Evaluation purpose and scope
Responding to an Executive Board request,
it was decided that Country Portfolio Evaluations (CPEs) be carried out
in countries where a substantial amount of experience has been accumulated.
The purpose of CPEs is to contribute to better project design and implementation
in the light of IFAD's actual experience in a specific national context.
While this CPE could not be a substitute for individual projects evaluations,
it aimed, however, at rapidly providing solid comparative information
on the most essential aspects of project performance as well as of their
relevance to IFAD's concerns.
The selected methodological approach
gave priority to understanding how the projects interacted with their
environment taken in a broad sense (natural, institutional, socio-political,
etc.). This approach helped to put IFAD's intervention into perspective.
The assessment of project experience
in Yemen started during the last quarter of 1991 with a desk review, the
result of which provided relevant focus as well as background information
for the field work. The latter took place in December 1991 during which
the 11 project areas were visited. Time-wise, the CPE came at an opportune
moment as the country was reviewing its development policy in the light
of the new situation created by the unification of the country.
The evaluation report consists of ten
chapters grouped into three sections. The first section provides an overview
of the IFAD country programme since its inception, putting it into perspective
with the evolution of the national context (Chapters II and III). Project
performance is subsequently described from an operational and financial
point of view (Chapter IV). Chapter[V concludes this Section by analysing
in depth the project's contribution to institution-building. Particular
attention is paid to the various forms of project organisation and their
effects on project performance.
The second part of the report (Chapters
VI to VIII) assesses project experience in the major fields of IFAD intervention
in Yemen: irrigation and rural infrastructure, generation and dissemination
of improved technology and agricultural credit. Essential facts on project
achievements are presented together with the relevant issues involved.
On the basis of the above, an attempt
is made, in the last section of the report, to look at past experience
from the specific standpoint of IFAD (Chapter IX). Beyond providing some
indications on the contribution of the projects towards poverty alleviation,
this Chapter discusses the specific issue of targetting approaches and
instrumentalities in Yemen, as revealed by actual experience.
The national context and the IFAD programme
Whereas the former South Yemen inherited
educational and administrative structures which helped in the management
of rural development projects, North Yemen, which was by far the most
populated, had to build these capacities from scratch. Yemen, particularly
the North, has nevertheless experienced rapid growth during the last 15
years, which in turn, deeply transformed a country and a society which
only recently opened to the modern world (1962). Growth soon created new
problems or exacerbated existing ones, particularly with the ever-increasing
pressure on the narrow natural resources base. Hence, the lack of sustained
achievements witnessed by many projects regardless of their source of
financing. As in many countries which followed a similar pattern of growth,
there are clear indications that equity issues were given insufficient
attention.
In this context, marked by the high
priority given to institution-building, the Government and its major development
assistance partners used rural development projects to create the nucleus
of future development authorities at a regional level. This strategy involved,
by its very nature, less attention being given to both community level
and national level development programmes. As a result of the weakness
of internal resources mobilisation, institution-building has been greatly
dependent on external financing. Hence the succession of project phases
in the same area which is one of the salient characteristics of the Government's
portfolio of rural development projects.
IFAD has financed a total of 11 projects
in Yemen starting in 1979 in the North and 1980 in the South for a total
project cost of US$[371[million. The share of IFAD amounted to about 25%
of the total cost of the projects (US$[91.1[million), with a lower percentage
contribution in the North. Eight of these projects were initiated by other
donors and cofinanced by IFAD. IFAD-financed projects dealt with a wide
range of projects and agro-ecological zones, whose objectives included:
the establishment and rehabilitation of rural infrastructure; the development
and dissemination of technical packages; and institution-building.
