Under the Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance's Learning, Evaluation and Research (DRG-LER) contract, USAID asked NORC to design and carry out a developmental evaluation (DE) of USAID/Mali’s programs that are mitigating and responding to COVID-19. The broad objectives of the DE are twofold: (1) To understand the socio-cultural context related to COVID-19 (e.g. perceptions, beliefs); (2) To examine the changes in socio-cultural outcomes over time, correlations between these changes and various programs, and also between different levels of outcomes (e.g. perceptions and behavior).

NORC surveyed about 900 respondents across five urban areas that have experienced the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in Mali thus far: Bamako, Koulikoro, Kayes, Mopti, and Tombouctou. Data was collected by phone through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). The sampling frame included respondents already connected to a cell phone service.