digester

Data Already Collected?

No

Data Previously Used?

Data Access:

Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?

Data Approval Process:

Approval Status:

Treatment Assignment Data

Participation or Assignment Information:

Yes

Description:

Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?

Data Previously Used?

Data Access:

Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?

Data Approval Process:

Approval Status:

Data Analysis

Data Analysis Status:

Study Materials

Upload Study Materials:

Registration Category

Registration Category:

Prospective, Category 1: Data for measuring impacts have not been collected

Completion

Completion Overview

Intervention Completion Date:

Data Collection Completion Date:

Unit of Analysis:

Clusters in Final Sample:

Total Observations in Final Sample:

Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples:

Findings

Preliminary Report:

Preliminary Report URL:

Summary of Findings:

Paper:

Paper Summary:

Paper Citation:

Data Availability

Data Availability (Primary Data):

Date of Data Availability:

Data URL or Contact:

Access procedure:

Other Materials

Survey:

Survey Instrument Links or Contact:

Program Files:

Program Files Links or Contact:

External Link:

External Link Description:

Description of Changes:

Study Stopped

Date:

Reason: