Republic of Peru: innovative experiences in IFAD projects in Peru - IOE
Republic of Peru: innovative experiences in IFAD projects in Peru
Thematic study1
The core learning partnership and the users of the evaluation
The agreement presented in this document is the outcome of the workshops held by the Office of Evaluation (OE) between February and November 2003, based on the reports of the Thematic Evaluation of the Innovative Experiences of IFAD Projects in Peru. The Government of Peru and IFAD's Latin America and the Caribbean Division (PL) had requested this thematic evaluation as a result of two important observations: (i) IFAD's projects in Peru are characterized by innovative proposals and approaches -- an observation made in the completion evaluation of the Promotion of Technology Transfer to Peasant Communities in the Highlands (FEAS) Project, the interim evaluation of the Management of Natural Resources in the Southern Highlands (MARENASS) Project and other documents and partial studies; and (ii) there is great value to having an evaluation and case analysis of innovative experiences, which will help to improve the implementation of rural development projects, bearing in mind IFAD's lack of demonstrated capacity for innovation (as underscored in a document on the Fund's capacity to promote replicable innovations that was prepared by OE and submitted for consideration to the Executive Board in 2002).2
At workshops and other meetings, the need was emphasized for detailed knowledge of the theoretical hypotheses underlying validation of innovative experiences in Peru, both those preceding the formulation of each proposal as well as those that follow -- their features, conceptual bases and development with respect to the results and impacts achieved. "Innovative experience" refers to any idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or any other adopting unit, such as a group, farming community or institution.
The study was undertaken by a multidisciplinary group of consultants coordinated by OE and with the support of the Core Learning Partnership (CLP) and the Broad Learning Partnership3 (BLP). In line with IFAD's new evaluation policy (April 2003), the IFAD Evaluation Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean acted as facilitator in the process leading to this agreement, in collaboration with the Thematic Evaluation Team Leader. A Scientific Committee4 for revision and reference was also set up within the CLP, composed of three scientists and academic-level research experts in rural development.
Workshops: participation and methodology.
February workshop. This workshop was held in Lima in February 2003 to discuss the Approach Paper of the thematic evaluation. It stressed that although many of the approaches and concepts used were the outcome of scientific and academic research and other sources, and therefore not in the strict sense "new and special", in the case of Peru there had been no evaluation of results or systematization of the approaches and practices used in the implementation of medium- or large-scale rural development projects.5 The workshop recommended organizing the analyses of innovative experiences as follows:
Innovative experience by thematic area |
Innovative experience by sub-area |
1. Strategy, design and implementation. The critical path of innovations |
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2. Economic issues |
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3. Social and productive issues |
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4. Policy and institutional issues |
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5. Legitimization and ownership |
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6. Project implementation |
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7. Dissemination, replicability and political dialogue |
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The workshop also recommended focusing the study on an analysis of innovative experiences on the basis of three concepts applied in the projects: (i) demand and participation; (ii) the development of local service markets; and (iii) the transfer of responsibility and power to local organizations. This workshop clearly identified the methodology used in the thematic evaluation and made the following recommendations: (i) analysis of the available information (evaluations, reports, specific consultation reports, and monitoring and evaluation reports); (ii) field visits and field work, including interviews and direct observation in project areas; (iii) surveys on relevant topics and field visits to similar areas where IFAD projects have not been implemented; and (iv) periodic presentations, analyses and discussions of working drafts with the Scientific Committee and the CLP.
September workshop. A second workshop was held in Lima in September 2003, attended by all the members of CLP, several members of the BLP and two representatives of the Scientific Committee6. The participants analysed the draft progress reports drawn up by the consultants and the preliminary results of the field survey. Recommendations were made to the consultants responsible for the study, emphasizing the need to keep the main objectives of the thematic evaluation clearly in view. This was to be achieved by: (i) obtaining a "synthesis", interpretation and evaluation of the innovations that would provide an overall view in terms of their results and impacts; and (ii) highlighting and clarifying the relations between IFAD, the Government of Peru and policies – how and where IFAD's innovations and operations fit within national policies and within the context of other programmes and projects.
