Interim Evaluation ¹

Introduction

The Fouta Djallon Agricultural Rehabilitation and Local Development Programme (PRAADEL) will reach completion at the end of 2006, and the Republic of Guinea and the IFAD Western and Central Africa Division would like to pursue this programme. An interim evaluation has been conducted to determine the advisability of undertaking a further phase.

Accordingly, and pursuant to IFAD procedures, the Office of Evaluation has undertaken an evaluation of the current programme. A mission took place from 21 November to 15 December 2004, after which the preliminary report was drafted and the stakeholders exchanged views on its content.

Once consensus was reached on the report in September 2005, the Office of Evaluation prepared a proposed agreement at completion point, on which written approval was received in October. In view of the possibility that the current programme may be extended, the agreement includes both recommendations for the finalization of the current phase and others focusing exclusively on a possible subsequent phase.

With respect to recommendations on the current phase, IFAD's Country Programme Manager (CPM) for Guinea will, as a next step, establish in close cooperation with the Guinean authorities a concrete workplan setting forth the actions required to implement those recommendations, indicating responsible units and deadlines.

As to recommendations for an eventual future phase, planning will be done mainly by IFAD. The CPM will prepare a concrete workplan stipulating how the recommendations will be taken into account during preparations.

In view of the relevance of PRAADEL objectives relative to the socioeconomic conditions prevailing in the programme area and alignment with the Government's agricultural policy, and given continuous needs in the area, the mission feels that it may be justified to pursue operations in Fouta Djallon, should this be the wish of Guinea and IFAD.

Clearly, however, certain elements of the current programme will need to be subjected to close scrutiny in view of the low rate of achievement and changes induced by the decentralization process. As indicated, the recommendations outlined below include actions to be taken under the current programme, and those to be taken into account in the preparation or implementation of a future programme.

Findings and recommendations

Policies and Strategies

The approach followed by the current programme is in line with the country's Agricultural Policy Letter II and Poverty Reduction Strategy. These policies and strategies as a whole are intended to improve food security; combat poverty, particularly in rural areas; create employment; take gender and age issues into account, as well as protect the environment.

With respect to decentralization, PRAADEL operates at a fairly low level – the terroir level – to attenuate the weight of the hierarchy and involve beneficiaries at the grass roots. It remains to be seen, however, whether better coordination of public activities and better recognition by local officials might not have been obtained under an approach based on district administrative boundaries rather than agro-ecological boundaries. This would also have helped reduce the risk of distortion between PRAADEL programming and that of other projects operating in the same location.

The strategy to implement the programme through coordination with a very light touch proved not to be effective in terms of work done within decentralized units. Working conditions for the two individuals in the field have been unreasonable.

Also, beneficiaries do not currently participate as "employers" in the award or payment of contracts for works and goods, unlike the procedures in place for the Village Communities Support Project (PACV). Their role as "employers" is however tacitly recognized in terms of identifying constraints and in planning, programming and financing activities (contributions by the population).

The initial objective of promoting income-generating activities by beneficiary women and young people ought to have led to planning for the possibility of organizing technical training, linked, for example, to the promotion of valley bottom use or to production chains.

Recommendations

For the future programme, attention should focus on:

• The relevance of the Gestion des terroirs approach in a context of decentralization, including geographical units.
• The possibility of organizing capacity-building in the form of technical training work placements for young people and women.
• PRAADEL intervention mechanisms compared to those of PACV, including the Local Investment Fund (FIL).
• The possibility of a gradual shift from the faire-faire to the faire-avec approach, whereby responsibility would be transferred from the Programme Coordination Unit (UCP) to the communities.

Within PRAADEL

Administrative processing and decision-making on activities to be carried out and financed are markedly slow. This has seized up the process and led to frequent delay in certain activities that are considered important and urgent by populations.

The UCP has evolved in isolation and has not developed any true synergies with the technical divisions of the prefectural administration or with other projects and programmes operating in the area, in particular PACV and projects involved in promoting production chains and post-harvest technologies and strengthening peasant organizations, crop production and marketing for crop and livestock products.

Additional factors observed are: (i) inadequate or delayed financing for activities scheduled by component leaders; (ii) a lack of cohesion among component leaders and project coordination; (iii) low staff morale; and (iv) inadequate relevant training for UCP staff.

Building gender issues into the project calls for an examination of women's status relative to men in strategy-setting at all levels. If PRAADEL focuses on improving living conditions for populations as a central issue, it should provide for ways of building gender issues into the main thrusts of its territorial planning framework.

