The Rural Income Generating Activities (RIGA) Project is a collaboration between the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

, and

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

(Washington, DC) that seeks to contribute to the understanding of the income generating activities, both agricultural and non-agricultural, of rural households in developing countries. The RIGA project achieves this by two means. First, through the development of an innovative database of income sources from various developing countries, which is available free of charge to researchers via the project’s website. Second, by producing studies and publications that use the database to analyze pressing economic and policy issues.

Purpose

The RIGA Project's purpose is to create an income measure that is comparable within and between countries. Riga Logo new2

According to the RIGA Project website, the key questions addressed by the RIGA Project include: *What are the relationships between the various Rural Income Generating Activities (RIGAs)? *What types of RIGAs are associated with poverty reduction? *What is the relationship between various Rural Non-Farm activities and agriculture? *What is the link between RIGAs and food security? In order to answer these questions, the RIGA Project developed a standardized income calculation method that is applied only to country surveys that meet strict criteria of data requirements. The definition of income utilized closely adheres to the one set out by the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

. The "Resolution Concerning Household Income and Expenditure Statistics" passed by ILO outlines that household income includes all monetary and in-kind receipts that a household receives, which should include income from wage employment, self-employment, property, own consumption of household goods, and both public and private transfers. Since agriculture remains the principal activity for rural households, the RIGA Project also considers income generated from on-farm activities, both those sold and consumed by the household.

History

The need for standardized income data has arisen from the desire of the development community to understand the economic activities of rural households, especially the rural non-farm activities that have been continually overlooked even as the importance of the rural non-farm economy increases. With this in mind, the RIGA Project was initiated as a collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, and American University (Washington, DC). Only after consultation on the methodology between the partners, did the analysis and compilation of the data begin in 2005. Since 2005, the RIGA Project has created income aggregates for almost 30 countries, which became available to the public, free of charge, with the launch of the website in April 2009. The work of the Project has continued to expand with the addition of RIGA-L. The RIGA-Labor data provides a more in-depth look into the wage employment element of income generating activities, with analysis possible both at the individual and job level.

Data

The database contains an increasing number of surveys from countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Some of the countries have surveys for multiple years, with some of the multi-year countries (e.g. Indonesia, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Vietnam) including panel datasets.

Africa

Ghana - Ghana Living Standards Survey 1992 Ghana - Ghana Living Standards Survey 1998 Kenya - Integrated Household Budget Survey 2004-2005 Madagascar - Enquête Permanente Auprès Des Ménages 1993-1994 Madagascar - Enquête Permanente Auprès Des Ménages 2000-2001 Malawi - Integrated Household Survey II 2004-2005 Nigeria - Living Standards Survey 2003-2004

Asia

Bangladesh - Household Income-Expenditure Survey 2000 Indonesia - Family Life Survey- Wave 1 1993 Indonesia - Family Life Survey- Wave 3 2000 Nepal - Living Standards Survey I 1995-1996 Nepal - Living Standards Survey II 2003-2004 Pakistan -Integrated Household Survey 1991 Pakistan -Integrated Household Survey 2001 Vietnam - Living Standards Survey 1992-1993 Vietnam - Living Standards Survey 1997-1998 Vietnam - Living Standards Survey 2002

Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Albania - Living Standards Measurement Survey 2002 Albania - Living Standards Measurement Survey 2005 Bulgaria - Integrated Household Survey 1995 Bulgaria - Integrated Household Survey 2001 Tajikistan - Living Standards Survey - 2003

Latin America

Ecuador - Estudio de Condiciones de Vida 1995 Ecuador - Estudio de Condiciones de Vida 1998 Guatemala - Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida 2000 Nicaragua - Encuesta Nacional de Hogares Sobre Medición de Niveles de Vida 1998 Nicaragua - Encuesta Nacional de Hogares Sobre Medición de Niveles de Vida 2001 Panama - Encuesta de Niveles de Vida 1997 Panama - Encuesta de Niveles de Vida 2003 *Survey list as of March 2010

