IFAD promotes socioeconomic transformation of rural areas within the Dry Corridor of Central America - IOE
Rome, 3 July 2024 – Cumulatively, over the past 15 years IFAD-funded projects have achieved extensive coverage of municipalities within the Dry Corridor of Central America, with attention to local organizations and basic needs of households and communities. One third of these projects have supported the socioeconomic transformation of rural areas within the Dry Corridor of Central America through business development, facilitation of market access and value chain strengthening. Fabrizio Felloni, Deputy Director of the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) explained this to be the case during the virtual final workshop of the sub-regional evaluation (SRE) of IFAD's experience in the Dry Corridor of Central America, on 3 July 2024.
Presenting the findings of the SRE, Mr Felloni explained that The projects supported grass-roots rural organizations and focused on training, investment plans and upgrading and formalization of producer groups.
“IFAD’s projects achieved their best results when improving product quality and facilitating sales in more demanding markets at more remunerative prices”, the Deputy Director noted.
Organized by IOE in collaboration with IFAD’s Latin America and the Caribbean Division (LAC), and the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, the on-line virtual workshop brought together a wealth of high-level attendants. Sixty participants joined the event, representing partner country governments, regional and international organisations, and producer organisations, as well as and IFAD senior management and staff.
During the workshop, participants discussed the main findings, recommendations and issues emerging from the SRE. The meeting also provided an opportunity to focus on the opportunities and challenges of the partnership between IFAD and the Governments of the subregion in the near future, and discuss strategic priorities for IFAD's upcoming programmes.
Although IFAD and the Governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua have approved individual country strategic opportunities programmes, IFAD does not have an explicit or implicit strategy for the Dry Corridor or for Central America. The SRE identified 15 loans provided by IFAD for projects in the four countries, as well as subregional grants financed to promote collaboration among the countries and interaction with intergovernmental organizations in Central America, between 2008 and 2023.
The grants supported issues relevant to the subregion as well as the Dry Corridor, such as family farming adapted to climate change, youth and innovation in rural finance, such as weather-indexed insurance packages for farmers. They also involved several countries and different actors, including intergovernmental organizations and civil society organizations. In addition, the grants provided an opportunity to update and renew the practices of both IFAD and the Governments within the Dry Corridor.
The SRE also found that IFAD projects addressed beneficiaries’ basic needs and enhanced human capital by improving hygiene and health conditions, and access to transportation. Despite rather limited budgets, investments in water systems, latrines, improved stoves and cisterns increased access to drinking water, hygiene and health, reducing gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses and workloads for women and children.
“We are proud of these results, and we will continue to invest and improve our strategic focus in the region to better serve our clients”, affirmed Rossana Polastri, LAC Regional Director, speaking on behalf of Dr Donal Brown, Associate Vice-President, IFAD Programme Management Department.
Furthermore, discussions during the learning event highlighted that some of the projects promoted the use of environmentally friendly technologies and practices, including soil and water management and crop diversification. In addition, several projects successfully generated employment and raised the incomes of rural families.
On the other hand, the projects reviewed lacked a territorial approach and the kind of targeting criteria that can help to organize and prioritize interventions relating to productive opportunities and actively involve public institutions, producers’ organizations and enterprises. This lack of a territorial focus often generated multiple interventions with no specific links to the Dry Corridor or to municipal priorities.
“There is absence of specific strategic guidelines for the subregion or for the Dry Corridor, and there are no clear-cut territorial approaches to prioritize interventions”, stated Dr Indran A. Naidoo, Director of IOE.
Other challenges raised during the workshop include the limited leveraging of IFAD experiences in other Latin America and the Caribbean subregions, the fact that national policy dialogue on policies relevant to the Dry Corridor was not a core element of country programmes.
Looking ahead, some practices warrant attention with a view to future interventions. These include projects that are developing the production and commercialization of products adapted to the Dry Corridor, such as cashews, beekeeping, livestock (mixed, meat and dairy) and coffee growing. In addition, some of the projects approved recently or in preparation put forward concepts – such as watershed development or multidimensional sustainability – that, were they to be developed appropriately, could help to make work in the Dry Corridor more consistent.
To support these and other interventions in the subregion, the SRE put forth various recommendations that were discussed during the workshop. First, IFAD should prepare strategic guidelines at the subregional level, focusing specifically on the Dry Corridor and its many development challenges. Second, IFAD and the Governments need an integrating territorial approach so that resilient family farming and territorial development become central themes of cooperation in the subregion. Third, IFAD should improve targeting instruments for project users in the Dry Corridor. Fourth, IFAD should support innovative approaches in the Dry Corridor, with greater attention to knowledge management, strategic partnerships and public policy dialogue.
The Dry Corridor is characterized by prolonged cycles of drought followed by intense rainfall. Rural poverty in the subregion is multidimensional, with socioeconomic gaps for specific groups (women, youth, Indigenous Peoples), institutional fragility, violence and criminal activity that undermines the social fabric and development. There is evidence of at least 18 official cooperation projects operating in the Dry Corridor, approved between 2011 and 2023 for an amount of US$717 million. Despite the significant size of this amount, interinstitutional coordination among operations is limited.
For further information, please contact Dr Alexander Voccia [here]
RESOURCES
- To access the SRE executive summary, please click here [Spanish] [English]
- To access the SRE presentation that Mr Felloni delivered alongside Massiel Jiménez, IOE Evaluation Analyst, and Claudia Ranaboldo, IOE Senior Consultant, please click here.
- To access the SRE infographic, please click here.
IOE 20th ANNIVERSARY
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- To access Fabrizio Felloni’s interview on the evolution of independence of IOE, please click here.
- To access the latest edition of Independent Magazine, please click here.
- To learn why independent evaluation makes IFAD a more credible institution, please click here.
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