Lessons Learned
The mission’s evaluation of the project’s
achievements and performance in the first phase and the analysis
of its shortfalls (above) highlight a number of lessons that
are pertinent when considering the second phase and the need
to reformulate activities and implementation arrangements.
· Project design and allocation of project
resources need to be better integrated with the country’s
decentralization process, with the districts increasingly
having the central role both in decision making and management
of project activities in the districts.
· The participatory demand-driven approach
being employed by the project is appropriate but needs to
be more directly linked to the delivery of project investments
and services if the communities are to continue to believe
in the process, take ownership of their own development and
assume responsibility for maintenance and operation of rural
infrastructure funded under the project.
· The concept of implementing the project
through performance-based contracts is sound but does
not reduce the workload of the PCU – nor of the districts
that are assuming a share of these responsibilities – rather
it changes the balance of the workload and necessitates greater
strength in contract preparation/specification, much clearer
definition of responsibilities and tasks to be undertaken,
more rigorous performance monitoring, and a common agreement
on the action that to taken if the service providers do not
perform in line with their contracts.
· If fund disbursement is to become more
efficient, more flexibility is needed in the structure
of project funding in order to allow project management
to adjust to changes experience during project implementation.
· Promotion/mainstreaming of gender
cannot be achieved through isolated women-in-development initiatives
– as provided for in the original design of the project –
but rather has to be become an integral part of planning and
implementation of each project activity.
· Planning of a feeder road programme
needs to be done more rigorously and by professionals experienced
in the field if the roads programme for the second phase is
to avoid the problems of the first (underestimation of costs,
poor quality of construction, inadequate maintenance provision).
· With the importance and potential of livestock
in the Province, more project resources need to be allocated
to supporting the development and commercialisation of the
sector in the second phase with particular emphasis placed
on developing the milk ‘filière’ (commodity chain)
and possibly meat production.
· A more balanced strategy for supporting
agricultural development is required, with promotion of
income generating activities given a higher profile.
· As PRAs have shown, the achievement
of physical targets – such as the overachievement of forest
nurseries established and seedlings planted or boreholes drilled
in response to critical need on a certain district – is of
diminished value if the preconditions for sustainability of
the investments made are not given enough importance and met
first
|
