The biggest social, political, and economic challenges affecting people in developing countries are multi-faceted and complex. The Penn Development Research Initiative (PDRI) – DevLab@Penn brings together faculty and graduate students from 7 schools across the University of Pennsylvania whose research seeks to identify solutions to the challenges facing developing countries. PDRI-DevLab seeks to foster impactful international development research by harnessing the expertise of its affiliates from various disciplines and utilizing diverse methodological approaches. PDRI-DevLab serves as a launchpad for extramurally-funded research projects that include collaborations with international NGOs, local NGOs, and government agencies while also serving as an intellectual hub for Penn faculty and graduate students conducting research in developing countries.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has commissioned an endline evaluation for the USAID/Zambia Community Forest Program (CFP). The CFP was designed to support the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s (GRZ) Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) strategy by establishing the largest REDD+ program to date in Zambia. The CFP aimed to establish REDD+ project areas across a minimum of 700,000 hectares within the Zambezi and Luangwa Valley ecosystems, and in so doing, incentivize better forest management on a total of up to two million hectares, involving up to 10,000 households (BCP 2017 Annual Report).
The CFP sought to reduce emissions from deforestation through participatory natural resource management of globally biodiverse and significantly forested landscapes. To accomplish this, the CFP included a full suite of activities to help develop, manage, and maintain a comprehensive community forest management and REDD+ project. Specifically, the CFP included components in stakeholder consultations, livelihood improvements, forest management and engagement with the Government.
The primary learning objectives for the CFP evaluation are:
- To understand how REDD+ programs impact land tenure, property rights, and related livelihoods, either positively or negatively.
- To learn about what aspects of REDD+ programming are most effective in incentivizing long-term carbon sequestration and reduced GHG emissions from forests and landscapes.
The CFP evaluation is designed to examine several outcomes related to participatory forest management and reduced deforestation, including sustainable livelihoods; collective action and participatory forest management; improved natural resource management; extent of charcoal trade and to unsustainable timber harvesting; altered behaviors and norms around conservation; improved livelihoods, well-being, and rural poverty; and improved forest condition.
This capstone will use qualitative data to assess the program's performance. The two qualitative data sources include focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. We have two period of qualitative data - baseline and endline.
- Qualitative analysis of baseline and endline transcripts, including an analysis of treatment versus comparison communities at endline and change over time in key outcomes/topics of discussion. The qualitative analysis should be conducted in NVivo, Dedoose, or Taguette.
- A 10-15 page synthesis document of key findings from the qualitative analysis.
2024-2025
