Project Evaluation
Summaries
Prepared by the Policy, Planning and Evaluation
Unit (PPEU)
Benin
I. Basic Project Data
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Project Number: |
BEN/85/C01,
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Project Title: |
Pilot project
for the integrated development of |
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UN Cooperating Agency: |
FAO |
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Government Executing Agency: |
Ministry of Planning and Statistics, subsequently Ministry of Rural Development |
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Sector: |
Rural Development |
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Sub-Sector: |
Integrated Rural Development |
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UNCDF Budget: |
US$ (Revision "K") 2,190,637 |
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UNDP Budget: |
1,008,910 |
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UNICEF Budget: |
27,000 |
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WFP Budget: |
(not disbursed) 131,900 |
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SNV Budget: |
320,000 |
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Community Budget: |
64,000 |
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Gov't. Budget: |
133,640 |
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Total Budget: |
3,876,087 |
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UNCDF Expenditures |
2,001,104 |
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Date Project Approved: |
Oct 1986 |
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Date Project Began: |
Feb 1987 |
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Date Project Evaluated: |
Dec 1996-Jan 1997 |
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Type of Evaluation: |
Ex-Post |
 |
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II. Background
The sub-prefecture of Péhunco is situated in the western part of Atacora department in Benin. Its average annual rainfall is 1,200 mm. Its population of Baatonous and Peuls, estimated at 25,000 at the start of the project, lives in three communes and 24 villages. Food crops predominate among its agricultural output (yams, maize, sorghum, cowpeas), but yields are very poor. Onchocerciasis was recently eradicated in Péhunco, and cotton production was already increasing thanks to IFAD financing at the start of the project. The sub-prefecture had two national roads and a poorly maintained network of rural tracks. The supply of clean drinking water was very inadequate, especially during the dry season. School enrollment averaged 20%, and education was handicapped by the poor physical condition of schools, shortages of furniture, teaching materials, and housing for teachers. The area was also very disadvantaged in the area of health, with an under-equipped dispensary which had no room for in-hospital care or any means of evacuating patients.
III. The Project
The project, which was identified by the FAO Investment Centre in 1983 and formulated in 1986, had the following objectives: (1) to increase output of food crops (maize and cowpeas) and meat production; (2) to increase the cash income of farmers; (3) to build priority economic and social infrastructure; (4) to set up a village capital development fund (FEV) with assets of US$ 250,000 at the sub-prefecture level to make loans for investment in small-scale productive undertakings; and (5) to increase the capacity of the inhabitants and the government authorities to manage development operations.
The project was intended to benefit the entire population of Péhunco sub-prefecture and give special priority to an integrated and participatory approach by taking advantage of support from other projects already financed by UNCDF and UNDP (BEN/77/C32, C34, C36, and C39). The project was managed at the sub-prefecture level by the Centre d'Action Régional pour le Développement Rural (CARDER), which markets a large proportion of the region's cotton and also provides agricultural extension work with support from the IFAD project.
In addition to the contributions from UNCDF (equipment and infrastructure), UNDP (technical assistance), and the Government, the Dutch NGO SNV provided three volunteers and UNICEF provided drugs for the health centres. The inhabitants were to provide labour or financial contributions towards the costs of maintaining infrastructure.
In order to consolidate the project's achievements and fine-tune its activities, a second phase was financed by UNDP, without UNCDF involvement (BEN/90/006). This second phase takes into account the problems identified during the first phase, and gives increased attention to soil conservation, women's role in the local economy, and community participation.
IV. Purpose of the Evaluation
The purpose of the ex-post evaluation was to review the quality of the project formulation, the level and quality of project implementation, and the impact of the project on the target groups — especially women. The evaluation mission also sought to place special emphasis on sustainability and replicability of the project and on the appropriateness of the participatory strategy. Lastly, the mission sought to draw lessons from the implementation of the project with a view to improving the design, formulation, implementation, effectiveness and impact of similar projects.
V. Findings of the Evaluation Mission
A. Assessment of results achieved
After a difficult start, the project completed its activities in 1994, with mixed results: physical objectives were achieved, especially with respect to the covered market; training was inadequate; agricultural promotional activities had a large impact on the beneficiaries but had an adverse impact on the environment; and credit activities were satisfactory. On the whole, the project's integrated and participatory approaches were major positive factors ensuring success. However, in spite of the project's significant quantitative achievements, community involvement and participation were still inadequate by the end of the project, creating the risk that results could not be sustained unless there were a second phase.
Construction of infrastructure
The physical objectives were on the whole achieved, with a heavy contribution of local manpower: construction/rehabilitation of three health centres and six schools, 45.8 km of tracks, seven bridges, and a central market at Péhunco; drilling and outfitting with hand-pumps at 36 water points; development of an irrigation district covering 17 ha (out of 75 planned). The three communal grain banks envisaged could not be built owing to the reluctance of the communities to store their harvest at the commune level, which they considered to be too far removed from the villages. The segments of road selected did not always reflect the priorities of the inhabitants, hence the failure of the roads component which was to be financed by the communities. Nevertheless, the roads and bridges covered by the project are of good quality and are now in good condition. A group of qualified repair persons has been put together. However, the absence of a preventive maintenance programme and a lack of motivation on the part of the water points management committees sometimes cause rather long delays in repairing boreholes. The covered market, which is highly appreciated, is overseen by an independent management committee. The number of persons using the market and the influence of the market on the surrounding area are both increasing. Lastly, while the health and education indicators have improved, this improvement would have been more noticeable if qualified staff had been assigned to the health centres or schools built under the project.
