Evaluation recommendations

IFAD's future assistance to The Sudan needs to be put into a longer term perspective while addressing the basic fact that there are few readily available responses to the many problems of rural Sudan. Simultaneously, future projects must give sustainability issues the highest priority.

Strategic orientation

Any strategy for IFAD in The Sudan cannot ignore the emergency and short term demands which sometimes condition the survival of whole sectors of the population. It cannot either ignore the necessity to test and adapt available technical, social and institutional models of development under local conditions, in continuity with what has been done so far. Finally, it has to recognize the fact that sustainable responses to some outstanding development problems or to emerging ones can only be generated in the longer run.

Future assistance also needs to be made more intensive and focused in scope if it is to have a significant impact. Simultaneously, synergetic effects with other projects should be sought during project design.

As the economic adjustment and privatization processes are well engaged now, there should be much more scope for sustainable development based on private investment and the involvement of farmers' groups. This trend can already be observrved in the most recently approved project (White Nile) and is even more manifest in the project that is currently being developed (North Kordofan).

The evaluation thus recommends that IFAD's interventions should concentrate in one, or at most two regions. Seeking a geographic focus of the whole programme would permit a further targeting and simplification of individual projects thus leading to enhanced implementation effectiveness. It would also reduce the burden of institutional support on individual projects, while making this support more relevant and cost effective. Finally it would allow a more dynamic management of the portfolio by IFAD while enhancing the policy dialogue with Government.

Since targeting of IFAD assistance to the poor can easily be achieved in The Sudan by merely moving away from Nile-irrigated agriculture, it is further proposed to concentrate future assistance on one or two regions in which significant experience has been built up, for example Kordofan and Darfur. Darfur region also offers extensive opportunities for projects specifically targeted to women, who are extensively involved in the regional economy.

Participatory project design and implementation

As far as IFAD is concerned, there is a need to adjust the project cycle and the corresponding procedures to make it more amenable to people's participation.

 i) Project Design Improvement

Problem analysis (project rationale) is a priority area for project design improvement. In particular, the perspective of the intended beneficiaries should be explicitly integrated into the analysis.

Projects should focus on grass roots organizations and aim at promoting their self-reliance. This would facilitate the focus of implementation on the real development problems of the intended beneficiaries and not exclusively on those of the institutions which are supposed to service them. When applicable, project designers should ensure that the transfer of responsibility for rural infrastructure from government services to local communities is not accompanied by a transfer of liabilities.

Design should, as a result, adequately provide for grass roots organization support and training of their members so as to enable them to discharge their new responsibilities. It is important that this support be as direct as possible.

 ii) Importance of the Communication Dimension

Adequate communication and information strategies can create a favourable environment for the success of the project, as people need to be informed extensively and repeatedly about the project's objectives, modalities and support. The aim should be to build project activities on the positive perceptions of the population and to become aware of the negative perceptions that impede the adoption of project recommendations by the population.

In many instances, local leadership can be brought to play a positive role in support of the project, provided the project's objectives and modalities of intervention are made transparent to the whole community. Taking into account the critical role of resident, educated members of the community, the latter should systematically be targeted by the project as opinion leaders and facilitators of communication between the project and the communities.

iii) Project Implementation

A major effort is necessary to bring about the required change in institutional cultures. The concept of participatory development should be publicized through specific field training activities of direct relevance to field staff and key management.

Furthermore, project management staff need to be trained in participatory implementation approaches so as to develop staff aptitudes to identify emerging problems, as well as contexts favourable to the projects' objectives, and to increase staff responsiveness to people's feedback.

Complementarily it would be useful to take practical steps to make field agents accountable both to their hierarchy and to the public, and to build the staff incentive system on this basis.

Some implementing agencies and Government staff have had some experience with participatory development as in the Western Savannah and En Nahud Cooperative Credit projects. It is recommended to build on this stock of knowledge by giving more institutional recognition to this type of experience and by appointing to key project positions, staff with demonstrated ability to communicate with the rural world. The appointment in a project management advisory capacity of staff with a proper sociological background/experience would help instill the type of understanding sensitivity required among the staff. Government could also consider making more frequent use of NGOs, drawing the lessons of positive past experience in this respect.

 iv) Project Monitoring, Supervision and Evaluation

A programme of periodic field trips is recommended to ensure that all concerned villages are visited by project management at least twice a year, before and after the agricultural campaign. Consequently, it is recommended that the project provide the necessary operational costs on a separate budget line.

A simple model of participatory evaluation can be implemented based on periodic public meetings to be organized in the villages with the participation of senior staff from all implementing institutions. In parallel, annual/periodic self-evaluations by project management should be encouraged.

To increase the adaptability of the projects to changing circumstances, and their capacity to enhance whatever momentum is created during project life, it is necessary that supervision missions be more active in reviewing the relevance of the original design and make proposals for project revisions.

