Designing a randomized impact evaluation on a Belgian development program: The case of the PROFI program in Benin

In 2016, the Belgian Technical Cooperation in Benin (BTC-Benin) launched a call for applications to a new program, denominated PROgramme d’appui au développement des FIlières agricoles (PROFI), to support agri-businesses involved in the value chains of rice, cashews, and vegetables in selected regions of the South (Mono-Couffo) and the North (Atacora-Donga). The program consists in providing agricultural entrepreneurs with equipment and materials, as well as in offering targeted technical assistance. Applications could only be submitted by organizations, i.e. groups of entrepreneurs organized into agri-business cooperatives, which could then decide how to allocate the support received among their members. At the demand of DGD, we have designed a randomized impact evaluation of this program and report in this paper about the different stages of implementation, which followed step by step the different phases of program development from the call for applications to the final selection of beneficiaries... (download)

R. Houssa