Agricultural and animal husbandry activities
The agricultural and animal husbandry activities have involved mainly credit and technical support for 587 farms (as compared with 100 originally anticipated) for equipment and promoting of the use of animals for plowing, which encouraged an increase in cotton cultivation, rather than an intensification or diversification of food crops, as envisaged by the project, in spite of the training of extension workers for promoting food crops Indicators for malnutrition have remained unchanged. The total area under cultivation has, on average, doubled (an eight-fold increase for cotton) for peasants who received equipment as compared with those who did not. The project has also brought about a net increase in farmers' income (30%). However, this increase in the area under cotton — which is noticeable throughout the cotton-growing areas of northern Benin — encourages the rapid destruction of forests and savanna and shorter fallow periods. In the area of animal husbandry, the results, while encouraging, have been limited to a demonstration stage with four model herds.
Microfinance
Some one hundred craftsmen and retailers benefited from loans granted by FEV. With a specialized structure, handbook for intervention, participatory methods, FEV granted loans to individuals and groups, on the technical advice of CARDER, with the loans guaranteed by the good faith and credit of the Village Rural Development Committees (CVDRs). The repayment rate was 97%. As planned, the FEV portfolio (CFAF 19 million, as compared with the planned figure of CFAF 10 million) was transferred in 1994 to the Caisse Locale de Crédit Agricole Mutuel (CLCAM), which predated the project.
Participation
Problems of representativeness arose from the very beginning. The members of the committees established under the project (CVDRs, Communal Rural Development Committee, Steering and Planning Committee, Management Committee) were appointed on the basis of their political and administrative positions, and were not elected. Their proposals and decisions were often influenced by the existing power structure, even though the CVDRs managed to become major players in the project. The project took corrective action beginning in 1990 through a programme of leadership development and training for committee members, which made for a more participatory approach. The inhabitants developed an awareness of their rights vis-à-vis the local administration, a fact reflected by their success in obtaining management of the market, despite the opposition of the sub-prefecture.
Equity
There were clear problems regarding equity. Owing to the political situation at the time, political and/or family considerations influenced the selection of some of the target villages. As the selection of target groups was not clear at the beginning, some minorities were unintentionally excluded or even adversely affected by the project. The loans granted to women amounted to only 14% of the total. Lastly, the extension of areas under cultivation as a result of the use of draught animals created an excessive amount of work for women. While men reduced the average time spent working by 8%, women's work increased by 57%, since women's activities (sowing, fertilizing, harvesting) were not mechanized.
B. Assessment of project design
The mission noted inadequate precision and prioritization of many of the project's objectives, outputs and activities, and a contradiction between the participatory approach adopted and the detailed description of each project component.
For a participatory project, the absence of baseline data, a participatory diagnostic or a good background study accounts in part for the project's uncertain approach from the beginning. The project document had not clearly identified the target groups, which explains why no specific activities were planned for women or young people.
The decision to make use of the technical and logistic support of other UNCDF and UNDP projects in Benin was the cause of many of the delays which have plagued the project.
Although the project advocated ongoing evaluation, two factors have prevented it: the absence of baseline indicators and the poor quality of the socio-economic study on the one hand, and the absence of a monitoring-evaluation unit on the other.
VI. Recommendations
Since the project ended two years ago and the second phase is nearing completion, the evaluation team's recommendations can only be addressed to administration and to the communities:
Health centres and schools: As soon as possible, the administration should settle the problems of qualified staff and establish, in cooperation with the health centre management committees, a permanent system for financing health services.
Péhunco market: The profits generated by the market are currently used to finance small-scale activities in the sub-prefecture (development association, regional youth games, waste management, etc.). It would be wiser to set aside these resources to expand the market facility.
Rural tracks: A permanent solution for the maintenance of the developed tracks must be found as soon as possible.
Clean drinking water: At the level of Péhunco sub-prefecture, there is a need to resume health education with respect to clean drinking water.
Environment: The adverse environmental impact of cotton growing and its expansion is in the medium-term harmful to production capacity and in the long-term may pit cotton growers against farmers. It would be appropriate to reduce incentives for cotton cultivation and to promote other cash crops.
VII. Policy Implications and Lessons Learned
The main lessons to be learned from this project relate to the necessity of:
• Better preparation of participatory projects, in particular a clear-cut identification of target groups and activities to improve the balance in favour of the most vulnerable groups;
• According equal importance to qualitative objectives (development of community capacities) and quantitative objectives;
• Improved supervision of communities at the start of the participatory process and the possibility of readjustment of objectives by the local population; and
• In-depth feasibility studies which are properly carried out and/or participatory diagnostic studies in all cases prior to rural development projects in order to make it possible to select activities that are consistent with the environmental limitations.
In order to maximize the impact on local institutions and to fully benefit from the lessons learned, an appropriate information management strategy to disseminate project results should be in place at project inception. In the case of the present project, this would have encouraged the assimilation of the results by the technical services of the Ministry of Rural Development for the benefit of other rural areas and communities.
VIII. Evaluation Team
The evaluation team consisted of Dr. Aimé Gnimadi, Agricultural economist and team leader, and Mr. Alexandre Tchougourou, rural engineer.
