This study was part of Round II of the Metaketa Initiative which focused on Taxation. The Taxation Metaketa round comprised a series of field experiments in various locations around the globe aimed at assessing the role of providing information about tax compliance and formalization with the state on citizens’ intent to formalize and citizens’ formalization. In the case of Zomba city, the study’s main objective was to evaluate the effects of providing information and waste collection service on citizens’ attitudes about government, and their decision to pay and actual payment of city rates to Zomba City Council (ZCC). To achieve this objective, the study employed an experimental intervention approach by conducting an information campaign about city rates to randomly selected citizens in randomly selected neighbourhoods in Zomba City, providing increased waste collection service, and collecting data on payment of city rates. The study enrolled 1,800 participants.

This longitudinal study had eight phases namely: household listing, baseline survey, information dissemination campaign, solid waste collection, midline survey, endline survey (which included a public goods game), funds distribution following the public goods game, and research dissemination events. Implementation of these various phases commenced in October 2018 and ended in March 2020. IPOR’s role on the study involved contributing towards the development of the study tools, translation of study tools, obtaining local ethical clearance, recruitment and training of Research Assistants, data collection, contributing towards data cleaning, conducting information dissemination events, procurement of a skip loader truck and eight skip bins, distribution of funds following the public goods game, and conducting research dissemination events. The study was a collaboration between IPOR and the University of Illinois with funding from the Department for International Development (DfID) through Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP).