Project Numbers:	LAO/89/C02, LAO/86/008
Project Title:	Rehabilitation of Nam Tan Perimeter
Type of Evaluation:	Final
Government Executing Agency:	Province of Sayaboury
UN Cooperating agency:	UNOPS
Sector:	Natural Resources
Sub-Sector:	Irrigation
UNCDF Budget:	$US 4,015,355
UNDP / Govt. Netherlands Budget:	1,716,180
Gov't. Budget:	150,540
Contributions by beneficiaries:	110,000
Total Project Budget:	$US 5,992,075
UNCDF disbursements at evaluation:	$US 3,633,213
Duration:
Date Project Approved:	February 1982
Date Project Began:	15 October 1982
Project Completion Date:	30 June 1998
Date of Evaluation:	December 1998

II. Background

Sayaboury province in the northwest of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, where the project was located, comprises no less than 65% mountainous area and had a population of 309,000 in 1997. As in the country as a whole, agriculture in the province is centered on rice production, 73% of the annually cultivated area of 43,830 has been devoted to this crop.

The presence of the Nam Tan irrigation scheme in the district of Phiang (population 40,000) provided the impetus for the project. The Nam Tan irrigation scheme had fallen into serious disrepair during and following the years of war. The scheme has a command area of close to 2,000 hectares (ha) that is farmed by more than 1,900 families. Built in the late 1960s with US Agency for International Development (USAID) assistance, it was completed in the early 1970s and regarded as a success as far as the provision of irrigation was concerned. Subsequent failures to strengthen the farmers' organization, especially in effective water management and marketing produce, mitigated against the project ever achieving its full potential. The rehabilitation of this scheme, using a resolutely participatory approach, offered the possibility to increase the province's capacity to produce rice under favourable conditions and to develop a model of irrigation management that could be replicated elsewhere in Lao PDR.

III. The Project

The project's development objective was to contribute to ensuring food self-sufficiency in Sayaboury province and limiting environmental degradation caused by hillside-shifting cultivation. Its immediate objectives were:

• To increase the beneficiary group's organizational, management and production capacity.

• To modernize the irrigation infrastructure of the Nam Tan Scheme, increase the irrigated area and improve irrigation performance.

• To strengthen the institutional capacity of the provincial and district services providing assistance to the rural user groups.

The project was to be executed by the province of Sayaboury. A project management unit, headed jointly by a national project director and a chief technical adviser, would be responsible for the project's overall management and its implementation on behalf of the province with UNOPS as the cooperating agency.

The project's execution required a high degree of involvement of provincial and district personnel and the active participation of the farmers in organizing into irrigation blocks and constructing, with their own labour, the water distribution system below the tertiary canal. The rehabilitation of the irrigation scheme's civil works (main and secondary canals, service and village roads) was to be undertaken by an international contractor. An experimental station within the command area (known as 30-ha Centre) was expected to play a key role in providing both agricultural extension services and technical input to the management of the irrigation scheme. The scheme's effective use and sustainability would be ensured by the farmers creating a water users organization, putting in place a water fees system collection and managing the funds collected.

IV. Findings of the Evaluation

A. Assessment of results achieved

The overall assessment of the project is favourable, but the evaluation team has serious reservations concerning the sustainability of the project as explained further in the text.

Development objectives

Significant tangible but unfortunately unsustainable results have been achieved. While the increase in rice yields has resulted in farmers obtaining a surplus, part of which reaches provincial markets, the potential clearly exists for the Nam Tan irrigation scheme to produce a considerably greater marketable surplus than is presently attained. The number of farmers resorting to shifting cultivation has decreased significantly.

Immediate objectives

The following objectives have been achieved to varying degrees.

• The organizational capacity of the beneficiary groups was increased by block and zone formation of the farmers and the organization of village women into managers and recipients of revolving funds. Management objectives were achieved with the formation of the Water Users Association (WUA) and election of a management committee, but its ability to manage the irrigation scheme needs much improvement, especially in the collection of the water fee, financial administration and the organization of the operation and maintenance of the main infrastructure. Production capacity has increased as a result of the reliable availability of irrigation water, but farmers remain largely committed to lower-yielding local rice varieties and have not taken up agricultural diversification to any significant degree (partially due to lack of extension services).

• The irrigation scheme has been rehabilitated. The reliably irrigable area in both the wet and the dry season has been substantially increased, largely as the result of the rehabilitated irrigation scheme providing the physical means for better water distribution management. At the level of the blocks, irrigation performance has improved tremendously but at the level of the main and secondary canals the potential for good operation, especially in the dry season, has yet to be realized.

• While the 30-ha Centre has been rehabilitated and training has been provided for many provincial and district technical staff, little achievement is observed in providing support services to the farmers in the command area, resulting in the conclusion that the immediate objective of strengthening the institutional capacity of these support services has not been achieved.

