Interim evaluation¹

The Core Learning Partnership (CLP) and users of the evaluation

The Office of Evaluation (OE) of IFAD conducted an Interim Evaluation of the Ha Giang Development Project for Ethnic Minorities (HPM) as a requirement of the IFAD Evaluation Policy prior to the initiation of a formulation process for the development of a second phase project. The evaluation missions visited Viet Nam between February 29 and March 31, 2004. The mission held the wrap-up meetings in Ha Giang Province and later in Hanoi on March 31, which was also attended by the formulation mission, in order to ensure that the findings of the evaluations would be useful for the design of a second phase project. The draft evaluation report, including the draft ACPs were distributed in mid-May 2004 and a final evaluation workshop was organized on June 1 to discuss the recommendations deriving from the evaluations and to finalize the ACPs.

This Agreement at Completion Point (ACP) illustrates the evaluation partners' understanding of the evaluation recommendations and their commitment to adopt and implement them.

The participants in the above meetings and in the final workshop included representatives of: (i) the project implementation agencies, and (ii) donors and multilateral agencies having provided TA or working in Ha Giang. The Core Learning Partnership of the evaluation comprised the Ministry of Planning and Investment (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department for Foreign Economic Relations, The Department of External Finance), representatives from the project management, Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and Asia and Pacific Division (PI) and Office of Evaluation (OE) of IFAD. OE participated in the final evaluation workshop to ensure a full understanding of the evaluation's findings and recommendations and to facilitate the process that led to this final ACP. It should be noted that the same institutions have been involved in the formulation process of a second phase project and attended the evaluation workshop on June 1 as well as the wrap-up meeting of the formulation mission on June 2, in which the utilization of the recommendations were further discussed. There was a general consensus in the plenary of the meeting of June 1 that the lessons learnt and the recommendations from the evaluation should be adopted and implemented in the framework of the second phase project in preparation.

The main evaluation findings

The objectives and activities of the Ha Giang Development Project for Ethnic Minorities (HPM) have been in consonance with the key elements of the policy of the Government of Viet Nam and the strategic concerns of IFAD as expressed in the COSOPs of 1996 and 2002. HPM has satisfied the key elements of its stated goal in improving the food security and incomes and enabling a higher standard of general welfare of its beneficiaries. While it can't be claimed that the project alone has achieved these aims, a promising start has been made for the improvement of the environmental status in Ha Giang and the capability and competences for local governance. The overall impact on the socio-economic predicament of the province has been quite positive. However, effectiveness across all communes and in terms of resolution of the severe deprivation problem of the less-favored, remote areas – and the coverage of women and the worst off – has not been as pronounced as could have been expected.

The extent to which the project has met the supporting objectives and delivered the expected outputs for the various components that were expounded at appraisal varies. In the case of infrastructure, the immediate objectives seem mostly to have been met, but the human dimensions of benefit are limited and sustainability not assured. The productive components have, by and large, had the desired effect and laid the basis for continuing improvement of agricultural productivity for the mainstream farming systems and livelihoods of the people of the province. In similar vein, the social development interventions have had desired impact. Impact diversification and credit have, however, not been successful.

Recommendations agreed upon by all partners

The Evaluation Mission recommends that there should be a second phase of the IFAD funded HPM, given the need to consolidate investments in the less-favoured communes of the former Project area, and provided that lessons learned in the first phase and the recommendations from evaluation are scrupulously applied. IFAD should continue to develop any follow-on intervention in line with its current strategy of area-based, multi-sectoral and single province projects, promoting good governance and sharing learning with other donors; and concentrating on provision of productive assets, usable technical know-how and support for infrastructure that contributes to improving the food security and livelihoods of the poor.

The recommendations are arranged according to four principal themes: (i) strategic directions; (ii) consolidation of first phase activities; (iii) simplification of project design; and (iv) improvements and innovations for adoption in the second phase.

