The Ghana Millennium Development Authority's (MiDA) Agriculture Project within the Government of Ghana's Compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation is design to improve farming in a number of areas. Under the Agricultural Project being implemented by (MiDA) some feeder roads are to be rehabilitated or reconstructed to promote development in the sector. In the first phase, about 336 km of feeder roads in eight (8) districts in two intervention zones are to be rehabilitated to reduce transportation costs and time, and increase access to major domestic and international markets. The feeder roads activity will also facilitate transportation linkages from rural areas to social service networks (including hospitals, clinics and schools).
The purpose of this project is to conduct an impact evaluation of the MiDA's Feeder Roads Activity. As stated in the Terms of Reference of the request for proposals, "the primary data for the impact evaluation will be a series of surveys similar in scope to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) survey, examining changes in prices over time Findings from the market surveys will contribute to the overall impact evaluation conducted by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER). The Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) 5+ is the primary instrument used in the overall evaluation, and 'Difference in Difference' is the proposed method of evaluation of data."
Thus, this study focuses on how prices of goods sold at local markets (that are transported on improved roads) change over time. It is also to document the changes in goods transport tariffs and passenger fares to market places served by the feeder roads.
The sample design uses a carefully tailored algorithm employed to match 154 localities that will benefit from the road improvements with an identical number of control localities that are comparatively far from the improvements. The sample size is sufficient to provide robust estimates of price effects associated with the road improvements. The minimum population for a locality to be included in the sample is 1,000, a condition imposed to help ensure that most designated items could be found in most localities.
Beginning in August 2009 interviewers visited the sample localities to obtain three price observations for each item in the defined "basket" of goods and transportation services. The final "basket" contains 39 fresh food items, 24 packaged food items, 19 non food items and 6 transportation tariffs-3 for the locality's residents' most frequent passenger destinations and 3 for the most frequent freight destinations.