Project implementation management

While overall the project was executed satisfactorily, there were negative aspects to implementation management that were the result of an unplanned shift in execution responsibilities, from a heavy reliance on the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to national execution, in the initial stages of the project. This shift, the rationale for which is not documented, was not dealt with well, and the resulting confusion led to serious conflict between national and expatriate project personnel and a considerable waste of technical assistance resources.

Many project decisions appear to have been taken on an ad hoc basis between UNDP/UNCDF and the Project Management Unit (PMU). Changes to the project design are often either poorly documented or not documented at all. Thus much of what might have been useful information, not only to reconstitute the project history but to design future projects, has been lost.

Scheme rehabilitation

Rehabilitation of the main water conveyance and distribution system was successfully achieved. The project adequately overcame the difficulties caused by an underperforming international contractor by engaging local contractors. The farmers created an effective system of water distribution at the tertiary-canal and field level with their own labour.

Scheme management

The organization of the Water Users Association is very complex and involves an unnecessarily large number of people. Collection of the water fee remains a serious problem with only between 60 and 70% of the water users ever paying their fee to the block they are part of—there is little incentive for individual farmers to pay. This has serious consequences for the operation and maintenance of the scheme and, compounded by the provincial government refusing to allow the WUA management committee to impose a realistic water fee, offers a dim prognosis for the irrigation scheme ever being self-sustaining.

The 30-ha Centre is not providing the expected technical support necessary for the effective management of the irrigation scheme. The only entity with the potential to provide this support is the provincial irrigation division, which is well aware of its obligation and responsibility to ensure the continued well-being of the Nam Tan irrigation scheme but seems to need encouragement to assume this on a regular working basis.

The participatory methodology designed and used for the block formation was well formulated and appropriate to the needs of the farmers. Its implementation over a period of three years resulted in blocks within which irrigation water is equitably distributed and whose canals and structures are well maintained by the farmers.

Agricultural development

The agricultural extension services provided by the 30-ha Centre leave much to be desired. While training was conducted inside the centre and other agricultural tasks were carried out to benefit the project, (for example, seed multiplication) the staff of the centre seldom ventured outside its gates into the fields of farmers in the irrigation command area. This appears to be borne out by the small number of farmers who implement lessons they received in the centre on their farms. Centre staff appear to think that if the farmers understand the lesson in the classroom then that is sufficient to ensure its eventual implementation.

Community development

The Village Revolving Fund (VRF), although not part of the original project concept, is an excellent credit scheme, bringing women firmly into the economic life of their communities and families. The benefits to them and their families are tangible and the practical educational benefits to women in calculating profit and loss, making economic decisions on a day to day basis and planning income-generating activities is evident. Excellent repayment rates suggest a high degree of commitment to the fund not only as recipients of credit, but also as responsible members of the community. There is still a need for training in good bookkeeping and revolving the credit on a more flexible basis, but in essence the system can only improve.

While the VRF brings women into business activities and, as a result, strengthens their position in their communities, there is not a single woman leader in the 92 irrigation blocks or 8 zones (there is no physical reason why women cannot fulfill these jobs) although 158 women-headed households are within the command area of the project. There are two positions on the management committee of the WUA reserved for women. This suggests that the position of women in the project is such that imposition of the statutory requirement was the only way they would achieve some degree of representation.

Input supply

The project's initial progress, notably the mobilization of technical assistance personnel, was hampered by the inadequacy of programmed UNDP funds. This was resolved by a cost-sharing agreement signed with the Netherlands one year after the project had started with the NPD and some national staff assuming their posts on the project. UNCDF contributed funding as required by the project agreement.

The Lao government assigned the required national personnel and made the facilities of the 30-ha Centre and the base camp available for rehabilitation according to the project agreement. The farmers n the Nam Tan command area provided their labour to construct tertiary canals and the block-level water distribution system.

The supply of inputs to the rehabilitation of the scheme's civil works was less than satisfactory. The international joint venture of construction companies contracted to undertake the work did not perform as expected. Three local companies were hired to take on part of the work, which was completed only a few months behind schedule and for 20% less than the joint venture's contract amount. The achievement of this relatively satisfactory result required a high concentration of the project personnel's efforts, which may well have been the principal cause for the neglect of other project components.

Technical assistance

The provision of technical assistance was hampered by the confusing project startup conditions created by the inadequate allocation of UNDP funds and the unplanned shift from UNOPS-led implementation towards national execution. This led not only to significant delays in the arrival and gaps in the presence of long-term experts but to serious conflict between national and international project personnel, culminating in the abolishment of the CTA position. The project's startup difficulties clearly resulted in a considerable waste of technical assistance (TA) resources and, with the notable exception of the TA dealing with construction matters, a rather disappointing impact of the TA was delivered.

