The Rural Development Project in the Eastern Middle Atlas (PDRMO), implemented in Morocco between 2007 and 2015, was mainly oriented towards alleviating rural poverty by diversifying and increasing the incomes of rural people, with a sustainable management of natural resources. In this respect, PDRMO targeted 10 rural communes in Boulemane, one of the poorest region in the country, with the goal of reaching 10,000 households, or 75,000 beneficiaries. 

Project achievements are significant with regards to physical infrastructures, with 112 km of roads being built or rehabilitated and 103 km of seguias realized, in addition to small-scale irrigation and water-supply infrastructures. In terms of impact, there is a proven gain in time-saving for transportation and irrigation. Moreover, PDRMO obtained encouraging results in strengthening grass-roots' organizations for the implementation of local development.

PDRMO results were however affected by significant implementation delays, due to the difficulty faced by the project in implementing a participatory approach for the preparation of the Douar Development Plans (DDPs), a new and time-consuming activity in the country. The grass-roots' organizations supported, with the exception of livestock breeders’ associations, remain fragile and not sufficiently inclusive. The project also failed to enhance access to financial services and the efforts undertaken to develop entrepreneurship, especially among women, remain limited.

The evaluation recommends that capacity building continue to be pursued for grass-roots' organizations to enable them to become inclusive actors in local development, as well as efforts to strengthen and protect natural resources using more innovative approaches adapted to the context.