Enabling poor rural people
to overcome poverty
An IFAD mission was conducted in Morocco from 26 October to 2 November 2003. The mission was made up of Alain Guillout, Executive Director for France, Ioan Pavel, Executive Director for Romania, Abdelmajid Slama, Director for the Near East and North Africa, and Mounif Nourallah, Country Portfolio Manager for Morocco. It was organised by Mr Nourallah with the co-operation of the Regional Office for the Agricultural Development of Ouarzazat (ORMVAO) and the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture in Marrakesh (DPAM). It visited two projects: the “Dades Valley” and “Al Haouz”. It wound up its trip with meetings with the Moroccan authorities and aid donor managers.
This field visit confirmed and honed a certain number of observations made by a mission to Vietnam last year1. This mission also revealed the importance of adapting projects in progress and recipient reaction capacity.
1. The mission operations
The ORMVAO and DPAM directors, assisted by their teams, gave the mission a presentation on each project.
The field visit to the Dades Valley, a project launched in the early 1990s, focused mainly on Tifaouine’s drinking water supply, the Skoura dairy goat farm and cheese dairy, the D’man sheepfold, the M’gouna agro-hydraulic installations, the renovation of the Nig Ihgrem seguia (open irrigation channel) and the Todgha palm grove.
The visits regarding the more recently launched Al Haouz project2 concentrated mainly on the Crdit Agricole microcredit foundation and the Amirmiz farming co-operative, the orchards and drinking water conveyance in Toulkine, a FONDEP (microcredit) office and a beneficiary workshop, the Tifaouine association and an ecotourism association in Imlil.
In the capital, the mission met the Ministry of Finance Secretary-General and Director of the Budget, the Ministry of Agriculture Secretary-General and Director of Land Affairs, the European Union Representative and associated water and rural development experts, the new World Bank Representative and the members of a joint World Bank/FAO mission3, and the AfD Representative. The French Executive Director also met the French Ambassador to Morocco and the Head of the Economic Mission in Casablanca.
BackNextII. IFAD helping the poor
1. Target: The poorest of the rural poor
The two provinces visited are among the poorest in the kingdom. The most underprivileged areas of these two provinces have been targeted. For example, even in the Al Haouz province, which is less remote than the Ouarzazat province, the project covers part of the foothills of the High Atlas Mountains and beyond. The communes are chosen from among the rural communes based on the poverty rank defined by the UNDP. The douars (villages) are then selected one by one. In Al Haouz, 209 douars totalling 5,347 farms are included in the project out of a total of 465 douars and 11,902 farms. The percentage of douars chosen ranges from 25% in the project zone’s “least underprivileged” communes to over 70% for “the most underprivileged”. The rate of malnutrition in the project zone is over 50% on average.
The mountain areas are isolated. Little public investment has consequently been put into them up to now and they are far from the trade channels. Hence the difficulty of escaping the vicious circle: poverty —> low level of education —> demographic growth —> overexploitation of natural resources —> degradation of resources —> low level of production —> poverty. Given these circumstances, only action taken by outside agents (training/investment/improving access) to raise the inhabitants’ productivity quickly and extensively can break this vicious circle. This is what IFAD is trying to do in a modest and pragmatic manner.
2. The participatory approach
IFAD’s work focuses on the villages as basic units. It does not work on the basis of a general project developed in a Western capital. In a country like Morocco, IFAD more often than not goes through the traditional communities to consult the population.
IFAD’s approach is firmly participatory. It works bottom-up from observed needs to project definition. It sticks to the reality and involves the local communities and associations in order to satisfy real needs and improve effectiveness and project sustainability. This approach can be summed up by three principles: consultation, participation and empowerment.
In the most recent projects such as the Al Haouz project, several teams made up of animation staff and sociologists, assisted by technicians where necessary, went to each of the 465 douars (upstream of village selection) to review needs, expectations and constraints in order to find project ideas in keeping with the reality and local capacities. Hence the focus on basic socio-economic infrastructures is based on the observed needs: earth roads, water supply, health centres, schools, etc.