Strategic Directions. There are a number of broad strategic recommendations which should be included in the formulation of the next phase of the Project:

1. Impact of project interventions is to be enhanced and activities from the first phase of HPM consolidated, simplified and improved through targeting activities to fewer communes in an integrated manner with better inter-component linkages;

2. IFAD should provide greater support during implementation, including that for monitoring and evaluation and for consistent assessment of results and progress towards impact; and secure more effective supervision of its operations, including liaison with partners and government;

3. IFAD is to engage directly and indirectly in policy dialogue at the provincial and central level playing a catalytic role through the Project and in close collaboration and consultation with other international organizations. By building on evidence from the ground, IFAD could further increase and deepen its contribution to the evolution of policy in Viet Nam, specifically with respect to the encouragement by the Government of stronger local participation and community empowerment. For this and other purposes, IFAD should consider using its grant resources in support of loan funding. The Fund could also strive more actively to mobilise funding from other sources, especially TA grant funding. Time, resources and grant financing to facilitate the performance of such activities should be explicitly built in to the follow-on project design; and

4. IFAD is to foster strategic partnerships with the Government, building on its good working relationship with the ministries and departments at central and provincial level and with the project staff, as well as other international development organizations and the NGO sector. Coordinate with Government and donor projects and programmes and identify complementarities, linkages and synergies with stakeholders in pursuit of the objectives of poverty alleviation through the instruments of policy dialogue and partnership building.

Follow up: IFAD/PI

Consolidation of first phase activities

1. Facilitate an attitudinal change in district thinking in adoption of farmer to farmer and village based communication and extension systems and in the allocation of resources to small farmer advancement; follow up: Province;

2. Generate better understanding of participatory methodologies at all levels of commune and district agencies and focus on building the capacity for genuine participatory Project management; follow up: current Project Management, second phase project;

3. Increase focus on local capacity building and the availability of qualified people for design and supervision of infrastructure; follow up: current Project Management, second phase project;

4. Ensure beneficiary involvement in selection, operation and maintenance and implementation of infrastructure; pre-determined infrastructure activities should be avoided; follow up: current Project Management, second phase project;

5. Ensure that Project efforts are aligned with government programmes, where there are complementarities; follow up: province, Project Management, second phase project;

6. Integrate implementation of community mobilisation and delivery of goods and services; follow up: current Project Management, second phase project;

7. Sustain the work of the Commune Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) and Village Health Workers (VHWs) through maintenance and continuity of service and support from the district and province levels; follow up: current Project Management and province; the province has already considered to establish structural positions for CAHWs in several communes.

8. Enable conditions for the recruitment and deployment of women as CAHWs, and particularly as VHWs, and facilitate interactions of the latter with traditional birth attendants and reputable traditional healers; follow up: current Project Management, province, second phase project;

9. Incorporate aspects of utilization and management of forests as envisaged in the Forest Protection Agreements, which could ensure increased incomes for forest communities; follow-up: current Project Management, second phase project; and

10. Address the strategic needs of women and ensure active participation of women in decision-making and governance of grassroots organizations; and continue to promote locally appropriate labour saving technologies to address women's considerable work burden; follow-up: current Project Management, second phase project;

Simplification of project design

1. Reduce the geographical coverage with a focus on the poorer and remoter districts and communes; follow-up: second phase project;

2. Integrate planning done by the communities and limit activities to those that focus on food self sufficiency and adequacy of cash income generation; follow-up: second phase project;

3. Utilise Commune Development Funds (CDF) as a main vehicle for project activities and strengthen CDF operations with rigorous testing of micro project feasibility and financial benefit before approval of the investments and thorough oversight of design, quality control and supervision of construction; determine the level of investments that communes are able to handle, preferably according to the government decree for commune investments; decree of 135 programme should be adopted to facilitate investments by CPC; follow-up: second phase project;

4. Ensure that activities under the CDF reflect the needs of the entire community so that would be owned and managed at the commune level. follow-up: second phase project; and

5. Investigate the possibilities, where desirable and practicable, for commune level CDBs and village level VCUs to be subsumed under the CPCs; the village chief should act as the head of a project specific structure at village level; follow-up: second phase project;

