Research Consultant – Pathways to Excellence External Assessment: An Opportunity International Education Quality Research Project (October-December 2017)
Opportunity International‘s EduFinance Education Quality program in Ghana was designed as a low cost, self-sustaining offering to client schools to help them improve the quality of education offered through their school. EduFinance Education Quality program has three main components
- School Clusters, Pathways to Excellence (P2E) and School Leadership Professional Development Program (SLPD). The objective of the external assessment was to provide a baseline towards a self-assessment by the schools. The methodology included direct interviewing, focus group discussions, and researcher observations.
Data was collected using a tablet-based with the protocols on open data technology. In total 219 schools out of 233 schools, representing were assessed, located in three regions of Ghana; Greater Accra, Eastern and Ashanti. 2,917 respondents were involved in the assessment, comprising school leaders, teachers, pupils and parents.
Research Consultant: School Improvement Loans (Ghana) Survey: Education Finance; Opportunity International USA; March-April 2017.
The Opportunity International Education Finance (EduFinance) conducted a survey of schools it currently finances on its Schools Improvement Loans in Ghana through its partner, Opportunity International Savings and Loans (OISL). The research consultant was responsible for mustering, training, and supervising a team of enumerators to visit all schools in-person to collect necessary data on the schools. They survey made use of two pre-existing tablet-based survey instruments mSchool Survey, developed by Jotbi and Open Data Kit (ODK). The survey covered 200 schools spread over seven regions of Ghana.
Research Consultant: Opportunity International USA – Exploratory Narrative Study of Education Finance Impact (2014)
The objective of the research was to ascertain more accurately how to measure impact of Opportunity International‘s Education Finance in Ghana and what indicators appropriate to measure them and also what categories/areas to observe and measure over time.
The research sought to confirm that the expected categories are indeed valid categories where impact can be measured, and also to uncover hitherto unknown/unexpected ways in which education finance might impact individuals, households, and communities. The research was thus exploratory and completely open-ended.
Methodology included clarifying the mechanism of change (the loans to school proprietors), the target clients (school proprietors) who use the service, the primary impact recipients (Schools), and the secondary impact recipients (households and communities) for school proprietor loans.
The research covered six schools in 3 regions of Ghana who had received the loans, thus varying communities by urban, rural, region, and/or school loan type. The methodology for this research was primarily qualitative—involving interviews and analyses of the narratives captured. It also adopted the iterative approach to project management.
Activities included capturing and analyzing the school proprietor‘s story of how school proprietor loans have impacted the school. Determining all the different relationships that the school proprietor and/or the school had with individuals, households, and broader community actors (whether social, economic, political, or other), engaging various people in the community to ascertain what areas should be considered important areas of impact.
Other activities were, pre-visit background analysis , review of materials provided by Opportunity detailing findings from past, relevant research including protocols used in the past; provide a preliminary set of protocols (interview questions) to be asked of different informants, community visits, interviewing, preparation and submission of interviews, and observations.
Research Consultant: Client Impact Review- International Smallholder Farmer Project; Ghana, Opportunity International UK; DFID, July 2016.
The assignment was to facilitate Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with clients in OIUK‘s DFID-funded ‗Improving Agricultural production and incomes for 10,000 smallholder farmers in Ghana and Mozambique, benefiting 50,000 people’ project for OIUK‘s local partner in Ghana, Opportunity International Savings and Loans Ltd (OISL). Using FGDs with specific clients, the objective was to collate information to measure the set of indicators outlined in the project‘s logical framework and to determine the progress of the project indicators.
Research Consultant; Baseline Study – Improving Agricultural Production and Incomes for 10,000 Smallholder Farmers in Ghana and Mozambique, Benefiting 50,000 People (Ghana and Mozambique). Opportunity International UK; DFID, 2015.
