Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Household Survey for Evaluation of a Project Supporting Rural Community Banks in Western Honduras, 2012 data were collected by Oxfam GB as part of the organisation's Global Performance Framework. Under this framework, a small number of completed or mature projects are selected at random each year for an evaluation of their impact, known as an Effectiveness Review. These data were used to evaluate the impact of the 'Linking APROALCE to Local and International Markets' project, which began in 1999. After Hurricane Mitch caused severe destruction in the area, Oxfam and a partner organization established four community banks with the aim of improving livelihoods for smallholders in nearby communities. In 2006, the producer association APROALCE was established from the membership of these banks. APROALCE expanded to purchase from producers over a wide geographic area, selling on to national supermarket chains. From 2008 to 2011, the partners provided a line of credit to the banks that specifically required them to lend to women. A household questionnaire was implemented with members of the four community banks, and with a sample of households from communities in a municipality neighbouring the project area. A total of 244 households were interviewed from the control communities, and 109 from the intervention communities. Quasi-experimental methods were used to evaluate the impact of the project by matching project beneficiaries with non-beneficiaries on a range of characteristics. Anonymisation: Community names have been removed and replaced with codes in random order. The following variables have been recoded so as to prevent unique cases that may allow identification of the respondents: household size (capped at 12 members), age (binned in 5-year intervals), size of house (capped at 5+ rooms) and principal work of household head (combined categories). Main Topics:Impact of rural...