YouthSave Begins Piloting Impact Assessment Questionnaire

The YouthSave impact assessment in Ghana will document financial, psychosocial, educational, and health-related impacts of Youth Savings Accounts on young participants and their families. Conducting an impact assessment is a crucial part of the YouthSave research agenda. Through this rigorous research, we hope to understand changes taking place in the lives of youth as a result of their participation in the YouthSave Project and their use of savings products.

In early 2011, researchers from the Center for Social Development (CSD) and the Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research (ISSER), YouthSave’s research partner in Ghana, tested the survey questionnaires that will be used to gather data for the impact assessment from youth and their families. This pilot test investigated whether the questionnaire measures the intended attitudes, values, reported facts, and behaviors in a way that will allow us to answer these research questions:

• What happens when the YouthSave savings product is marketed and delivered in a youth population?
• What are the impacts of Youth Savings Accounts on developmental outcomes for youth (including education, outlook and aspirations, health, and financial capability), as well as on their households’ finances and well-being?

The pilot study tested three questionnaires used to gather data from youth and one from their parents. The sample for the pilot test was selected randomly from youth in four Junior High Schools (JHS) in Ghana, three public schools and one private school. Two of the schools were selected from the town of Mampong in the rural district of Akuapem North. The other two schools were in Atakyem and Betoum, both semi-urban communities located in the municipal district of Koforidua.

Interviewers received one full day of training before conducting the pilot interviews and met at the end of each day of interviews to discuss challenges they had encountered while administering the questionnaires. Common challenges included difficulty in recruiting and tracking parents/guardians (particularly when using their home addresses) and reluctance of head teachers in sharing school records (which the research team needed for the random selection of youth participants).

Pilot test results will enable investigators to design an impact assessment that is a reasonable length, successfully engages youth and their parents, and solicits reliable answers. Findings will shed light on where the instruments fall short, and inform the study investigators’ revision.

The overall goal of the five-year YouthSave Project is to understand the conditions for sustainable delivery of savings products and services that can substantially improve the life chances of low-income youth in the developing world, and transfer this knowledge to those in a position to support their accessibility and quality. The impact assessment will further this goal by rigorously documenting the impacts of Youth Savings Accounts on low-income youth, generating data that can inform youth savings products and policies worldwide.