Specific sectoral recommendations

i) Coordination arrangements

Policy level coordination committees should not be project-oriented but rather sub-sectoral and sectoral. The Annual Work Programmes should be made more realistic especially in response to budgetary and technical resource constraints.

ii) Credit

Despite the lack of institutional sustainability of credit operations at country level, supervised institutional credit remains one of the most effective and cheapest ways of providing assistance to small farmers in remote and marginal areas. Pending better alternatives, IFAD should pursue its assistance but make it progressively conditional on further improvements in efficiency. The introduction of some degree of competitiveness between credit institutions for the delivery of credit services could help in this process.

A rural credit development strategy should incorporate the survival and risk-aversion strategy of the rural population in traditional rainfed areas. Since consumption needs are over-riding and cash loans are fungible, it would not be pragmatic to limit credit use strictly for production purposes. Hence, consumption loans in the form of advances for family labour contributions, and marketing loans to forestall selling of produce at low prices should be explicitly considered.

Credit dissemination should be closely linked to rural communities' participation in the form of credit cooperatives and group associations. However, more support from the projects is required, through education and training, to ensure that these participatory institutions, after the initial organizational, financial and technical support, become independent and financially self-supportive.

In order to enhance the viability of credit institutions, future project-funded credit activities should pay attention to rural savings mobilization. Credit institutions should be supported to modify their lending policies accordingly and to provide adequate incentives to depositors.

As far as ABS is concerned, its accountability should be enhanced by appointing and restructuring the Board of Directors to include strong regional representation. Given the size of the country and the poor communications which exist, the Bank should decentralize and empower its regional and branch managers to take decisions in the field within an overall credit policy.

 iii) Adaptive research

The mission believes that a specific support to research is a valid option for IFAD as even a single break-through (such as a superior variety of drought-tolerant millet or sorghum) may provide major benefits to a large section of the population. A proviso is that research activities must be realistically designed, taking into account the real needs of the farmer, and the limitations imposed by the prevailing conditions in the country. There are also a number of policy recommendations concerning adaptive research which IFAD should raise with GOS and other donors:

- While extension and cooperating farmers should be involved in planning on-farm trials, the actual field establishment and the final assessment of the trials should be the responsibility of research;

- The government should insist that Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC), the lead research agency, should be intimately involved, if not in charge, of research components in GOS-approved donor-funded projects. Where feasible, projects should support ARC financially and enter into formal contracts with ARC to carry out jointly planned and agreed research work;

- GOS should ensure that ARC publish research work (and recommendations derived from research) quickly and that it collaborate with extension in producing detailed, step-by-step recommendations for individual crops, taking into account agro-ecological differences. The collation of available information should be a priority;

- To short-circuit the laborious procedures currently involved in allowing research material to be analyzed, collated and made public, GOS should allow the Regional Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources and research establishments in the particular regions to release their own technological recommendations.

More detailed recommendations directed specifically at future project design are given in the concluding chapter of the evaluation report and further developed in its Annex III.

 iv) Extension

The main recommendation is that IFAD start a dialogue with GOS on the introduction of a much smaller village-based extension system, subject to agreement of the beneficiaries that they really need one. Key elements in the revamped system are given in the relevant parts of the report.

 v) Rural Infrastructure

Public investment will continue to be necessary in order to provide for the construction and rehabilitation of essential social and economic infrastructure. As there is a general lack of preventive maintenance programmes, donors, including IFAD, should assist in such effort. However, this assistance should always aim at enhancing the sustainability of these investments and thus include the necessary streamlining of the institutional framework. Moreover, it should be made clearly conditional on the Government's effectively phasing-in adequate budgetary resources for operation and maintenance.

 Water supply

There is a need to expand on wateryard development, in areas where rainfall is sufficient, to avoid environmental damage caused by excessive concentration of livestock and humans around the few operating wateryards. Wateryards have also been a major instrument of land settlement programmes. These experiments have had mixed results, and more effective approaches to land settlements need to be devised, building on the experience acquired in western Sudan.

Public Irrigation Schemes

As indicated in the strategy outline, Nile-irrigated agriculture would have a reduced importance as far as IFAD's future programme is concerned. Nevertheless, the following recommendations might have a particular relevance to Government and other donors' programmes, in addition to IFAD's own on-going projects.

More consideration should have been given to the rehabilitation of the water distribution network. Such an intervention would have improved water use efficiency more rapidly.

As all corporations are facing maintenance issues, foreign technical and financial assistance could be provided within a specific "Irrigation Maintenance Programme" including: (i) provision of foreign exchange to purchase workshop equipment and spare parts; (ii) appropriate training of technical and managerial maintenance staff; and (iii) credit for private farmers to purchase new pumps and engines or to replace existing pumping equipment.

The Ministry of Irrigation should decentralize its operation, contrary to its present tendency towards centralization. In the long run, the privatization process which is recently being given impetus, should include the irrigation component, especially of pump schemes (Northern Province Irrigation Rehabilitation Project and Northern Province Irrigation Rehabilitation Project-II as well as the White and Blue Nile schemes). In large irrigation schemes as well as the pump schemes, water users' associations should become instrumental in management, as this is expected in the case of NHIRP-II. Competition should be brought into irrigation works and canal excavation.