Our Expertise and Services

What we do

Since our foundation in 2002, EDI has grown to be one of East Africa’s most respected research house with a strong global reputation for high quality survey design and data collection services aimed at assessing international development program impacts, measuring results and evaluating potential solutions to global poverty.

We have conducted or been involved in over 100 research projects in the following sectors:  Agriculture and Livestock, Economic Development, Education, Health, Social Welfare, Water and Sanitation and Cross Sectoral.  Please click here to see examples of the projects we have carried out by sector.

Impact Evaluations

EDI has conducted multiple Impact Evaluations that have been experimental or quasi-experimental in nature as well as various randomised survey experiments.

 

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CAPI Surveys

We were the pioneers in the use of electronic surveys across East Africa and have been conducting CAPI surveys since 2007.  We have created the best tools to enhance the type and accuracy of the data that can be evaluated.  

Mobile Phone Surveys

EDI have embraced the use of mobile phone surveys for frequent follow-up rounds and have proved to be particularly successful with 95% response rates.

 

 

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Supplementary Data Collection

Many of our surveys now involve the collection of supplementary data from bio-medical to water quality and anthropometric data. We have qualified teams of nurses and other professionals and equipment to enable this.

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Qualitative Research

There is little analytical work we do that does not involve some form of qual-quant combination to contextualise and inform data through focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and small group interviews.

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Students and Opinion polling

EDI interviewed many students whilst implementing an experiment on behalf of the ‘UWEZO’ initiative. We are currently conducting an opinion poll that tests the ability of voters to formulate coherent views on the use of gas revenues in Tanzania.

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Sample Design and Sample Listing

EDI has organised listing exercises in thousands of villages across Tanzania. It has experience in organising full listing exercises with intra-cluster stratification of the sample, as well as with faster listing methods based on updating village registers.

Nationwide Large-scale Household Surveys

Since 2004 EDI field teams have been contracted to interview over 150,000 households. Interview teams have travelled to all of Tanzania’s regions and to the majority of its districts, as well as parts of Uganda.  We are renowned for implementing projects on-time and on budget

Implementation of Complex Panel Surveys

EDI has a proven track record in conducting panel surveys. The KHDS survey tracked respondents 13 years after they had first been interviewed and a 93% success rate in tracing households was attained. This was one of the most successful panel surveys worldwide in which EDI tracked 3,200 households across Tanzania and into Uganda

Community, Enterprise, Market Facility & School Surveys

Many of our studies also involve us collecting data from a wide range of other organisations and we have both standard modules tailored to the local context as well as the expertise to create something new and specific to the needs of the study.

LSMS Type Surveys

We designed, piloted & implemented the Kagera Health Development Survey (KHDS) questionnaire; a survey including all standard LSMS modules. KHDS is one of the 60+ ‘official’ LSMS surveys that exist worldwide and its data are posted on the LSMS website.

KHDS Data

Experiments in Survey Methodology

EDI has conducted various research into survey modules and methodologies, for example, the impact of CAPI on data quality, interview time and costs, how risk perception is measured, or how to design a shock module

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Data Analysis, econometrics and report writing

EDI is particularly adept at statistical analysis and report writing. We have conducted all types of statistical analysis typically required in an impact evaluation, such as dif-in-dif regressions and propensity score matching

EDI publications