Experimental method

BRAC Uganda has plans to expand their microfinance and agriculture & livestock support programmes by establishing 20 additional branches in 13 districts in 2012. In 4 of these new branches, BRAC and LSE are implementing a research to evaluate the multiplied benefits of providing microfinance and agriculture & livestock programmes. The research will cover 160 villages.

The major defining characteristics of this research is the methodology. In order to identify the causal impact of BRAC’s microfinance and agriculture & livestock support programmes, as well as any complementarities between the two, the timing that the two programmes are introduced across the 160 villages will be randomized.