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Showing all content in Kenya
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Publication - Policy Brief
Tracking prices during COVID-19 in Kenya and Uganda
This project serves as a proof of concept exploring whether it is possible to collect high-quality, high-frequency price data at scale through a crowd-sourcing approach. We collected over 39,000 price quotes of essential food items in Kenya and Uganda between April 2020 and mid-March 2021, featuring a wide geographic coverage. The findings suggest that prices were...
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Blog post
Money or power? Choosing COVID-19 aid in Kenya
Participants in an experiment comparing demand for cash transfers and electricity subsidies in urban Kenya, overwhelmingly prefer cash given the proliferation of mobile money via platforms like M-PESA and preference for short-term liquidity. Conversely, in rural Kenya, slightly more respondents opted for electricity token transfers given that they face saving constraints...
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Publication - Project Report
Economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on smallholder farmers
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Publication - Policy Brief
Agro-dealer and farmer COVID-19 survey: April – June 2020
The researchers interviewed 973 crop farmers, 99 dairy farmers, and 483 agro-dealers to help assess the impacts of COVID-19 on smallholder farmers and other actors across the agricultural value chain. The researchers make several findings, including that a majority of farmers report financial distress and agro-dealers were seeing lower footfall traffic. However,...
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Project
Tracking price dynamics during a pandemic in Kenya and Uganda
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds across the globe, economies face disruptions in global and national supply chains due to the pandemic itself and related government response measures. The disruptions pose a serious threat to food security. In Kenya and Uganda, policymakers are particularly worried about COVID-19 induced price spikes and supply shortages of essential...
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Blog post
Smart containment and social protection: Lessons from Kenya’s COVID-19 fight
During a time of high uncertainty, the Kenyan government has taken careful and considered steps towards containing COVID-19, while keeping as much of the economy functioning as possible. To work most effectively, the government’s smart containment strategy must be informed by data – more extensive COVID-19 testing is critical for this. As with many other African...
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Project
Economic impacts of COVID-19 on smallholder farmers and the agricultural value chain in Kenya
Social distancing protocols present economic and health risks to the rural poor in developing countries. These include: food shortages distortions in food and input prices disruption in the availability of inputs high levels of unemployment In Kenya, COVID-19 has restricted both human movement and trade. The Kenyan Government's concern is that enforced...
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Publication - Policy Brief
Tracking constraints to micro-entrepreneurship using IVR technology: Results from a pilot study in Kenya and Uganda
Current data collection exercises fail to capture the heterogeneity of entrepreneurs in developing countries in terms of scale. This project proposes a research agenda around understanding the constraints faced by micro-entrepreneurs, both formal and informal, through a series of mobile-based surveys (using IVR technology) delivered to small firms and...
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Publication - Policy Brief
How do credit and psychology affect the adoption of profitable energy efficient technologies in Kenya?
Energy efficient technologies are often cited for their potential to meet sustainable development goals by slowing greenhouse gas emissions and generating financial savings for households living in poverty, but adoption of energy efficient technologies remains low. This study conducts a randomised experiment with 1,000 low-income households in Nairobi. The authors...
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Project
Improving customer repayments practices for water and sewer services in Kenyan informal settlements
2.5 billion people in the developing world have no access to improved sanitation, and over a billion of them still practice open defecation. Rapid urbanisation has resulted in an increase of 183 million urban residents without access to improved sanitation. The inability of the utilities to deliver adequate sanitation services has disproportionately hurt poor urban...