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General

Study Overview

Title:

Creating Informed Demand and Impacts through Innovative and Cost Effective Extension

Study is 3ie funded:

Yes

Study ID:

RIDIE-STUDY-ID-5c90b76301b92

Initial Registration Date:

03/19/2019

Last Update Date:

01/03/2019

Study Status:

In Development

Abstract:

Pastoralists in the Horn of Africa have little or no access to insurance for their primary asset, livestock. Since 2010, ILRI scientists and their collaborators have been working to improve and market an index based livestock insurance (IBLI) contract for the region that protects households from the shock of livestock mortality due to drought. As the insurance providers continue to expand their market across northern Kenya, they have struggled to develop a sustainable market for two interconnected reasons—growth in demand has been slow and the costs of extension are high. This research focuses on testing the suite of innovative extension tools and methodologies that we developed and piloted with the support of 3IE’s formative grant. We plan to experiment with a range of permutations of the nature, content, and delivery of extension and information delivery tools in order to increase their cost effectiveness, catalyze informed demand, and ultimately increase impacts.

Registration Citation:

Jensen, N., 2019. Creating Informed Demand and Impacts through Innovative and Cost Effective Extension. Registry for International Development for Impact Evaluations (RIDIE). Available at: 10.23846/ridie166

Categories:

Agriculture and Rural Development
Finance
Information and Communications Technology
Private Sector Development

Additional Keywords:

Agricultural insurance

Secondary ID Number(s):

TW13.II/1020

Principal Investigator(s)

Name of First PI:

Nathan Jensen

Affiliation:

ILRI

Name of Second PI:

Affiliation:

Intervention

Intervention Overview

Intervention:

This research will use variation in insurance agent training and in extension activities to prospective insurance clients in order to determine the impact of training methods and extension on insurance product knowledge, the impact of that knowledge on sales/uptake, and the impact of product knowledge among clients on the welfare impacts of insurance coverage.

Theory of Change:

Pastoralists in northern Kenya rely on livestock for most of their income (McPeak et al. 2011). Drought, which is the leading cause of livestock mortality, periodically decimate herd-wealth and reduces milk and offspring income dramatically. Furthermore, some coping strategies, such as distress selling of livestock, taking children out of school, reducing intake of nutritious food can have long-term and negative impacts on households’ productivity, making them more vulnerable in the future. Theoretically, insurance should support the resilience of pastoral households by mitigating the impacts of drought on income and reducing the need to employ negative coping strategies. Evidence from the region shows that households that purchased IBLI coverage reduce distress sales of livestock during droughts (when prices are lowest), increase investments in livestock health services, and smooth consumption across drought more than do their counterparts (Janzen & Carter; Jensen et al. 2017). This research will test the hypothesised links between training and extension or product understanding among prospective clients, the impact of product understanding on uptake, and the role of product understanding on the welfare impacts of insurance coverage.

Multiple Treatment Arms Evaluated?

Yes

Intervention Timing

Intervention or Program Started at time of Registration?

No

Start Date:

01/01/2018

End Date:

05/01/2022

Evaluation Method

Evaluation Method Overview

Primary (or First) Evaluation Method:

Randomized control trial

Other (not Listed) Method:

Additional Evaluation Method (If Any):

Instrumental variables

Other (not Listed) Method:

Method Details

Details of Evaluation Approach:

This research will be implemented in two components, which are geographically separate. The first component includes randomised two treatments, a training treatments on insurance sales agents and an extension treatment on prospective clients, over four treatment arms: 1) training control, extension control, 2) training control, extension treatment, 3) training treatment, extension control, 4) training treatment, extension treatment. The second component includes two treatments on prospective clients, a randomised insurance premium discount and an extension treatment, over four treatment arms: 1) premium control, extension control, 2) premium control, extension treatment, 3) premium treatment, extension control, 4) premium treatment, extension treatment.

Outcomes (Endpoints):

For the agent training treatment arms, the intermediate outcomes are agent understanding of the product and sales, and the primary outcome is understanding of the product among those the agent interacted with. For the extension treatment arms, the intermediate outcomes are understanding of the product and demand, and the primary outcome is impact of insurance on welfare. For the coupon discount treatment arms, the intermediate outcome is insurance coverage and the primary outcome is the is impact of insurance on welfare.

Unit of Analysis:

Agent and household

Hypotheses:

1. Mobile-based refresher courses improve agents’ product understanding. 2. Agents that better understand the product have clients that better understand the product. 3. Providing extension services directly to individuals improves their product understanding. 4. Individuals that better understand the product are more likely to purchase the product. 5. Clients that better understand the product, benefit more from it.

Unit of Intervention or Assignment:

Component 1: Insurance agent region. Component 2: Individual

Number of Clusters in Sample:

Component 1: TBD. Component 2: 1875

Number of Individuals in Sample:

Component 1: TBD. Component 2: 1875

Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples:

Component 1: TBD. Component 2: 1875

Data

Outcomes Data

Description:

Component 1: Insurance administrative data, scores on product knowledge tests Component 2: Household survey

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

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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:

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