B. Assessment of Project Design

Project conception and rationale

The idea of rehabilitating the Nam Tan Irrigation Project and the rationale behind it were very appropriate. This is shown by significant progress toward achieving the project's development objectives, namely the production of a marketable rice surplus and the reduction of environmentally damaging slash and burn farming, in a province that lags behind the nation as a whole in both areas. The Nam Tan scheme, if provided with adequate management and technical support at the level of the main conveyance and distribution system, can become a model for modern gravity irrigation in Lao PDR.

Participatory development

Building participatory development into the project design was a strong and positive feature, resulting in the solidarity of farmers using common outlets from the tertiary canals, the equitable distribution of water at the block level and the adequate maintenance of the corresponding canals and structures.

Scheme management

The project design called for the creation of an appropriate "light" management structure and the strengthening of the 30-ha Centre to provide the technical support that is indispensable for the effective operation of a system the size and complexity of Nam Tan. That the management structure is anything but light and that the 30-ha Centre is not fulfilling its role is seriously threatening the scheme's sustainability.

Agricultural development

The presence of the 30-ha Centre in the Nam Tan area offered what appeared to the project designers as ideal conditions to build up locally the capacity of agricultural extension for irrigation farming. The obvious potential offered by the centre did not materialize and, in hindsight, it might have been better to directly support the provincial and district extension services (which delegated personnel to the centre) in building up their own capacity.

Water supply and health

Recognizing the health risks of using water from the irrigation canals for domestic purposes, the project designers provided for water supply and sanitation activities and for health monitoring—especially of children. These initiatives were not executed for no documented reason.

Assignment of responsibilities

Execution responsibilities are clearly defined in the UNCDF Project Agreement LAO/89/C02. UNDP Agreement LAO/86/008 stated that the project would be nationally executed without adequately specifying what this would entail and including a budget in which UNOPS had disbursement responsibility for all budget lines but one—that for training. The resulting ambiguity and shift in execution responsibilities led to conflict between national and TA personnel and a waste of TA resources.

Evaluation and monitoring

The project design provided for a socio-economic baseline survey. Executed in the early months of the project, it produced an appropriate benchmark for measuring the project's progress in achieving its immediate and development objectives. The design called for the usual progress reports and monitoring activities, including a mid-term evaluation that did not take place.
 
V. Recommendations

In conclusion, the evaluation mission recommends that, as a minimum, the following priority actions, listed in order of priority, be taken as a matter of urgency to allow the Nam Tam scheme to achieve its potential and become sustainable: (1)

• Amend the constitution of the WUA so that the management committee becomes a board of directors representing the interests of the farmers and supervising the exercise of the planning, operation and maintenance functions related to the use of the infrastructure by professionals in the employ of the WAU or of Sayaboury province.

• Strengthen the capacity of the Sayaboury Irrigation Section to:

- Provide the technical services necessary to operate the irrigation scheme to maximize the return from the investment in the irrigation infrastructure (updating and analyzing agro-climatic data, flow measurements on the Nam Tan and on the natural drains flowing through the command area, measuring the scheme's irrigation efficiencies, establishing crop water requirements, post-harvest assessment of the results of cropping seasons and so on).

- Assist the WUA in the seasonal planning of cropping and water delivery schedules, including the establishment of a rational annual dry-season rotation of sectors of contiguous irrigation blocks.

• Authorize the WAU to set the water fee as required to ensure the adequate functioning and sustainability of the irrigation infrastructure.

• Establish the irrigation block (or an appropriate set of contiguous blocks) as the contractual entity receiving irrigation water in return for payment of the water fee (rather than the individual farmer as is currently the case).

• Strengthen the capacity of the provincial and district agricultural extension services to effectively promote in the Nam Tan command area the intensification of rice production and the growing of alternative dry-season crops (provided the markets for such crops have been identified).

VI. Policy Implications and Lessons Learned

Among the many lessons learned, two are overarching. They stem from analysis of the way the development partners defined their cooperation and supervised the execution of the project:

• Cooperation among the development partners, the project's management structure and key project personnel should be clearly defined at the signing of the project agreements, and the terms of the agreements scrupulously adhered to in order to avoid confusion, conflict and wasting project resources.

• The development partners should rigorously supervise the project's activities to ensure that these activities remain directed towards achievement of the immediate and development objectives, to formally agree (where applicable) upon changes to these activities and objectives and to make certain that each participating entity lives up to its obligations.

VII. Evaluation Team

The final evaluation of the Nam Tan Irrigation Rehabilitation project was undertaken by:

• Paul Egli—irrigation specialist

• Jim Monan—social and institution specialist

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Notes

1. For a list of detailed recommendations, please refer to the full evaluation report. (Return)