In an emerging economy, the (nominal) hourly rates can be as follows:

• RCT data enumeration (including management): $1/hour
  • For example, quadruple the Cameroonian minimum wage of about $0.25/hour
• Data cleaning and categorization: $3/hour
  • Considering PPP, that is about $10/hour for data entry work

Survey design and analysis can be for an average of $50/hour.

I am assuming that the per survey times are

• 30 minutes to collect data
• 3 minutes to clean and categorize data

and that it takes 200 personhours to design surveys and analyze data.

Then, for a study of 5,000 units which involves baseline, midline, and endline data collection, the cost should be

• $7,500 to collect data
• $2,250 to clean and categorize data
• $10,000 to design surveys and analyze data

This totals $19,975 per study.
 

Innovations for Poverty action charges millions (e. g. $1.5 million) per RCT. This is about 75× higher cost than calculated above.

If RCTs should be used at a large scale to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of systemic change interventions or their parts, then they should be affordable to medium-sized NGOs. Thus, it may be valuable to the global community to find an affordable RCT research organization.