The September workshop led to a definition of IFAD's requirements as well as those of the Government of Peru.
IFAD's requirements: it would be useful for PL and IFAD in general to have detailed information on strategic approaches, methodo logies and tools used, and the possibility of replicating these approaches in other countries and under conditions different from those of Peru's highlands.
Government of Peru's requirements: the Government indicated that it was hoping for responses that would support policy decisions; the Ministry of Agriculture requested information and evaluations showing how IFAD's pr ojects and innovations have proved effective and appropriate for the project's target group, and above all if and how the project's beneficiaries (and what percentage of them) have been able to overcome their conditions of poverty and marginalization; the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance indicated that it would like to know about the efficiency and effectiveness of public investment in projects to combat rural poverty and the comparative advantages of the various programme and project models that IFAD has adopted; and, within the context of the decentralization process, the regional governments were interested in the direct planning and implementation capacities of users at the local and community levels.
In view of the range and possible relevance of the thematic evaluation results for future rural development projects in the Andean highlands, the second workshop recommended that the BLP be enlarged to include a representative of Ecuador's Ministry of Finance7 and a representative of Bolivia's Ministry of Finance8, who were invited to take part in the evaluation process and in the third workshop, which presented the evaluation results.
November workshop. The results of the evaluation were presented at a wrap-up workshop in Lima on 25 November 2003, attended by all the members of CLP, the enlarged BLP and other members of the Government of Peru, multilateral cooperation agencies and NGOs concerned with the sector. The results of this workshop form part of the final agreements presented below. The workshop recommended the preparation and implementation of a plan to disseminate the results and recommendations obtained from the thematic evaluation. On the basis of these recommendations and in line with a proposal by IFAD's Communications Division and PL, work was started on a book, a multi-media CD-rom and a programme to disseminate the reports of the thematic evaluation on such websites as IFAD's, the Network of IFAD-Supported Projects in Latin America and the Caribbean (FIDAMERICA), and the Centre for Studies and Development Promotion (DESCO).
The evaluation and discussions carried out in the three workshops, especially the discussions and contributions of the wrap-up workshop, highlighted the fact that: "IFAD's projects in Peru are demand-driven projects and focus on the development of local goods and service markets, fostering the transfer of responsibility and decision-making power to organizations. These approaches do not represent an innovation per se: what is innovative is that in Peru they have been applied consistently and coherently; and in doing so, IFAD has generated strategic methodological and instrumental innovations in Peru that have made it possible to secure these achievements."
Although most of the criticisms expressed in the above-cited document, Evaluation of IFAD's Capacity as a Promoter of Replicable Innovation, do hold good for many of IFAD's operations, the evaluation and reflections presented in the wrap-up workshop indicate that in Peru, major innovations have been introduced with satisfactory results because they were:
applied continuously and consistently for a period of more than 12 years in an ongoing process of project design and implementation;
developed taking the local socio-economic context into account;
consolidated and replicated in an ongoing process;
repeated in terms of their operational approach, as in the case of the Agricultural Information, Research and Extension Project (INCAGRO) financed by the World Bank, and also in other countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua and, more recently, Ecuador; and
supported by IFAD's regional programmes in order to compensate for the Fund's limited internal capacity for research and replication.
There was consensus in the CLP and BLP that IFAD's operations in Peru are part of a strategy that aims to: (i) increase the capital under the control of rural poor people and their access to services by fostering the development of local service markets and the capacity of beneficiaries to hire such services directly; (ii) promote the supply of services and encourage private and public service providers; (iii) foster linkages between small farmers, artisans and microentrepreneurs, as well as urban-rural linkages; and (iv) decentralize decision-making and promote direct participation by beneficiaries in decisions on the use of resources, including financial ones. Apart from these main thrusts, there is a clear strategy aiming at the strengthening of local democratic organizations, the development of human capital, the recovery of local knowledge and culture, and the consolidation of rural poor people's capacity to negotiate with the rest of society.
