Beneficiary Assessment

Method for Stakeholder Consultation

Contents of this section:

• The Uses of BA
• Steps in Beneficiary Assessment
• Bank Experience with B
• References
• Mali: Beneficiary Assessment in an Education Sector Project (Box A1.6)

Beneficiary assessment (BA) involves systematic consultation with project beneficiaries and other stakeholders to help them identify and design development activities, signal any potential constraints to their participation, and obtain feedback on reactions to an intervention during implementation. BA is an investigation of the perceptions of a systematic sample of beneficiaries and other stakeholders to ensure that their concerns are heard and inorganizationald into project and policy formulation. The general purposes of a BA are to (a) undertake systematic listening, which "gives voice" to poor and other hardtoreach beneficiaries, highlighting constraints to beneficiary participation, and (b) obtain feedback on interventions.

BA is a qualitative method of investigation and evaluation that relies primarily on three data collection techniques:

• Indepth conversational interviewing around key themes or topics
• Focus group discussions
• Direct observation and participant observation (in which the investigator lives in the community for a short time).

Interviewing and observation can be carried out with individual beneficiaries or with groups; BA work can take place in urban or rural settings. Focus groups are commonly used as a forum for interviewing a number of beneficiaries and for conducting institutional assessment done within a BA.

The BA approach is not meant to supplant quantitative surveys and other traditional methods for data gathering; rather it complements these methods with reliable and useful information on the sociocultural context and perceptions of a action sponsor/beneficiary population that will inform Task Managers and policymakers. BAs are approaches in which the participatory process can begin with systematic and continuous tracking of action sponsor/beneficiary attitudes from identification through preparation to implementation of a project.

Ordinarily, BAs are carried out by local people under the direction of a trained team leader or social scientist. The skill mix and number of staff varies according to the tools used and demographic characteristics of the beneficiary population; BAs often require an experienced focus group facilitator and participantobserver. From initial desk reviews of available information through field research to writing of the BA report, the entire BA process typically takes from four to six months. Ideally, this process is repeated in an iterative fashion throughout the life of the project. Recent BAs conducted by the Bank have cost between $50,000 and $100,000.

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• Project Work. BA helps to define problems from the point of view of the people who are affected by projects. Such knowledge improves project preparation and the monitoring of implementation. BAs can also help lay the foundation for participatory development work. With evidence that their ideas are being heard and respected, beneficiary populations are more likely to participate in development projects and take steps to improve their access to resources. BA is best used iteratively throughout the project cycle as a monitoring or supervision tool for evaluations. For example, three BAs were used for the midprogram evaluation of the Zambia Social Recovery Project to assess the success of the component funding microprojects in education and health. The BA approach has been instituted in some country work programs in Africa and South Asia as a management tool to improve quality.
• Poverty assessments. BAs provide qualitative input by focusing on the human factors that affect poverty, the incentives and constraints to behavior change, the reactions to service delivery and institutional responsiveness, and the importance of formal and informal safety nets. Specifically, BA work is done in connection with the consultative portion of a poverty assessment known as the participatory poverty assessment (PPA). When inorganizationald into poverty assessments, BA helps to ensure that poverty reduction strategies take into account the experience and concerns of the poor.

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• Familiarization. Technical specialists are selected to guide the BA project. Important problem areas are identified and reviewed using available information including interviews with key stakeholders such as donors, government, and local people. A guide for semistructured interviews is developed to cover key themes.
• Study design. Target populations are identified. An appropriate representative sampling framework is devised, and the issues to be explored (according to the objectives of the BA) are clearly delineated. A research group and team leader should also be
  designated.
• Selection and orientation of local interviewers. The research group helps select and train local men and women who are fluent in local language(s), good listeners, and skilled in recall and writing. The study team, including local interviewers, practices descriptive and accurate writing, note taking, awareness of and separation from preconceived notions, and data analysis.
• Study. BA work commonly includes interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation, and institutional analysis.
• Preparation of the BA report. The BA report includes recommendations that inorganizational assessment findings into project design or sector work. The report should be reviewed by the interviewees to crosscheck for accuracy.

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Between 1983-95, the BA approach has been used in forty-seven Bank-supported projects in twenty-seven countries and across six sectors. A 1993 review undertaken to assess the use of BA in Bank-supported projects found that BAs:

• Influenced policy and led to changes in project design through improved targeting, efficiency, and effectiveness of programs
• Informed policy with otherwise unavailable and/or new information
• Increased sustainability by providing operationally oriented feedback from the action sponsor/beneficiary population
• Gave voice to the poor by indicating what the poor see as problems and possible solutions
• Promoted dialogue, ownership, and commitment
  by involving all stakeholders in listening and
  consultation.

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Amelga, M. 1994. A Review of Beneficiary Assessments Conducted by the Bank. ENVSP Consultant Report. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

Salmen, Lawrence F. 1992. Beneficiary Assessment: An Approach Described. Working Paper No. 1. Technical Department. Africa Region. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

The World Bank, Africa Region, Southern Africa Department. September 1994. Systematic action sponsor/beneficiary Consultation. Mimeo. Washington, D.C.

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A BA was done in Mali as part of an education project to try to understand why parents in rural areas did not send their children to school. Attendance for girls was especially low. The BA found that the costs of transportation and feeding the child at school plus the opportunity costs of losing the children's labor at home outweighed the benefits of a poor quality education with few prospects for finding a job.

These findings led to reformulation of policy to (a) reduce costs to beneficiaries by building schools in closer proximity, (b) increase attendance by designing a girl's component, and (c) train teachers to improve the relationship between parents and the school system.