Mortenson Center in Global Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, 4001 Discovery Drive, Boulder, 80303, CO, USA; Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development, Nairobi, Kenya.
Mortenson Center in Global Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, 4001 Discovery Drive, Boulder, 80303, CO, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Sep 10;838(Pt 4):156546. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156546. Epub 2022 Jun 10.
We present a study design, pre-analysis plan, process evaluation and baseline results designed to establish the impact of trailbridges on health, education, agricultural and economic outcomes of households in rural Rwanda. This intervention and study is being implemented in communities that face barriers to socioeconomic development through periodic isolation caused by flooding. We describe a mixed methods approach to measure the impacts of these trailbridges on outcomes at the village level. The study is anchored on a stepped-wedge randomized controlled trial (RCT) implemented in 147 sites: 97 phased-in intervention sites and 50 long-term control sites. These sites are being monitored in four annual waves comprising of a baseline period and three subsequent follow-up waves. We will supplement the RCT with three sub-studies. First, we are investigating the role of weather events and streamflow variability on temporal and spatial bridge use patterns among intervention sites. We will then find the relationship between the weather events, streamflow and bridge use from motion-activated cameras installed in intervention sites. Secondly, we are following 42 markets serving study sites to investigate the impact of the trailbridges on the market prices of key goods including crops, livestock and agricultural inputs. Lastly, we are following 30 villages that are more distant from the river crossings to determine the spatial extent of the trailbridge impacts. Our study will advance knowledge by generating new data on the impact of rural infrastructure and providing the opportunity to explore a range of outcomes for future evaluation of infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries. We will enable an outcomes-based funding model that ties implementer payments to demonstrated positive impacts of these trailbridges. Furthermore, we will identify cost-effective, easily assessed measures that are highly correlated to the economic and health benefits of the intervention. These measures may then be used by a portfolio of interventions across multiple geographies without always requiring complex trials.
我们提出了一项研究设计、预分析计划、过程评估和基线结果，旨在确定 trailbridges 对卢旺达农村家庭的健康、教育、农业和经济成果的影响。这项干预和研究是在面临因洪水导致的周期性隔离而阻碍社会经济发展的社区中进行的。我们描述了一种混合方法，用于衡量这些 trailbridges 对村庄层面结果的影响。该研究基于一个分阶段随机对照试验（RCT），在 147 个地点实施：97 个逐步实施干预的地点和 50 个长期对照的地点。这些地点在四个年度波次中进行监测，包括基线期和随后的三个随访期。我们将补充 RCT 进行三项子研究。首先，我们正在调查天气事件和河流流量变化对干预地点之间的时间和空间桥梁使用模式的影响。然后，我们将从安装在干预地点的运动激活摄像机中找到天气事件、流量和桥梁使用之间的关系。其次，我们正在跟踪 42 个为研究地点服务的市场，以调查 trailbridges 对包括农作物、牲畜和农业投入品在内的关键商品的市场价格的影响。最后，我们正在跟踪 30 个离过河点更远的村庄，以确定 trailbridges 影响的空间范围。我们的研究将通过生成有关农村基础设施影响的新数据并为未来评估中低收入国家的基础设施提供一系列结果的机会来推进知识。我们将实现基于结果的供资模式，将实施者的付款与这些 trailbridges 的积极影响联系起来。此外，我们将确定成本效益高、易于评估的措施，这些措施与干预的经济和健康效益高度相关。然后，这些措施可以在多个地理位置的一组干预措施中使用，而无需始终进行复杂的试验。
