The projects and activities supported by the INDH are varied (Coordination Nationale de l’INDH, 2011). In the field of education, classrooms, schools, housing for pupils, after-school care facilities, crèches, preschools, and accommodation for teaching staff were some elements of the INDH. In the field of health, the INDH helped fund the acquisition of ambulances and mobile units, building of health centers and dispensaries, purchase of medical equipment and materials, and building of maternity centers. The INDH targets basic infrastructure and services, including water, roads, electricity, and large-scale public infrastructure works. It has contributed to cultural and sporting activities as well. With regard to income-generating activities, the INDH has been involved with projects targeting crops, livestock and fisheries, traditional trades and crafts, small businesses, and tourism. Hostels, women’s shelters, multipurpose centers, support and counseling centers, sociocultural and sports facilities, homes for the elderly, child protection centers, charitable homes, and centers for abandoned children have all benefited from the INDH. Consequently, a number of activities covered by the INDH affect ECD, either directly or indirectly, across the areas of education, health, and living conditions.

# **_3 ONDH Impact Evaluation Panel Survey Data_**

# _3.1 The Surveys_

The ONDH undertook data collection to assess the impact of the INDH on areas targeted by the initiative. Surveys covered targeted (the treatment group) and nontargeted areas (the control group) in both rural and urban areas. The survey observed the sample households over three rounds. The first round of observations took place in 2008, which was after program initiation. There was a second round in 2011 (right after the end of the first phase of the INDH). A third round took place in 2013. These are the data we use, focusing on the rural sample since the program was targeted based on poverty rates in rural areas but not in urban areas. As a result, identification of the impact using RDD is possible only in rural areas (Observatoire National du Developpement Humain, 2012).

In rural areas, data were collected from approximately 1,500 households living in 124 rural communes (half of which were targeted by INDH Phase I). These communes were selected based on their poverty rate. The INDH was targeted in rural areas to communes which a 2004 poverty mapping report had identified as having poverty rates greater than 30 percent (High Commission on Planning Morocco, 2004).<sup>8</sup> Since we expect communes with poverty rates that are just below and just above 30 percent to be quite similar, the control group consists of rural communes not targeted by the INDH with poverty rates less than 30 percent and more than 27 percent, while the treatment group consists of communes with poverty rates between 30 percent and 32 percent. This data collection method was designed to facilitate RDD. A post-hoc method was required because the launch of the INDH in 2005/2006 preceded plans to evaluate the program. A RDD using the commune targeting rule was identified as the optimal approach for rural areas and was for this reason incorporated into the impact evaluation survey design (Observatoire National du Developpement Humain, 2012).

A further complication with identification in the 2013 round is that around 71 percent of the control areas—with poverty rates based on the 2004 poverty map of 27 percent to less than 30 percent—were treated in Phase II of the INDH (Initiative Nationale pour le Developpement Human, 2014). The second phase was launched in the summer of 2011, targeting 299 additional

> 8 The poverty map was based on the 2000/2001 household consumption and expenditure survey and the 2004 census (High Commission on Planning Morocco, 2004).

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