The introduction of innovative elements was influenced – and in some cases fostered – by a number of contextual factors. These include: (i) the experience gained from projects implemented in the 1980s; (ii) the broad availability of socio-economic studies on the situation of small farmers and the Andean context; and (iii) IFAD's presence in the country, through its Lima office, and the continuity of the Country Programme Manager (CPM) responsible for Peru since 1985, which has made it possible to lend solid support to project operators and ensure continuity in approaches and dialogue with the country's authorities.
A series of insights have been drawn from the results of the thematic evaluation and the views expressed at the workshops. These are considered useful and replicable for rural development projects in the Andean highland context, but are also applicable to a large extent in other contexts. These insights are described in the following sections.
A. Project cycle, approach and implementation
The first insight concerns the design, content and approach of projects. In Peru, the project cycle has followed IFAD's standard formats and procedures, with special attention given to the application of certain practices. The following practices have proved effective:
consultation with beneficiaries during formulation as a key element in introducing innovation;
strong interaction among the CPM, consultants and beneficiaries during project design, coupled with a flexible design formulation methodology; and
continual support and monitoring by the CPM, IFAD and the regional programmes, which facilitated the adoption of innovations in the implementation phase.
With regard to the MARENASS and CORREDOR projects, special mention should be made of the implementation methodology, particularly the optimized use of a much-reduced staff, the ability to embrace and internalize innovations and the ability to foster dialogue with small farmers and their organizations. A number of innovations were adjusted and enhanced during implementation as a result of suggestions from staff and especially from beneficiaries. Project flexibility, the use of open competition to select project staff and the holding of pilot workshops were some of the elements that made it possible to improve implementation.
In Peru, an attempt has been made to design projects that incorporated a flexible approach, introducing effective mechanisms to ensure the users' participation in decision-making on objectives, activities and resource administration. The main elements of this flexibility have been: (i) a demand-driven approach; (ii) recognition of the central role of communities and families; and (iii) a strategy of developing local goods and service markets. The projects give high priority to families and communities. In essence, the projects are tools to support the development thrusts identified by these groups.
All those involved in the thematic evaluation agreed that this process would have been impossible without an implicit premise: giving decision-making power to the small farmers, recognizing that each project entailing public investment defines an institutional space within which the actors possess certain rights and responsibilities.
Development of goods and service markets
The second insight is that the proposals implicitly acknowledge that the rural service market, with its clear rules, tends to be more efficient than government institutions in allocating and using resources. IFAD devised a strategy combining simultaneous action in three complementary spheres – demand, supply and market conditions – to strengthen and develop this type of market. The idea has been to move away from providing a fixed supply of inputs and towards fostering the development of local markets based on demand-driven mechanisms. This strategy is closely linked to those of empowerment and consolidation of the organization of the beneficiary population. Adoption of this approach has a further basic implication: it transfers responsibility for directly managing public funds to users and their organizations.
Strengthening and expanding the demand for services
Mechanisms for expanding demand include a direct incentive transferred to users, which builds momentum and helps shake up the status quo. A series of activities is also included to ensure that: (i) potential demand, organized on the basis of users' priorities, is converted into real demand, within a framework defined by the project objectives; (ii) demand is met on the market; (iii) users obtain benefits from these transactions; (iv) users obtain timely and low-cost information on economic options; and (v) there are potentials/possibilities at the individual level to boost income and/or assets.
Role of grass-roots organizations and demand
Andean communities, even those that are organizationally weak, represent decentralized self-governing units. IFAD's experience has shown that a decentralized system based on local communities can best identify the preferences of the end beneficiaries and has more likelihood of success in rural development projects that seek consensual public solutions to achieve greater social well-being. Communities continue to play a role in the organization of Andean society and can be major players in local development. Project results show that placing communities, small farmers and their families at the centre of interventions was the right decision.