Opportunity International (―Opportunity‖) is an organisation that provides financial services to the poor so that they are able to work themselves out of poverty and lead lives of dignity and purpose. Founded in 1971, it works in 22 countries, providing financial products and services to almost 5 million clients. It supports local microfinance organisations that provide innovative financial solutions to empower, people, create jobs and build vibrant communities. Its mission is to provide financial solutions and training, empower people living in poverty to transform their lives, their children‘s futures and their communities. Opportunity International‘s local partners in Africa have supported smallholder farmers through their agricultural finance programmes.
The baseline study, conducted in Ghana and Mozambique was intended to provide the programme staff with detailed baseline data on key project indicators outlined in the project log frame, to enable changes in the target beneficiaries (women and men) to be measured over the course of the project. The data collected will was qualitative and quantitative in nature, and included information gathered on the outcome indicators in the log frame. It also provided a baseline to ascertain the cost effectiveness in the implementation of the activity (value for money). The consultant was expected to modify, add and validate the indicators already identified and make suggestions on means of verification and to additionally develop relevant practical tools and approaches for on-going project monitoring and learning.
Research Consultant: Agricultural Finance Portfolio Analysis – Opportunity International USA (May 2015)
The objective of the study was to conduct a research to document and analyze agricultural finance methods and practices in the Opportunity International Africa Agricultural Finance portfolio in order to generate lessons and recommendations for future guidance and operational tools that would improve social and financial performance and reduce risk. The research process involved stakeholder analysis and participatory engagement of agricultural finance managers and staff in workshops that were part training, part participatory.
Research Consultant: Citi Foundation; Opportunity International USA-Smallholder Farmer Land Profiling Project – Client Impact Study, (2015)
The research sought to measure the impact of Opportunity International‘s agricultural plot-size specific loans on the lives of farmer households in Ghana. The objective was to be able to capture changes in farmer yield/productivity changes based on the difference in loan sizes, hoping that the study would provide understanding when such differences begin to make a tangible difference in client lives.
More specifically, the research was expected to produce data regarding changes in production, productivity, incomes, child education, healthcare, household assets, food security etc. Activities undertaken included literature reviews, leading field teams, data analysis and preparation of draft and final reports
Research Consultant: Citi Foundation; Opportunity International USA-Smallholder Farmer Land Profiling Project – Baseline Study (2014)
The objective of this study was to conduct a baseline study using client surveys, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and farmer tracking/transactional data to establish a baseline data regarding production, productivity, incomes, child education, healthcare, household assets, food security for Opportunity clients who had received agricultural plot-size specific loans and those who received the standard loans,. The objective was to be able to capture baseline data for these two sets of loan clients for an impact assessment.
In-Country Researcher: Gates Foundation; MasterCard; Opportunity International USA: Client Impact Review- Financial Services for Rural Communities and Smallholder Farmers in Africa (2013)
Under the project, Opportunity International and its partner institutions are offering comprehensive financial services to rural communities and smallholder farmers in Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda. The project was jointly funded by the MasterCard Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is implemented in Ghana by Opportunity International Savings and Loans Ltd. The implementation started in 2009 and cost an estimated $16 million over four years.
In Ghana, the research covered four regions and four municipalities/districts in Ghana, namely Techiman municipality (Brong Ahafo region), Sehwi Wiawso municipality (Western region), Amansie West district (Ashanti region) and Dangbe West (Greater Accra). The crops covered were Cocoa, Maize and Vegetables.
Opportunity International, the implementing partner, wanted to implement a final learning initiative under the project. The study, a rural household impact review spanning project areas in five project countries, sought to identify economic and social changes that farmer households had experienced with the help of Opportunity‘s agricultural finance services.
The schedule was to conduct the country literature review for an analysis of the selected crops value- chain, prepare a commodity value-chain analysis brief for cocoa, maize and vegetables, conduct focus group discussions, facilitate key informant interviews, collect alternative and quantitative data from market players and project staff, which will help triangulate information or add research findings and field surveys, manage the research team and enumerators, data validation and review of the final report.
The data from the client impact survey was to provide the donors with information towards the success and sustainability of the project. The research was successfully concluded in August 2013.