EDGE Project FY15 Performance

The EDGE project worked with the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) team to analyse the data from the Methodological Experiment on Measuring Asset Ownership from a Gender Experiment that was implemented in Uganda in 2014 by EDGE, LSMS and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The randomized experiment was designed to assess the relative effects of five different approaches to household survey respondent selection on the estimation of men’s and women’s ownership and control of physical and financial assets. A comprehensive analysis of the survey results was carried out in 2015, and the findings helped formulate the survey instruments piloted in 2015. The analysis will also inform pilot data collection activities in 2016 and be incorporated into the final EDGE methodological guidelines on measuring the ownership and control of assets from a gender perspective that are expected to be presented to the UN Statistical Commission for adoption in 2017.

Four EDGE pilots were conducted in 2015 to test the EDGE draft methodological guidelines on measuring asset ownership and entrepreneurship from a gender perspective. With funding from the Asian Development Bank, Georgia, Mongolia, and the Philippines conducted stand-alone surveys to test questionnaire design and both the feasibility and value-added of interviewing three adult household members about individual-level asset ownership and control. The EDGE project provided technical support to the National Statistical Offices on questionnaire and sampling designs and co-delivered the training of enumerators in each of the three countries. Data collection concluded in November, and a post data collection workshop is being organized in Bangkok in mid-December by the ADB, with participation of EDGE project staff, to document field experiences and discuss analysis plans.

A fourth EDGE pilot was conducted in Mexico in 2015. The Institutio Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia (INEGI), which funded the pilot, appended the EDGE module on a core set of assets to its National Household Survey and fielded the module to approximately 8000 households. A training of enumerators was co-delivered by INEGI and the EDGE project in June. Data collection concluded in September and the data is currently being analysed with the input of the EDGE project. Findings from all pilots will inform the revision of the EDGE methodological guidelines on measuring asset ownership and entrepreneurship from a gender perspective.