Monitoring and Evaluation Survey for the Western Highlands Integrated Program, Baseline 2013

Author(s): Angeles G, Hidalgo E, Molina-Cruz R, Taylor T, Urquieta-Salomón J, Calderón C, Fernández JC, Hidalgo M, Brugh K, Romero M

Year: 2014

Abstract:

Since 2012, the U.S. Agency for International Development mission in Guatemala has been engaged in an effort to implement 18 different programs in 30 municipalities located in the Guatemalan Western Highlands. This group of inter-related programs is known as WHIP, the Western Highlands Integrated Program.  WHIP’s main objectives are to reduce poverty and chronic malnutrition, improve health and nutrition, and increase health service utilization in the region.  This baseline survey deals directly with two of those 18 programs: the Rural Value Chain Project (RVCP), which seeks to increase agricultural productivity and improve market access, and the health and nutrition program, which includes several partners implementing community-level activities designed to improve the health of women and children under age five and to expand and strengthen available health services.  In order to evaluate these programs’ performance, changes over time in key population and program performance indicators will be examined.  Specifically, changes occurring from 2013 to 2015 (the program’s midpoint) and from 2013 to 2017 (the end of the program) will be analyzed.  A difference-in-differences, quasi-experimental design with a matched control group and fixed effects will be applied, with the aim of evaluating program impact. EMEPAO 2013 (Encuesta de Monitoreo y Evaluación del Programa del Altiplano Occidentalis or Western Highlands Integrated Program Monitoring and Evaluation Survey) is thus the first of three surveys that will provide representative and longitudinal data to evaluate the WHIP.