NORC and its local partner Pentax Management Consulting are conducting an impact evaluation of Ghana’s Feeder Roads Activity, which takes place in eight of the country’s 23 program districts. Under the Millenium Development Activity (MiDA) Program, 336 kilometers of feeder roads were identified for improvements with the objective of reducing transportation costs and time, increasing access to major domestic and international markets, and facilitating transportation linkages from rural areas to social service networks such as hospitals, clinics and schools in the Central, Eastern, Volta, and Northern Regions of Ghana. The impact evaluation, which uses a quasi-experimental design, seeks to determine the impact of feeder roads improvements on farm incomes by examining the effects on input costs and product prices associated with reduced travel time and vehicle operating cost.
NORC is studying the effect on prices for goods in the affected areas as well as tariffs for personal and freight movement. The primary data for the impact evaluation consist of three market surveys similar in scope to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) survey, when examining changes in price over time. NORC selected 308 treatment and comparable control areas (154 of each), and Pentax carried out the baseline survey in August and September 2009. NORC analyzed the survey data in part based on geographic information system (GIS) methods. The baseline report was submitted in winter 2009. The first of two follow-up surveys will be conducted in September 2011.