Recommendations

For the programme under way:

• Gender training for component leaders is a necessity, to help them understand the causes of inequality and gaps between the sexes in accessing various sectors, so that they can include these considerations when elaborating operating strategies.
• A plan of action should be drawn up to strengthen collaboration, partnership and synergies between PRAADEL and all other operators in the region (programmes/projects, public authorities, enterprises, etc.).
• The information flow and management skills should be improved.

For a future programme:

• A staff recruitment policy should be prepared that takes into account both professional competencies and competencies suited to the project's needs, including gender issues.

Components 

Village-based natural resource management component

In order to facilitate management, it would have been more reasonable to divide this component into two parts, separating terroir-based planning and implementation from agricultural development and natural resource management. The current planning method has not resulted in an accurate targeting of beneficiary groups in line with Appraisal Report specifications.

Recruitment, mobilization of outreach workers and rural training have been excessively slow. At this writing, the services of these workers have been used by just the five officers in the UCP areas. The services of some of these workers have not been effective, and judicious choices need to be made.

The FIL, which was to finance a portion of the social investments as well as productive and indirect productive investments, has not been put in place.

Income-generating activities and training to involve women and young people have not been well identified, planned and implemented. Gestion des terroirs strategies have not been well elaborated with respect to research/action, promoting production chains, economic interest groups (GIEs) and marketing for agricultural products. There is a lack of agronomic and economic expertise (business plans) in implementing activities to improve agricultural production and marketing.

With respect to improving food security and raising incomes, the project should invest in research/action for activities to develop valley bottoms by supplying inputs (credit or others) to boost agricultural productivity.

Recommendations

For the programme under way:

• A range of income-generating activities and training should be developed specifically for young people.
• The dissemination of agricultural technologies should be improved, as well as facilitating access to agricultural inputs (improved seed and fertilizer) and promoting the production and use of compost, promoting the production of small peppers on representative surface areas, and ensuring that training for producers includes the elaboration of an operating account for their activities.

For any future programme:

• This component should be divided into two parts: (i) a lead component covering cross-cutting planning and including terroir-based management; and (ii) a second component covering agricultural development and natural resource management.
• Participatory diagnostic methodology and techniques should be improved to ensure that young people and women are effectively mainstreamed into the identification of development needs and planning.
• Agro-economic activities should be taken charge of by one or two responsible officers at the component level.

Financial services associations component

The following weaknesses came to light: (i) Financial Services Association (ASF) members have not been able to benefit from the training programme as planned; (ii) the ASFs now operating do not have a secure location to safeguard funds, which introduces a very high risk; (iii) available resources are very limited as compared to demand and the diverse products to be offered to clientele. Also, this component does not currently have the logistical means of providing adequate support for proper operations.

The ASF component should be benefiting from the support of an operator who has not yet been hired. This has limited component effectiveness, while the resources intended for the operator have not been reallocated, even in part, to the component. The failure to build offices for the ASFs to secure the funds collected is a matter of serious concern for both the populations and the authorities. The mission observed that expectations were being expressed as to the destination of the ASF capitalization fund.

Recommendations

For the programme under way:

• Pursue training programmes in management and market studies.
• Build offices for ASFs.
• Build capacity among members of ASF staff.
• Reallocate funds to the component account.
• Provide the component with computer software (and related training).

Rural infrastructure component

The shortcomings of this component relate to: (i) the failure adequately to take into account productive infrastructure, in particular development of valley bottoms; (ii) delays in the payment of service provider invoices; (iii) a price explosion on the local market; (iv) the departure of the person in the UCP responsible for the infrastructure component, who has not yet been replaced; (v) the failure to complete the road maintenance fund study; (vi) insufficient equipment and training for village tracks maintenance committees; (vii) insufficient professional staff for some schools.

Recommendations

For the programme under way:

• Provide equipment and training for village tracks maintenance committees
• Direct future financing towards productive investments (development of valley bottoms, small livestock raising, forestry, processing units for agricultural products, waterholes and drilling)
• Provide for supervisory measures to ensure proper infrastructure management in the future
• Ensure effective dissemination of infrastructure maintenance and management techniques
• Negotiate the takeover by the road maintenance fund (second generation) of financing for maintenance programmes for prefectural tracks.

 

---

1/    This agreement reflects an understanding among partners to adopt and implement recommendations stemming from the evaluation. The agreement was formulated in consultation with the members of the Core Learning Partnership (CLP). The Core Learning Partnership members were: representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the Ministry of for Economic Affairs and Finance, the director of the current project, the UNOPS Country Portfolio Manager, the IFAD Country Portfolio Manager for Guinea.