Community-driven development is useful for SIDS that face challenges similar to those of the Solomon Islands - IOE
Rome, 16 January 2025 – The IFAD co-financed Rural Development Programme Phase II (RDP II) in the Solomon Islands has demonstrated that community-driven development (CDD) can empower local communities to identify and address their own development needs, thereby increasing their access to and utilization of social services infrastructure. Furthermore, if successful in promoting social cohesion and strengthening community ownership, the CDD approach can contribute to building resilience and fortifying local governance structures in small island developing States (SIDS) contexts. These findings emerged from the project performance evaluation (PPE) report, recently published by the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE).
The RDP II was the largest rural development investment in the Solomon Islands, with national coverage. It aimed to improve basic infrastructure and services in rural areas and strengthen market linkages for smallholder farming households, with a focus on community infrastructure, social services, and agribusiness partnerships.
The RDP II was well aligned with national policies and development strategies and promoted equitable access to services through rural infrastructure development. In particular, the programme successfully facilitated partnerships between smallholder farmers and agribusinesses. Agribusiness partnerships proved effective in improving production, productivity and access to markets for the smallholder farmers in the value chains targeted, as well as capacity-building of smallholder farmers on good agricultural practices.
Other positive results include those achieved by the water supply systems subprojects, which contributed to enhancing access to clean drinking water, and reducing the burden on women and girls who endured walking long distances to fetch water.
A side from these and other achievements, the PPE also highlighted that while there is clear scope for applying typical CDD principles to agriculture commercialization infrastructure, seamlessly linking these objectives without clear guidance and protocols is difficult. Beyond the general challenges of integrating CDD principles in infrastructure projects, specific hurdles arise when dealing with agriculture commercialization in terms of the technical complexity and long-term institutional sustainability issues, unlike the more immediate user-driven maintenance associated with social services infrastructure.
Specific challenges that the project encountered include the fragility of agribusiness partnerships due to inadequate governance mechanisms to moderate the relationships between smallholders and agribusinesses in areas such as contractual agreements, risk management, communication and inclusion strategies.. In addition, the infrastructure subproject selection process resulted in inadequate participation of specific subgroups such as women, youth, the elderly and people living with disabilities. Some of the social services infrastructure such as daycare facilities and health posts faced significant utilization challenges due to staff shortages, resource limitations and budgetary constraints by the provincial government.
For the future, the PPE recommends that IFAD should intensify its engagement in co-financed programmes to improve performance in areas where it has specific strengths. This entails enhancing its involvement throughout the programming cycle, leveraging its extensive expertise and comparative advantage. IFAD should also adapt its programming approach to ensure stronger alignment with contextually relevant corporate and strategic priorities. Finally, targeting strategies in SIDS contexts characterized by remoteness, geographic diversity, and the limited capacity of public institutions should consider different localized needs and any gaps in capacities of the targeted communities.
Three primary sectors of the economy account for 34 per cent of GDP in the Solomon Islands, namely agriculture (16 per cent), forestry including logging (13 per cent), and fishing (5 per cent), while industry contributes 11 per cent and services 55 per cent. The agriculture sector is the foundation for providing livelihoods in the country and accounts for 70 per cent of total employment.
For further information, please contact Dr Alexander Voccia, Senior Evaluation Communication & KM Specialist [here].
RESOURCES
- To access the Rural Development Programme Phase II project performance evaluation, please click here.
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