In addition to traditional lines of action, such as training, the following strategic elements have been identified as being successful in strengthening and empowering communities: (i) the definition of relations between project and communities (the transfer of funds to communities, relations with the project based on contracts stipulating mutual obligations); and (ii) the definition of relations between families and communities. Experience has shown that the community legitimately assumes a role in policy-making, control, regulation and facilitation, while economic interests are left to families.
It is important to work with legitimate organizations that are socially and legally recognized. Responsibility for training is transferred to them, so that they can identify their own needs and define priorities with regard to these needs. Once an organization has reached a consensus from within on its needs for technical assistance and decided on priorities, it presents its proposal as a community and competes for the allocation of resources. The organization receives coinvestment funds and takes responsibility for administering and delivering the resources to the families and users.
Expanding demand: transfer and direct administration of coinvestment resources
This is one of the fundamental elements of the strategy and approach, allowing the real transfer of decision-making power, together with planning and prioritization mechanisms, to the users. The methodology and main tools are:
A contract between the project and the users' organization. The contract embodies mutual legal commitments that must be respected by both parties. The use of a legal instrument infuses a sense of commonality and partnership, involving rights and responsibilities different from those arising from the traditional benefactor-beneficiary relationship.
A counterpart contribution. This mechanism helps to foster the self-selection of projects with the highest economic or social returns. Counterpart contributions in cash, to be provided by the direct beneficiaries, are a core requirement for the transfer of funds from the project to the organization.
The opening of accounts. If an organization is to receive funds from the project, it must open an account at a formal financial institution. This condition is of major importance inasmuch as it encourages organizations to establish formal relations with the financial system.
The transfer of funds, and of responsibility for their administration, to communities has proved an effective factor in triggering a positive dynamic. The experience gained from the FEAS, MARENASS and CORREDOR projects shows that social control mechanisms, accountability to a general assembly and the keeping of clear accounts are sufficient to avert potential problems of diversion of funds.
Consolidating and expanding supply
Supply can be expanded by providing more training to local professionals and including new technical assistance providers. The strategy adopted by the projects was geared first towards consolidating the existing supply and subsequently towards supporting its expansion. With a view to consolidating market supply, the strategy of directly strengthening demand was abandoned and the expansion of supply was sought through the inclusion of non-professional local suppliers. The main instruments used to expand and improve competitive supply have been:
Training. Training systems are based on experimentation and the sharing of knowledge and experience among suppliers with different levels of capacity and technical and scientific knowledge.
Farmer-to-farmer training system. This method has been applied and developed beginning with the MARENASS project, with yachaqs9 training groups of yachachiqs10, who in turn teach the small farmer families what they have learned.
Incentives and information exchange for professional service providers. Fostering a competitive climate among suppliers has proved very helpful. Competitions among users who have hired technical assistance services have promoted indirect competition among technical assistance providers, who see these competitions as a system of accreditation and prestige.
Improving the market
The third area of intervention, addressed simultaneously with expanding supply and demand, focuses on improving the conditions in which markets operate. To this end, positive results have been achieved with a strategy based on: (i) reducing the transaction costs connected with participation in the market by suppliers and users and with the hiring mechanisms used by communities; and (ii) boosting the capitalization of users in order to enhance their initial conditions.
The competition system (concursos)
The third insight has to do with the method of allocating resources. The MARENASS project and subsequently the CORREDOR project have used a competitive method of allocating resources, based on contests. The objectives of these contests, organized at the individual, group or inter-community level, include the introduction of concepts of results-based competition and competitiveness, encouragement of the adoption and emulation of new practices, mobilization of local resources, promotion of group activities and fostering of social cohesion. The competitions can be thematic (for example, terrace rehabilitation and construction); for individuals or groups; at the community or inter-community level; or for specific groups.
Competitions demonstrate the results of hiring services and constitute a mechanism for direct evaluation of service quality. The benefits derived from hiring technical assistance services are visible, public and "evaluated". Collective or group competitions foster collaboration among peers (the transfer of knowledge and practices), which in turn leads to better results for the community as a whole.
