Enabling poor rural people
to overcome poverty
IFAD projects in Yemen have contributed their share to the significant achievements which were realised by the country since the mid-eighties with regard to institution-building.
Physically, the projects made substantial contributions in irrigation structures, water supply schemes, agricultural research, extension, fisheries and credit infrastructures, and rural roads. Yet, some of these structures are incomplete or not fully operational for various reasons (including contractual disputes, social conflicts, radical changes in policy environment, lack of operating funds, and lack of sustainability in institutional or environmental aspects). Disbursements were generally low in the first three years of project life due to a slow start in project implementation.
Complications in procurement, withdrawal application and customs clearance procedures have contributed significantly to implementation delays. Counterpart funding was problematic du budgetary constraints, inflationary pressures and a redundant labour force, which is at the same time not of adequate quality. In relation to these issues, the mission supports the recommendations of the Country Implementation Review (CIR) undertaken by the International Development Agency (IDA) in July 1991.
Supervision of most projects was found adequate in terms of providing early signals on major problems[-[including those of IFAD. The Government's response was often slow or even lacking in some cases.
Over the last two decades, sizeable financial and technical resources were used to build organisational structures, at the regional and national level. Progress towards realising the full benefits was masked by numerous problems. However, even the present barely efficient institutions for rural development represents real progress when compared with the previous absence of any institutional capacity at all, particularly in the Northern Governorates. The time has come now to consolidate previous achievements.
The lack of resources to support central institutions has resulted in their lagging behind project-supported institutions. Indeed, central authorities have adopted various means of control that are seen as obstacles to institutional development at project level. Project assistance has been used to foster institutional development for national institutions such as the Cooperative Agricultural Credit Bank (CACB) through the Southern Uplands Rural Development Project Phase II (SURDP II) and the Agricultural Credit Project (ACP) and the Agricultural Research and Extension Authority (AREA), through the Agricultural Research and Development Project[(ARDP), among others. It should be used similarly for the support of other concerned central government institutions. For such action to be rewarding, government should be encouraged to draw a comprehensive plan for national and regional institution building, and provide reasosonable counterpart financing to implement it.
At the regional level, the intermediate stage of a semi-autonomous project implementation unit seems to be problematic. The Government of Yemen (GOY) should consider swift action to legislate and harmonise regional development authorities which seems to be a more viable model. Currently, this model is only fully applied in the Tihama Development Authority (TDA), though recently the Northern Agricultural Development Authority (NORADA) has been established.
Irrigation and rural infrastructure
Notwithstanding the tremendous effort made by IFAD and other donors, the sustainability of institutions set up for the purpose of providing irrigation and rural infrastructure is a real concern in the face of a growing demand for the limited national budgetary and human resources.
Spate Irrigation Improvement. The selection of the appropriate development concept of a spate irrigation system requires a very clear understanding and appreciation of traditional water rights and operating arrangements at the design stage to avoid disputes and misuse of the water by the upstream users. The sustainability of what has been achieved so far is seriously threatened by the lack of adequate maintenance, the absence of recovery of costs, and low beneficiary participation.
Groundwater Irrigation. Groundwater development programmes have been relatively successful. The reason for their success has been that projects have played the role of facilitators by providing loans, design, and construction assistance. Once facilities are constructed they are turned over to farmers who operate and maintain them. Overexploitation of groundwater requires immediate and decisive regulatory measures and the development of a master plan to rationalise the exploitation of groundwater resources is highly recommended.
Rural water supplies. The enthusiasm of villagers for water supply improvements has given publicity to the projects, thus facilitating the implementation of other components. Therefore, it needs continuing support, especially where initiatives can strengthen and empower communities. Water supply schemes are very vulnerable to competition for scarce water resources, especially from irrigation. Therefore, planning of water use is paramount. Regulations should be promulgated to create a priority system for access to drinking water, to create restricted zones in areas where aquifers are depleting and to impose a minimum distance e between wells to avoid interference.
Rural Roads. There is ample evidence that the rural roads component in the projects cofinanced by IFAD has increased accessibility of all beneficiaries to input and product markets; reduced the cost of transportation of merchandise and contributed effectively to the fruit and vegetable import-substitution policy adopted by the Government in 1984.
The overriding consideration in road construction, however, is the adequacy of maintenance. Since rural road specications and standards of alignment are often inadequate to sustain the traffic build-up there is also a need for upgrading. Thus arrangements should be made to turnover those roads with heavier traffic to the competent authority.
Generation and dissemination of improved technology
There is evidence that farmers have adopted and adapted improved seed varieties and technology when these were made available to them. There is also evidence that the production of a number of crops has improved considerably not only due to research and extension messages, but also in response to initiatives by innovative private farmers.
IFAD-financed projects have contributed to the generation and dissemination of improved technological packages that have been utilized by farmers. Relatively more success has been achieved with cash crops compared to traditional food crops, with irrigated compared to rainfed crops, and with wheat and maize compared to sorghum and millet. Projects financed by other donors have contributed as well.
The achievements in terms of cropping patterns diversification and the penetration of commercial agriculture owe a lot to investments in irrigation and infrastructure. They are, however, very sensitive to market fluctuations. At present, the weakness of marketing structures has become a major limiting factor.
CACB represents the only available rural credit institution in Yemen. Therefore, IFAD, in collaboration with other concerned donors, should continue to support it, taking into account lessons learnt to date.
The credit components in the projects reviewed did not generally receive adequate assessment during project preparation and appraisal. Except for the recent ACP project, there is no evidence that the performance of either credit institutions or credit dissemination was carefully studied and incorporated into project design.
When credit was directly supplied by the projects(1), it lacked effectiveness and did not necessarily reach the intended target groups. Supervised credit (based on the traditional concept of credit granted by a specialised institution with loan appraisal done by extension and technical departments) were more effective. However, the target groups with whom IFAD is most concerned were not always reached either: experience shows it is particularly difficult for credit institutions to consider managing resources using methods which they may not have used before.