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Various ministries were given responsibility as the main implementing agency for projects in the region, which was supposed to be realized by means of coordinating committees and then, at the field level, by respective line agencies. However, in practice, this coordination function was invariably ineffective. Many of the projects relied on project management structures which were either substantially aided or completely controlled by expatriate technical assistants. This contributed to a lack of integration of project implementation into the national institutions and structures and worked against sustainability and continuity. Although non-government organizations (NGOs) were given nominal roles at the design stage of many of the projects, in practice, there were few examples where they played a major part in project implementation. Local government departments, where they were involved, tended to make an important contribution to implementation; this was important in 199 LE and 104 ZA, where the Provincial Secretary was Head of the Project Implementation Unit (PIU).
In Botswana (076 BT), Lesotho (199 LE) and Swaziland (121 SZ), expatriate advisers took direct responsibility in the role of project manager or coordinator. In Malawi, an expatriate was in charge of the Smallholder Fertilizer Revolving Fund (120 MW). Most of the projects (176 BT, SRS 008 MZ, 199 LE) had large numbers of man-months of technical assistance (TA), including 206 ZA, which had over 250 man-months.
The coordination mechanisms did not usually function as anticipated. Coordination is essential for multi-component projects, executed in parallel by different line agencies. Lack of coordination was probably the root cause of many project delays and failures. There is, generally, an inability to transfer management skills to national staff using the route of expatriate advisers: Project TA needs to include specific mechanisms and training functions, to ensure that necessary short-term assistance leads to long-term management gains. Local government support for project activities is essential, but needs to be divorced from political manoeuvring.
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Institutional arrangements have an important bearing on the successful
implementation of projects; in general, the simplest structure involving
the minimum of coordination requirements is preferred.
- Quality of project management, in terms of experience, qualifications, managerial capacity, authority and continuity is also an important factor in project success. Counterpart funding constraints, timely payments, adequate incentives, housing, training, equipment and field transport have all detracted from management performance and need to be guaranteed if the projects are to succeed.
- The role of TA needs to be clearly defined, not only so that technical shortfalls are filled, but also so that there is a responsibility for the training and skills development of counterpart staff. TA contracts also need to be sufficiently flexible so that inputs and timing can respond to project demands.
- Beneficiary attitudes are greatly affected by management's ability or inability to deal with implementation problems; this requires that contact staff must have adequate authority (or access to authority) and must give sufficient priority to dealing with farmers queries.
Select any of the following related project profiles for background information: 076 BT, 199 lE, 120 MW, SRS 008 MZ, 121 SZ.