In order to win a competition (not merely for the prize, but more importantly for the prestige), contestants invest their own resources and strive to maximize the impact of technical assistance, showing a greater return on it (as a result of the greater investment and effort of each contestant). The competitions are not contests between poor people to obtain minimal resources, but a process that mobilizes small farmers' resources and makes for the better use of services.
If the impact is to be positive, the users (the communities) must manage the competition system directly, selecting juries, resolving conflicts, setting deadlines, prize amounts and award ceremonies, and administering the resources earmarked for awards. Cash awards represent a small fraction of the winners' efforts; in fact, they are significantly less than the small farmers invest to ensure their participation.
Business plans
Another insight is the "business plan" methodology, which seeks to identify initiatives that rely on linkages (actual and potential) among the community economy, the family economy and markets. The development of business plans based on family or group initiatives is an outgrowth of community planning. The process allows full incorporation of the small farmer community as guarantor of the group of small farmers interested in undertaking some business activity. The communities are the political subject that plans, sets priorities and administers the public funds transferred, while the families (or interest groups) are the private economic subject that defines business objectives on the basis of their rate of return.
Goods markets
The main tools that have proved effective in developing local goods markets are: (i) coinvestment resources for developing business plans and hiring the broadest range of services; (ii) development of "short-chain" systems that take the small farmers' real operating capacities into account; (iii) strengthening of organizations and interest groups concerned with business plans; (iv) strengthening of linkages between rural and semi-urban microenterprises; and (v) identification and clear definition of the role of intermediaries so that they can be included in business plans.
Rural development and territorial relationships
It has been demonstrated that if development programmes in Peru are to have a positive impact, it is essential to understand clearly who the subjects of rural development projects are as well as their strategies, aspirations and expectations. Social research and experience have confirmed that the small farmers of the Andes are not specialized farmers whose well-being depends on boosting the productivity and production of one or two crops or livestock breeds; rather, they are the managers of a wide range of resources, all of them scarce, which they turn to advantage by adapting to social, economic and political changes in their context.
Experience has shown that small farmers – who, in the traditional view, engaged mainly in agricultural and animal husbandry activities – are increasingly supplementing their income with non-farm activities and are establishing ever closer ties with regional economies and cities (both medium and large). The development of urban markets has an impact on returns on the various agricultural and livestock products. This produces instability but also generates a demand for products and opens up new opportunities for non-farm income for the labour force. And all this means that the advancement of rural families is closely linked to regional development.
In this context, overcoming the conditions of rural poverty is not simply a matter of developing agriculture or infrastructures, but rather of promoting a social sector with its plans and strategies. Within this perspective, it is essential to focus on the issue of urban-rural and territorial linkages, adopting a strategy that takes into account the views and expectations of small farmers and community members, in the knowledge that the city-countryside relationship, within the urban subsystems of the Andean highlands, constitutes an extremely complex "relational fabric" that cannot be reduced to the linkage of a few production chains.
Small farmers and community members consider small- and medium-sized cities to be crucial in several ways. In order of importance, small- and medium-size cities: (i) offer them the possibility of educating and training their children and steering them toward urban labour markets without their necessarily having to leave the region; (ii) provide an opportunity to market products of medium to low quality and in small amounts; and (iii) represent non-farm labour markets that provide income to boost their economy without traumatic separations from family life.
Recommendations agreed upon by all the partners in the CLP of the thematic evaluation
The results of the thematic evaluation presented at the wrap-up workshop, and the discussions, reflections and observations of the CLP, BLP and other participants, led to the identification of a number of recommendations which are considered useful for the design and implementation of future rural development projects in the region.
Recommendation 1: Continued analysis and evaluation. The innovative experiences applied in Peru have had a positive impact, although the process is still evolving. In this perspective, it is recommended that the results obtained with the CORREDOR and the new Marketing Strengthening and Livelihood Diversification in the Southern Highlands Project (SIERRA SUR) be closely observed and that the elements presented in this thematic evaluation be further defined, revised, corrected or complemented on the basis of continued observations. There should be ongoing evaluation of innovative experiences, with appropriate procedures for doing so.