Improvements and innovations for the second phase

1. New technologies disseminated should be appropriate for marginal conditions and precarious household finances of upland communes and take into account their indigenous systems and practices; follow-up: Province, second phase project;

2. Utilize and strengthen existing institutional structures and grassroots organisations to ensure broader representation of the poor and more marginalized sections of the community, including women; follow-up: Province, second phase project;

3. Ensure that social mobilization and PRA are used as an instrument of change, empowerment and management of external and internal resources by the communities; follow-up: Province, second phase project;

4. Allow flexible financing of advisory service for the development of traditional household enterprises through a modified CDF approach;

5. Create linkages between savings and credit, labour saving technologies and education to ensure household enterprise viability; follow-up: Province;

6. Simplify monitoring and evaluation system and report formats and create a proper socio-economic database; improve the technical databases set up under HPM for roads and bridges, domestic water supply and irrigation - and utilize them as development planning and monitoring tools; follow-up: second phase project;

7. Ensure that there are full time heads and additional technical staff, particularly for rural infrastructure, at the DPCU and PPCU level; follow-up: second phase project;

8. Increase inputs devoted to knowledge generation, advocacy and policy dialogue and partnership building. follow-up: second phase project;

Recommendations discussed but without a firm conclusion

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1.The ACP is an understanding among the following: Asia and Pacific Division of IFAD, UNOPS, the Government represented by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Provincial People's Committee, the Project Implementation Staff, SIDA and UNDP. OE facilitated the process.

1. Include community facilitators directly employed by the Project. There was a general agreement in the plenary on the fact that such a position should be created and would be useful. However, the participants expressed different opinions as to whether the position should be a project-created position or carried out by existing commune staff. The sustainability factor was an argument for the preference of the latter option by most of the government officials. OE is of the opinion that a supplementary project-specific position should be established, independently of, but working in coordination with the CPC; this position should preferably be occupied by an active local woman who is entrusted by the community to be an advocate for the interest and needs of the poor people in the commune.

2. Provide alternative arrangements for the access of necessary financing to initiate small sub-projects for the very poor: for example, matching grant, seed capital or deferred repayment, rather than credit. The partners generally agreed that there should be a thorough redesign of the credit component. Most of the representatives didn't want to take a clear position on this point as they wanted to await the proposal by the formulation mission on the following day. However, the chairperson of the Ha Giang Province expressed understanding with the evaluation mission's recommendation, referring to an existing government decree for decentralization at grassroot level, which entails the provision of a matching grant for financing small projects if local contributions are not enough. Several other partners proposed that IFAD should disburse its credit through the Social Policies Bank, which is specifically targeting the poor with a highly subsidized interest rate. Although the formulation team radically modified the current credit component by proposing the establishment of a Community managed Credit Fund placed in the Commune Project Management Unit, the counterparts held not be won for this idea; some representatives from Ha Giang province thought this proposal to be unfeasible, other counterparts hold on to the idea to collaborate with the Social Policies Bank. A decision was made to revisit the credit component during the appraisal of the second phase project.

3. Labour contribution from the villagers for infrastructure needs to be revisited. The counterparts wished to specify this recommendation, emphasising a maximum ceiling for labour contribution from the villagers. Furthermore, labour contribution should not only apply for infrastructure needs but also for productive activities. The recommendation could therefore be reformulated: "The amount of labour contribution from the villagers for infrastructure and productive activities needs shall be decided case by case by the CPC; the contribution must be ensured but should not exceed 10%. " Referring to the Aide Memoir of the formulation mission, PI does not entirely agree with this modified recommendation. The respective paragraph in the Aide Memoir is as follows: ‘Beneficiaries will be encouraged to make a contribution of 10% of the total scheme cost. However, the actual level of contribution will be determined on a scheme-by-scheme basis by the communities involved. Any savings made against the approved estimate for the scheme will be retained by the village concerned and can be applied to any other community development need or village credit funds.'