Protecting Early Childhood Development in Malawi Impact Evaluation Survey 2013, Midline

Malawi, 2013

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Reference ID

MWI_2013_PECDIE-ML_v01_M

DOI

https://doi.org/10.48529/94zr-ww41

Producer(s)

Michelle Neuman, Berk Ozler, Lia Fernald

Collection(s)

The Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF) Impact Evaluation Surveys

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Mar 07, 2019

Last modified

Mar 07, 2019

Page views

70717

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Identification

Survey ID number

MWI_2013_PECDIE-ML_v01_M

Title

Protecting Early Childhood Development in Malawi Impact Evaluation Survey 2013

Subtitle

Midline

Country/Economy

Name	Country code
Malawi	MWI

Abstract

The Government of Malawi recognizes that investment in early childhood development (ECD) is a cost-effective strategy to meet its development objectives in areas of health, nutrition, education, and social protection. In Malawi, ECD is delivered through an extensive network of community initiated and owned centers for the most vulnerable children under the age of six, known as Community-based Childcare Centers (CCBCs). The recent global food, fuel, and financial crises hit Malawi hard. Constrained government budgets and activities for ECD have jeopardized the service delivery of the existing ECD centers which cover about a third of all 3-6 year old children. From 2010 to 2012, the Protecting Early Childhood Development Project (PECD) aimed to mitigate the negative effects of the recent global crises on young children and to start building foundations against future crises. A rigorous impact evaluation of the PECD project in Malawi has been designed to test interactions between existing approaches to improve quality in the preschool sector to maximize effects for primary school readiness. The impact evaluation will test the effectiveness of different approaches to improve quality of ECD Centers, parenting knowledge and practices, and child development and school readiness. The evaluation follows a cluster-randomized control trial design in which 199 CBCCs in four of Malawi’s 28 districts were randomized after baseline into one of three treatment arms or to a control arm.

This Impact Evaluation (IE) has three primary research objectives, which are both academically important and pertinent for policy makers in low-income countries: (1) To evaluate the effect of intensive training and mentoring of teachers andcaregivers at CBCCs in rural sub-Saharan Africa on young children’s physical, emotional, and cognitive development; (2) To determine how can cash incentives be used to retain teachers and caregivers and make them more effective; (3) To assess whether parenting education can be an effective substitute or complement to the efforts to improve preschool quality with respect to child development outcomes.

The baseline survey was conducted between September 30, 2011 and February 17, 2012. The midline data was collected between May 13, 2013 and October 17, 2013. The endline survey is proposed for 2014. Data collection at midline involved the administration of the mother/guardian and CBCC questionnaires, enumerator observations at the CBCC, and measurement of child development.

Kind of Data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Unit of Analysis

Community-based childcare centers (CBCC) and their committee chairs/caregivers
4-5-year-old children attending the CBCC
Mothers/guardians of the 4-5 year old children attending the CBCC

Scope

Notes

The scope of the midline survey includes:

Community-based Childcare Centers (CBCCs):

CBCC observations
General information on CBCC
Registration, attendance at CBCC
Characteristics of children attending CBCC
Staff information (work load, selection process, training)
Caregiver roster
Water, sanitation, toilet facilities
Health and food
Curriculum and daily activities

Child assessments:

Fine motor/visuoperception
Language/hearing
Child observations

Mother or guardian

Household and dwelling characteristics
Durable goods
Economic shocks
Health practices
CBCC information (reasons for choosing CBCC, cost, perception of CBCC)
Child immunizations and health
Nutrition and development
Household stimulation/support for learning
Child's behavior
Mother or guardian's health.

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

Data was collected in Balaka, Thyolo, Nkhatabay, and Dedza districts.

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name	Affiliation
Michelle Neuman	World Bank
Berk Ozler	World Bank
Lia Fernald	Univeristy of California Berkeley

Producers

Name	Affiliation
Christin McConnell	World Bank
Patricia Kariger	University of California Berkeley

Funding Agency/Sponsor

Name	Role
Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund, World Bank	Financing of midline and endline surveys

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

This study is a cluster-randomized controlled trial with one control arm and three treatment arms. Four study districts (Balaka, Thyolo, Dedza, Nhkata Bay) that provide adequate representation of the regions in Malawi were chosen by the MGCSW for inclusion in the study. Sample size calculations for a multi-site, cluster-randomized trial estimated that 240 CBCCs and 12 children from each of the CBCCs would be necessary to detect small to moderate impacts (0.2 to 0.25 standard deviations) on child development measures (the PPVT, specifically) with 95% confidence and 80% power. A full listing of all CBCCs eligible to receive the intervention from the MGCSW produced only 199 CBCCs in the four districts, however; therefore, all 199 CBCCs were included in the study.