Recommendation 2: Emphasis on communities and families. Rural development projects in the Andean highlands and projects implemented in similar contexts should consider the strengthening of families and organizations, and especially communities, as vital. The real possibility for families and communities to make decisions and guide their own development according to their strategies, with adequate resources to do so, has increased local capacities and tapped local potential.
Recommendation 3: Effective transfer of decision-making power. The evaluation shows that the strengthening of communities has given them a greater possibility to influence plans for their future, the management of financial resources and the progress of development processes. Among the impacts identified, mention should be made of their capacity to negotiate with other social sectors and the ability to manage their own productive natural resources and to plan, regulate and set policy. The strategy of transferring decision-making power and authority over resources to communities has helped to boost their legitimacy. The most significant direct effect of transferring decision-making power, recognizing the legitimacy of the organizations and respecting their decisions, and applying clear rules and contracts between peers has been a strengthening of the concepts of person and citizen, with a consequent affirmation of rights. It is recommended that future projects in the region continue to introduce mechanisms for the transfer of decision-making power to communities and families.
Recommendation 4: Promotion of local and technical assistance services. The development of local service markets allows the production of a greater volume of services than could have been obtained had the projects produced them directly. It has been shown that local service markets can be developed in poor rural areas and that demand can be made effective through the transfer of competitive incentives and decision-making power to the low-income population.
Two elements that lead to a more efficient use of technical assistance services are the expansion of supply and the transfer of responsibility for resource administration to the users. Since users are spending their own resources as well as coinvestment funding, they make more efficient use of resources earmarked for contracting. Thus they hire specialists only for the time strictly necessary, they take advantage of the increase in supply to negotiate the cost of services and they combine the hiring of professional and non-professional specialists.
It is recommended that future IFAD interventions in the region that include a component for the strengthening of technical assistance service markets start by evaluating: (i) the existence of a demand for technical services that can be met on local markets; (ii) the level of producers' awareness of a demand for such services; (iii) the willingness of users to invest additional funds; (iv) the usefulness of competitive systems in allocating resources with a view to promoting local investment; and (v) the importance of the role played by organizations as intermediaries between project and beneficiaries.
Recommendation 5: Flexibility in projects. It is recommended that projects incorporate flexible approaches and methodologies and function as instruments for public investment that facilitate private relationships. Projects should have small implementation units, which should focus on stimulating processes and creating a normative framework designed to ensure contractual compliance, while avoiding offering services directly.
Recommendation 6: Legitimization/validation of innovations. The innovations proposed should have a prior "validation" and seek their legitimization in the degree of acceptance and adoption by beneficiaries. In this regard, families and communities, with their strategies, aspirations and expectations, should hold a central place in project proposals. The recognition of communities and small farmers as dialogue-partners and not simply as beneficiaries is essential for the consolidation and sustainability of interventions. Communities see IFAD's proposals as an important contribution inasmuch as it means that control of the process lies in the hands of the small farmers and their organizations.
Recommendation 7: Good practices in the project cycle. Project design should be based on an open process of consultation with all the stakeholders; consultation with the beneficiaries is essential for the introduction of innovations. The staff of project implementation units should be selected through competition and receive support for the introduction of innovations. In addition, the presence of IFAD in the country should be encouraged, as it fosters the adoption of innovations.
Recommendation 8: Methodologies and tools. In synthesis, the following methodologies and tools are recommended:
the transfer of financial incentives in amounts adequate for the beneficiaries' levels of activity, together with the power to decide how such resources are to be spent;
competition systems;
demand planning processes and the definition of priorities by users' organizations;
practical training and the stimulation of contact among peers;
the incorporation of social bodies that should act as intermediaries (associations, communities, etc.);
the delegation to beneficiaries of responsibilities for decision-making and the definition of rules;
flexibility, allowing incorporation of the beneficiaries' requests and suggestions as to how to proceed;
respect for the local culture and its incorporation into the processes that are to be galvanized;
the use of contracts in relations between users and projects;
the transfer of funds through the formal financial system;
the requirement of a counterpart contribution from the beneficiaries;
an increase in the flow of information, with a resulting impact in terms of reducing transaction costs and expanding the supply of services.
