Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Contributions and comments by seminar participants at ZEF and other conferences greatly improved the content of the paper. We thank the entire field assistants for their excellent work during data collection and rolling-out of the experiment. We are very much grateful to all the participating public basic schools and households for their time and cooperation. We acknowledge with gratitude the contributions by Daniel Tsegai, Devesh Rustagi, Michael Kosfeld, Julia Anna Matz, Nicolas Gerber, Vincent Nartey Kyere, and Guido Lüchters during research design and drafting of publication. We thank Frank Otchere for undertaking the randomization process. The conclusions of the paper are strictly those of the authors and not those of the funding agencies. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractHouseholds in developing countries face an enormous set of health risks from using contaminated water sources. In 2014, a group of 512 households relying on unimproved water, sanitation and hygiene practices in the Greater Accra region of Ghana were randomly selected to participate in the intervention on water quality self-testing and to receive water quality improvement messages (information). The treatment group was separated into two groups: (1) a school children intervention group and (2) an adult household members intervention group, to identify the role of intra-household decision making or resource allocation in the delivery of water quality information. The comparison group neither participated in the water quality self-testing nor received information. The impacts of the experiment are estimated using intention-to-treat (ITT), instrumental variable (IV) and differences-in-differences (DiD) estimators. Participation rate, which is used as a proxy for uptake, is higher among the school children intervention group in comparison to the adult intervention group. The results show that the household water quality testing and information experiment increase the choice of improved water sources and other safe water behaviors. The study implies that household water quality testing and information could be used as "social marketing" strategy in achieving safe water behaviors. The school children intervention group is more effective in the delivery of water quality information, thereby making a strong case of using school children as "agents of change" in improving safe water behaviors. The study also finds limited evidence of gender differentiated impacts based on the gender of the ...

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Background: In 2014, a group of 512 households in multipurpose water systems and also relying on unimproved water, sanitation, and hygiene practices in the Greater Accra region of Ghana were randomly selected to participate in water quality self-testing and also receipt of information in the form of handouts on how to improve water quality. Objectives and Research Design: Using a cluster-randomized controlled design, we study the health, sanitation, and hygiene behavior impacts of the household water quality testing and information experiment. Subjects: The study has three arms: (1) adult household members, (2) schoolgoing children, and (3) control group. Measures: The study measures the effects on handwashing with soap, cleanliness of households, and prevalence of diarrhea and self-reported fever. We also address impacts on child health and nutrition outcomes, particularly diarrhea and anthropometric outcomes. Results: We show that there is high household willingness to participate in this intervention on water quality self-testing. About 7 months after households took part in the intervention, the study finds little impacts on health outcomes and on sanitation- and hygiene-related risk-mitigating behaviors, regardless of the intervention group, either schoolchildren or adult household members. Impacts (direction and extent) are rather homogeneous for most of the outcomes across treatment groups. Conclusions: The study discusses the implications of the findings and also offers several explanations for the lack of transmission of impacts from the household water quality testing and information intervention on health outcomes and on sanitation and hygiene behaviors.

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In 2016-2018 poa! Internet, a private internet service provider, distributed free internet services across schools in Nairobi, Kenya. Using inverse probability weighting (IPW) method, the study finds that the intervention significantly increases students' internet use and training, receipt of information on educational content, and participation in information and communication technologies (ICTs) education programmes. However, the study does not find evidence that internet services increase school attendance. The results suggest that facilitating access to internet services in schools can significantly increase child computer and internet skills and training in developing countries, even if those investments have limited gains on school attendance.

In this paper, we analyze perceptions and determinants of households' participation in a randomized experiment on water quality testing and information in southern Ghana. Beneficiary households assessed the components of the intervention including its relevance and adequacy in improving understanding of water quality issues. Motivating and constraining factors to participation in the randomized experiment are also assessed. We also estimate the correlates of participation in the intervention. Social and economic benefits derived from the intervention based on perceptions are compared with impacts of the intervention using an instrumental variable approach. We found evidence that subjective analysis estimates of the effects of the intervention are higher than the objective analysis estimates. Households generally perceived the intervention to be relevant in improving their understanding of water quality issues. However, there are differing opinions based on random assignment into either child or adult treatment groups on most- and least-liked attributes of the intervention, and also motivating and constraining factors affecting participation in the intervention. The factors that statistically and significantly influenced participation in the intervention include educational attainment, ethnicity, religious denomination and marital status of the household heads, in addition to the location of residence.