Likewise, the observation of the local situation gave rise to modest, but extremely useful actions to remove stones from fields and eliminate jujube trees4. In the Dades Valley, a programme to structure producers (establish co-operatives) and improve breeds (breeding station) has been developed with the assistance of ANOC (the Moroccan national sheep and goat association) and the Hassan II Veterinary Institute in Rabat based on the observation of the D’man sheep’s adjustment to local constraints and its high prolificacy. Similarly, a three-sided programme based on the existing goat farms was conducted to make improvements to the Skoura dairy goat farm, encourage the genetic improvement of these goats and modernise a cheese-making co-operative.
In these areas, where water is so sorely lacking, nothing that has anything to do with protecting resources and irrigation is overlooked. However, here again, this takes the form of microprojects, generally in the shape of renovating seguias and khettara (subsurface irrigation channel) of which there are dozens in the Dades Valley. The concern to stick to needs can be seen again in the importance of the cropland protection work. Gabion dykes have been and will be built covering over 10 km in the Ouarzazat area. The modesty of these project microcomponents in no way lessens their value in an area where rain can be torrential and wash away part of the arable banks.
3. Action for women
One of IFAD’s priorities is to encourage women’s economic development. Both projects include significant animation and economic development components for women’s associations. Numerous breeding activities (goats, poultry, bees, rabbits, etc.) have been launched for the benefit of women. What is striking when visiting them is to see how motivated they are. For example, in the reading and writing groups, it is impressive to see the importance they attach to developing their capacity for expression and to securing an independent source of income in a traditional society. In the Al Haouz project, over 5,000 women will benefit from the literacy programme. Other project elements, especially water conveyance, will benefit first and foremost the women. Even the simple fact of supplying water to a village without having one connection per house is already a considerable improvement bearing in mind what the water-fetching chore represents in these foothills.
4. Interaction with the local administrations
In both Vietnam and Morocco, a key factor in the implementation of the projects is the close involvement of motivated and efficient local administrations that are well established on the ground and have a good knowledge of the local fabric. This was seen with both ORMVAO in the Dades Valley and the DPAM in the Al Haouz region.
IFAD’s presence on the ground can be seen not only from its projects, but also from its involvement in the recipient country’s thinking. For example, the Moroccan Government based its 2020 Rural Development Strategy on lessons learnt from its own experiences and especially those projects conducted with donor assistance. In this regard, the emphasis placed on the participatory approach and involving civil society largely reflects IFAD’s own approach.
In addition to training and production assistance, these projects also develop an integrated approach for certain activities upstream, especially financing (microcredit), or downstream at the product valorisation and marketing level. We saw this in agriculture, medicinal plants and fruit production, among others.
The example of the Adrar agricultural co-operative shows that even a microproject needs several components, especially production valorisation and adaptation, to be effective. This co-operative comprises seven people and 120 beehives producing 10 kg to 30 kg of honey a year. Drought years considerably reduce production. In a first stage, the co-operative was given equipment and an introductory training course. The second stage will concern bee selection to increase production and product certification. Ways will also be sought to valorise the by-products (wax) by producing candles, toys, etc. This first requires training.
More generally, this new concept is reflected by the consideration of financing needs (microcredit) and marketing problems in recent years. The Ministry of Agriculture, for its part, advocates two-pronged incorporation: vertical throughout a given production chain (from breeding to cheese making, for example) and horizontal to benefit other sectors (small-scale leatherwork).
5. The effectiveness and limits of the cofinancing
Cofinancing exists and is extremely effective when everyone contributes to the same project in a complementary manner. For example, we observed that KfW had financed a main road in the Ouarzazat region while IFAD built the small earth roads connecting it with the village. Here again, we saw the effort required for the climb up to the douar on a track hundreds of metres long, and sometimes kilometres long, with even steps in the steepest places. Moreover, we saw the importance of fulfilling this need to access the village itself. The OPEC Fund also provided financing and the NGO Near East Foundation provided the technical assistance (breeding).
It is clear that the institution’s simplest and most effective way of operating is when a multilateral such as the OPEC Fund for International Development or the Islamic Development Bank puts its trust in it and is concerned first and foremost with providing supplementary financing to IFAD, which is in effect its implementing agency5.
