The IDH quick scans and baseline study consists of five steps:

Step 1: Inception (understand what IDH want)

The final design of the plan and the organization of the study is agreed on the basis of spending time with IDH during the inception period

Step 2: Assess programme logic (understand and assess theories of change)

Theories of change form the central logic of IDH’s interventions. Our starting point will be to evaluate these theories of change in light of our own experience, international best practice and more specific, detailed knowledge of the cocoa, timber and cotton value chains in countries which are impacted by the selected chains.

Step 3: Secondary data collection (analysis of existing secondary data)

IDH has collected considerable data on existing projects and we will work with staff to establish to what extent the available data match the requirements for optimal assessment of these programmes.

Step 4: Validation of data (primary data collection through telephone interviews and field visits)

Budgetary constraints preclude full value chain analyses for the three commodities in each source country. We will initially comprehensively cover the downstream, higher value end of value chains, which are based in Europe – mainly in the form of semi-structured telephone surveys. This will identify issues that are more generic at the upstream end of an example chain for each commodity.

Field visits would be made to pre-identified stakeholders across the upstream nodes of the value chain in order to collect primary qualitative and quantitative data using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions

Step 5: Pulling it together

This analysis will be pulled together into several different outputs. First, the results of the quick scan will be written in a comprehensive report and summarized as a four page dissemination draft. Second, the baseline study will be presented based upon a more exhaustive assessment of the secondary data available and the primary data collected from the telephone interviews and field visits. Third, the findings should also be disseminated through presentations and discussions with the three key target audiences: IDH staff, parliamentarians and the development (practitioners, donor, academic) community.