Recommendations orginally formulated by OE but not found applicable by some partners in the evaluation
The methodology used in drawing up the thematic evaluation stressed ongoing contact and interchange among all the participants, and this resulted in a continual process of enrichment, analysis and "consensual" formulation of the various issues under evaluation. The many issues were analysed in depth. Any disagreements over a particular issue led to its revision and, in many cases, further analysis and research. The final report and the present agreement summarize all the shared points of view and opinions.
One issue that requires further work is that of the expediency/necessity of disseminating the results of the thematic evaluation. All the members of the CLP and BLP agreed that it was important to ensure a broad distribution of the main findings of the innovative experiences of IFAD-supported projects in Peru, although it has not been possible to carry out this process in full11. However, a book intended for a non-specialized readership has been assembled, a multi-media CD has been created, and other material has been produced that will be presented on IFAD's and regional websites.
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 CLP, comprised of: Roberto Haudry, IFAD Country Programme Manager for Peru; Milton von Hesse, Specialist in Rural and Agricultural Development of the Peruvian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance; Juan Manuel Benites, Adviser of the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture; Cesar Sotomayor, Director of the Development of the Puno-Cusco Corridor Project (CORREDOR); Antonieta Noli, Director of the MARENASS Project; Hector Cisneros, Coordinator of the Partnership for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN); Carolina Trivelli, Director of the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP); and Ada Ocampo, Coordinator of the Programme for Strengthening the Regional Capacity for Evaluation of Rural Poverty Alleviation Projects in Latin America and the Caribbean (PREVAL).
2. Evaluation of IFAD's Capacity as a Promoter of Replicable Innovation, Evaluation Committee, 30th session, 18 February 2002 (document EC 2002/30/W.P.3). The document is critical of the innovative process within IFAD. The severest criticism focuses on the lack of "clear strategic directions to drive innovation, guide operations in scouting for innovation and for its promotion and scaling up".
3. The Broad Learning Partnership was made up of: (i) all the members of the CLP; (ii) a representative of the National Fund of Compensation and Social Development (FONCODES); (iii) a representative of the World Bank-supported National Project for the Management of Hydrographic Basin and Soil Conservation (PRONAMACHS); (iv) small farmers' representatives; (v) two representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - individual or networks; (vi) technical experts and specialists; (vii) directors of IFAD's other projects in the region; (viii) representatives of bilateral cooperation institutions; (ix) representatives of multilateral cooperation institutions; and (x) representatives of central and local government offices.
4. The Scientific Committee was made up of: Marcello Gorgoni, Professor of Agrarian Economic Policy, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; Orlando Plaza, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University, Lima, Peru; Javier Escobal, Senior Researcher for the Analysis for Development Group (GRADE), Lima, Peru.
5. These proposals concerned more than 50 000 families of Andean small farmers.
6. This workshop was also attended by Roxanne Samii, Helen Gillman and James Heer, of the IFAD Communications Division. Their involvement in the final stages of the Thematic Evaluation led to a communication strategy proposal to facilitate the dissemination of the evaluation results (see para. 9 on November Workshop).
7. Roberto Salazar, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Republic of Ecuador.
8. Víctor Hugo Bacarreza, Director General of External Financing of Bolivia's Vice Ministry of Public Investment and External Financing.
9. Technicians, small farmers and professionals who teach a specific technique for the production and conservation of productive natural resources, and who train the yachachiqs and community leaders.
10. Members appointed by the community to learn techniques from yachaqs and internships and then pass that training on to campesino families.
11. The main constraints are connected with budgetary limitations and the type and quantity of material to be disseminated.
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