Randomization was conducted in each district separately to ensure that equal numbers of CBCCs were allocated to each of the study arms within each district. To ensure a balance of important baseline characteristics, which are strongly prognostic of cognitive development outcomes of interest, a "block randomization" procedure was used. Information about the variables used for blocking (child anthropometrics and scores on developmental tests) was collected during the baseline survey.

The baseline sample included 2,120 children, ages 3-4 years, attending the CBCCs from the village. These children were randomly selected (blocked by age and sex) from the group of children attending the CBCCs on the day the baseline data collection teams visited the school. All CBCCs, children, and mother/guardians who participated in the baseline survey were included in the midline sample.
The PECD project focuses on four interventions:

Play and learning materials: kit of basic play and learning materials and supplies
Caregiver training and mentoring: enhanced 5 week residential training program for caregivers including fieldwork and mentoring
Caregiver incentives: small monthly cash incentive to encourage retention and performance
Parenting education: 12 group sessions for parents with 3- and 4-year olds focused on practical activities

Control and treatment groups are to receive the following interventions:

Control Group: Play and Learning Materials Only
Treatment Group 1: Caregiver Training + Play and Learning Materials
Treatment Group 2: Caregiver Training + Incentives + Play and Learning Materials
Treatment Group 3: Caregiver Training + Parenting Education + Play and Learning Materials

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End	Cycle
2013-05-13	2013-10-17	Midline

Data Collectors

Name
Wadonda Consult

Supervision

Data collection was overseen by an Impact Evaluation Field Coordinator from the World Bank who conducted spot-checks in the field as well as data entry.

Data Collection Notes

Midline data collection took place over a period of one day at each CBCC. Upon arriving at a center, two enumerators study team introduced the study and administered the CBCC questionnaire to the CBCC director, conducted CBCC observations, and completed the CBCC caregiver roster/interview. The remainder of the data collection team contacted the mothers/guardians of the baseline-selected children to explain the research study to the mothers/guardians and request their participation and permission for their child’s participation. Then, the enumerators conducted the mother/guardian interviews using the mother/guardian questionnaire and administered the child developmental assessment tests. All center-level data collection, and a large portion of the child and mother/guardian-level midline data collection was conducted between May and early July 2013. Data collection was put on hold for the remainder of July and August as centers (and schools) are closed in Malawi. In September 2013, data collection resumed to track mother/guardians and children who had relocated outside of the study districts since the baseline study in 2011-2012. All midline data was completed by mid-October 2013.

Depositor information

Depositor

Name	Affiliation
Education - GP	World Bank

Data Access

Citation requirements

The use of the datasets must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:

the identification of the Primary Investigator (including country name)
the full title of the survey and its acronym (when available), and the year(s) of implementation
the survey reference number
the source and date of download (for datasets disseminated online).

Example:

Michelle Neuman, World Bank, Berk Ozler, World Bank, Lia Fernald, Univeristy of California Berkeley. Protecting Early Childhood Development in Malawi Impact Evaluation Survey 2013, Midline. Ref. MWI_2013_PECDIE-ML_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from [URL] on [date].

Disclaimer and copyrights

Disclaimer

The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.

Contacts

Name	Affiliation	Email
Christin McConnell	World Bank	cmcconnell@worldbank.org

Metadata production

DDI Document ID

DDI_MWI_2013_PECDIE-ML_v01_M_WB

Producers

Name	Affiliation	Role
Development Data Group	World Bank	Study documentation
Education - GP	World Bank	Study documentation

Date of Metadata Production

2014-06-27

Metadata version

DDI Document version

v02 (January 2015)
Datasets were added to DDI v02 compared to v01 that was published without data in June 2014;

Metadata fields were updated to reflect the World Bank new organizational structure.