Publications

A Cross Country Comparison of Rural Income Generating Activities
January 2010 World Development. B. Davis, P. Winters, G. Carletto, K. Covarrubias, E.J. Quiñones, A. Zezza, C. Azzarri, K. Stamoulis and S. DiGiuseppe.
Assets, Activities and Rural Income Generation: Evidence from a Multicountry Analysis.
July 2009 P. Winters, B. Davis, G. Carletto, K. Covarrubias, E.J. Quiñones, A. Zezza, C. Azzarri, and K. Stamoulis.
Rural Income Generating Activities: Whatever Happened to the Institutional Vacuum? Evidence from Ghana, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Vietnam
July 2009 A. Zezza, G. Carletto, B. Davis, K. Stamoulis and P. Winters.
Wage inequality in international perspective: Effects of location, sector, and gender.
March 2009 T. Hertz, P. Winters, A. P. de la O, E. Quiñones, B. Davis, A. Zezza
Accounting for the Diversity of Rural Income Sources in Developing Countries: The Experience of the Rural Income Generating Activities Project
June 2009 K. Covarrubias, A.P. de la O Campos, and A. Zezza tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/012/ak423e/ak423e00.pdf A Profile of the Rural PoorApril 2009 A. Valdés, W. Foster, G. Anríquez, C. Azzarri, K. Covarrubias, B. Davis, S. DiGiuseppe, T. Essam, T. Hertz, A.P. de la O, E. Quiñones, K. Stamoulis, P. Winters and A. Zezza
Assets, Activities and Rural Poverty Alleviation: Evidence from a Multicountry Analysis
January 2009 P. Winters, B. Davis, G. Carletto, K.Covarrubias, K.Stamoulis, E. Quiñones, and A. Zezza
A Cross Country Comparison of Rural Income Generating Activities
January 2009 B. Davis, P. Winters, G. Carletto, K. Covarrubias, E. Quiñones, A. Zezza, K. Stamoulis, and S. Di Giuseppe tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/aj283e/aj283e00.pdf Patterns of Rural Development: A Cross-Country Comparison Using Microeconomic DataAugust 2008 P. Winters, T. Essam, B. Davis, A. Zezza, G. Carletto, and K. Stamoulis tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/aj301e/aj301e.pdf Rural Wage Employment in Developing CountriesAugust 2008 P. Winters, A.P. de la O, E. Quiñones, T. Hertz, B. Davis, A Zezza, K. Covarrubias, and K. Stamoulis tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/aj284e/aj284e00.pdf The Impact of Rising Food Prices on the PoorAugust 2008 A. Zezza, B. Davis, C. Azzarri, K. Covarrubias, L. Tasciotti, and G. Anr¡quez tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/aj303e/aj303e.pdf Rural Household Access to Assets and Agrarian Institutions: A Cross Country ComparisonMarch 2008 A. Zezza, P. Winters, B. Davis, G. Carletto, K. Covarrubias, E. Quiñones, K. Stamoulis, L. Tasciotti, and S. Di Giuseppe tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/aj304e/aj304e.pdf Does Urban Agriculture Enhance Dietary Diversity? Empirical Evidence from a Sample of Developing CountriesMarch 2008 (report short version) A. Zezza and L. Tasciotti tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai195e/ai195e00.pdf Rural income generating activities in developing countries:re-assessing the evidence2007 (powerpoint presentation) G. Carletto, K. Covarrubias, B. Davis, M. Krausova, K. Stamoulis, P. Winters and A. Zezza tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai488e/ai488e00.pdf Rural Income Generating Activities: Whatever Happened to the Institutional Vacuum? Evidence from Ghana, Guatemala, Nicaragua and VietnamNovember 2007 A. Zezza, G. Carletto, B. Davis, K. Stamoulis and P. Winters tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai197e/ai197e00.pdf Rural Income Generating Activities Study: Methodological note on the construction of income aggregatesOctober 2007. G. Carletto, K. Covarrubias, B. Davis, M. Krausova and P. Winters tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ah854e/ah854e.pdf Rural Household Access to Assets and Agrarian Institutions: A Cross Country ComparisonMay 2007 A. Zezza, P. Winters, B. Davis, G. Carletto, K. Covarrubias, E. Quiñones, K. Stamoulis, T. Karfakis, L. Tasciotti, S. DiGiuseppe and G. Bonomi tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ah853e/ah853e.pdf Rural Income Generating Activities: A Cross Country ComparisonMay 2007 B. Davis, P. Winters, G. Carletto, K. Covarrubias, E. Quiñones, A. Zezza, K. Stamoulis, G. Bonomi and S. DiGiuseppe

References

External links

RIGA Project Website

FAO Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riga Project Food and Agriculture Organization