Evaluating a Landmine Action ex-combatant Reintegration Program in Liberia 2009

A. Sinoe

Registration. The Landmine Action Field Team carried out registration during June 23 - July 15, 2009. 440 youth were registered by LMA.

Baseline survey. After registration, in August 2009, registrants were approached to participate in the baseline survey. Of the original 440, 22 (5 percent) could not be located again. Some of these had left their communities; a few appeared to be hiding. In general, the baseline survey effort was highly successful. During the survey, 16 registrants communicated that they were no longer interested in the training; these individuals were not surveyed, and (at their request) their names were removed from the registration list, randomization, and program eligibility. Full and complete baseline data were successfully collected on all interested individuals.

B. Tumutu

For the TATP survey, Landmine Action registered approximately 900 individuals in Gbarpolu, 400 of whom were to be offered a spot in the program. The Landmine Action field team began registration in Gbarpolu County around September 10, 2009. The IPA research team arrived in Gbarpolu on September 17, 2009 and followed close behind the LMA field team.

LMA felt it was important to include some people from the local community around the TATP site to maintain positive community relations, so also planned to reserve 50 randomized training spots for residents of Bong County.

During the pickup process, however, it became clear that Gbarpolu would have high non-compliance, After the experience of high rates of non-compliance in Sinoe, IPA wanted to ensure a large enough buffer to maintain a sizeable control group for the TATP evaluation-neither team wanted to draw replacements from the control group, as had been done in Sinoe. To accommodate these needs, the LMA and IPA teams performed registration in five phases:

Phase 1: Gbarpolu. To try to streamline efforts to locate registrants for the baseline survey, LMA and IPA management agreed that the LMA field team and the IPA research team would carry out their work simultaneously in Gbarpolu. The IPA team planned to travel alongside the LMA team and survey individuals immediately after they were registered. However, the LMA field team began registration during their sensitization trip to Gbarpolu around September 10 2009, and returned to Monrovia with approximately 200 individuals already registered. IPA began surveying one week later and had to readjust its plans of traveling alongside the LMA field team to accommodate the condensed time frame in which all surveys needed to be completed.

The IPA research team arrived in Gbarpolu on September 17 2009 and the IPA and LMA teams on the ground coordinated in order to keep the work moving along smoothly. Each evening, IPA was given LMA's recently completed long forms, and then IPA would survey the new registrants over the following days. IPA was able to survey most of the individuals surveyed by LMA, although a small percentage of registrants who left their communities immediately after meeting with the LMA field team could not be located despite numerous attempts by the IPA team. There were also some registrants who changed their minds and decided they were no longer interested in the program. These individuals were dropped from the list of registrants and were not included in the randomization.

From September 17 to October 11 2009, IPA surveyed 708 individuals in Gbarpolu, including 622 men and 86 women. IPA selected 312 men and 38 women to participate in the program through the randomization process. 13 of these individuals were automatically included in the program because they were generals, and 30 went into a special randomization for former commanders. Half of these commanders were randomly selected to go into the program.

Out of the 350 individuals selected through the randomization, 242 agreed to come on the program, including 17 women and 225 men.

· Surveyed: 90 women and 624 men (714 total)
· Randomization: 81 women and 603 men (684 total)
· 30 went into commanders' randomization (half were selected for the program)
· 13 automatically included generals
· Selected: 38 women and 312 men
· Entered program: 17 women and 225 men (242 total)

Phase 2: Bong round 1. After the start of the baseline survey, Landmine Action decided to take 50 individuals from Salala and the surrounding communities in Bong County, reducing the number of program spots for Gbarpolu residents to 350. The District Commissioner in Salala, James Kerkula, asked LMA if he could select some community members to go into the program. LMA and IPA agreed that the District Commissioner would fill 15 of the 50 spots with any people of his choice, and that the remaining 35 spots would be filled through the process of registration by LMA and surveying and random selection by IPA. LMA agreed to register around 85 people for the 35 spots. IPA surveyed 84 individuals (59 men and 25 women) from October 7 to October 9 2009.

Near the end of the registration process, it came to the attention of some members of the IPA team that the District Commissioner had allegedly taken money from community members in exchange for a spot in the program. After the Commissioner released his list of 15 names, a group of Salala residents approached the IPA team and complained that they had given the District Commissioner money but their names didn't come out on the list. They were extremely angry and refused to leave the registration area.

· Surveyed: 25 women and 59 men (84 total)
· Randomization: none

Phase 3: Bong round 2. The management of LMA confirmed the allegations and decided to redo the registration exercise in the Salala area. The second time, LMA planned to fill all 50 spots through the registration and survey and random selection process. They agreed to register around 115 individuals to fill the 50 spots in addition to a control group.

LMA re-registered some individuals who had previously registered during the first exercise in Salala (23 individuals, including 10 women and 13 men), and then registered a number of new individuals (97, including 16 women and 81 men). The registration period lasted from October 10 to October 12, 2009. IPA surveyed a total of 26 women and 95 men, and 7 women and 43 men were selected through the randomization process. In the end, 37 men, 7 women, and 3 generals entered the program.

· Surveyed: 26 women and 94 men (120 total, 10 women and 13 men were surveyed during phase 2)
· Randomization: 24 women and 89 men (113 total)
· Selected: 7 women and 43 men (50 total)
· Entered program: 7 women and 37 men (44 total)

Phase 4: Guthrie. Out of the 350 individuals selected to participate in TATP through the first three phases, 108 decided that they were no longer interested in the program. In order to maintain the control group in Gbarpolu so as not to compromise the evaluation, it was decided that non-compliant individuals would not be replaced with others from the control list for Gbarpolu but that the target participant size would be achieved by expanding registration into other regions of the country. LMA and IPA agreed to carry out an additional registration exercise in a new area, and since LMA worked extensively with individuals from Guthrie during the first two phases of TATP, LMA headquarters decided that the teams should conduct this new registration exercise in Guthrie. Between October 16 and October 19, IPA surveyed 89 individuals. None of these individuals ended up entering the program.

· Surveyed: 89 individuals
· Randomization: none

Phase 5: Nimba. After the baseline survey was completed in Guthrie, LMA decided that they did not want to take anyone from Guthrie into the program, so the management of LMA and IPA met and decided to register youth in Nimba County. The LMA field team and IPA research team worked alongside each other to register and survey individuals in Ganta and the surrounding communities. From October 20 to October 23, IPA surveyed 154 men and 38 women. Of these 189 registrants, IPA selected 71 men and 19 women to enter the program. In the end, 18 women and 77 men from Nimba entered the program.

· Surveyed: 38 women and 154 men (192 total)
· Randomization: 37 women and 152 men (189 total)
· Selected: 19 women and 71 men (90 total)
· Entered program: 18 women and 77 men, including 6 correct replacements from the control list (95 total)