Purpose
In 2010, only 15% of households in mainland Tanzania were connected to the electricity grid, with the rate being less than 3% for rural areas (World Bank data). Between 2008 and 2013, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) financed a large energy sector project in Tanzania. The Government of Tanzania received a grant from MCC to boost economic growth and alleviate poverty through making investments in energy infrastructure. The objectives of the project were to enhance the quality and quantity of the electricity supply to businesses and households. Mathematica carried out an impact evaluation of two components of the project: the connection of new power lines to the electricity grid, and providing low-cost connections to households in selected communities.
Action
EDI Global conducted the follow-up survey at the community and household levels to support the impact evaluation (using the randomised controlled trial and difference-in-differences methods) tracking respondents four years after the baseline. EDI Global led the preparation of the survey tools and the training of field teams, as well as the implementation and oversight of all fieldwork and data quality. EDI Global was able to successfully interview 10,888 households by deploying efficient and adaptable field teams who worked closely with communities to locate baseline households four years after the initial interviews.
Impact
EDI Global conducted a vast number of interviews with a multitude of respondents for this endline survey, including:
household interviews
community interviews
The research outputs of the Mathematica team’s work are publicly available here. The final report of the impact evaluation found that the line extensions had no clear impacts on the overall amount of energy used by households, but that the low-cost connection offers reduced poverty, as measured by per capita consumption. See the following report:
Chaplin, D., Mamun, A., Protik, A., Schurrer, J., Vohra, D., Bos, K., Burak, H., Meyer, L., Dumitrescu, A., Ksoll, C. and Cook, T. 2017. Grid electricity expansion in Tanzania by MCC: Findings from a rigorous impact evaluation. Report submitted to the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research.