Yet discussions with the bilateral and multilateral institutions show that each party has its own priorities, financing methods and management rules. Co-operation is closest when the projects are part of national programmes. This is in particular the case with water management, an area in which the European Union helped define a sector adjustment project. Many players took part in implementing it, including the AfD (French development agency), the African Development Bank and the World Bank. In other fields, co-operation is more intellectual than concrete with joint projects. The Ministry of Agriculture deeply regrets this. The Secretary-General advocates including projects more in the national programmes and looking more to the institutions and local procedures to simplify project management.
III. The concrete lessons
1. Adjusting to the realities
a. Land problems
Traditionally, there are a number of possible variants in Morocco when it comes to a rural community’s right of access, for its exclusive use, to farming land with a collective or public land status. For example, in certain areas, especially pastoral areas, the collective usage right, or even full joint de facto ownership6, is dominant. This obviously creates problems. Collective acceptance is required to conduct a project. In some cases, users of a collective pasture have to accept joint management and respect plots on which grazing is prohibited during no-grazing periods.
In other rarer cases, we found that there was individual ownership of ancient collective rights. This situation obviously facilitates individual financing, as we saw on one remarkable goat farm. Yet, in general, even in the opinion of the Director of the Regional Office for the Agricultural Development of Ouarzazat, land development and the use of collective land7 are the hardest operations to carry out.
b. From partnership to consensus
The logic of the participatory approach is to involve all recipients. For example, when an irrigation project is set up, all the users should be members of the user association that will subsequently manage the water distribution8, maintain the network and train skilled technicians. All are also supposed to contribute in kind to implementing the project.9
Should a project not go ahead when the association only comprises a majority of recipients? An inflexible position would result in this type of project being blocked. Yet the example of a palm grove where, in addition to renovating the seguia, the majority (albeit not unanimous) association has dug a well that benefits primarily its members, but also others, makes a case for a pragmatic approach. Obviously, this can create problems. Only a minority shoulders the financial risks and deals with the technical problems such as water distribution, maintaining the installations and keeping the accounts. Moreover, there is a probability of cross-subsidisation (unless double-entry accounts are kept). This problem was actually observed with a project launched a long time ago and for which the participatory approach was possibly less well developed.
The Al Haouz project’s thinking and definition took account of the existence of a dynamic within the douar. As regards the water usage projects, all holders of a right of usage have to become members before the project is launched.
c. Managing the water shortage
Despite all the efforts, the scarcity of water still puts a brake on development. For example, a small cheese-making co-operative in Skoura produces a few kilos of goat’s cheese, in conditions of remarkable hygiene, by collecting 5 to 35 litres of milk per day depending on the season. It would need to raise its milking volume to make its installations pay, and there is a demand in the region (tourism, hotels and restaurants). Yet, to be able to expand the currently tiny herds (1 to 9 goats), they would need more fodder either produced locally or bought in from outside the commune. The first solution comes up against the water constraint and the second against the (prohibitive) transport cost. This constraint can be partially overcome when production conditions improve due to greater know-how and greater financial resources. For example, a visit to a larger and more well-developed farm in Jasmina (four breeding goats, one billy goat, nine kids, one D’man ewe, two lambs and one cow) run by the daughter of a primary school teacher showed that this is possible when production reaches a high enough level and when the breeding conditions are favourable. The same holds true for the farm visited in Keela M’gouma and run by a former emigrant who had returned to the country. The herd of some one hundred animals is fed with all the alfalfa, hay and straw they can eat, with supplements being bought in from outside (concentrates, barley, beet pulp and soybean meal).
The urgent issue is not just to try to collect a little more water (where possible), but above all to use it better. Prospecting for subsurface water in the Dades Valley did not generate as many wells as hoped due to a lack of water. It is therefore vital to save water. IFAD has already worked in this field and should logically continue to do so. The Director of Land Affairs at the Ministry of Agriculture also stated that his staff were careful to set up projects that encourage activities suited to the available resources. Cereal production is hence rarely recommended on the eastern side of the country since it consumes too much water. Solutions tend towards drop irrigation and crops that need the least water (apples rather than figs) or generate the highest value-added (roses and medicinal plants).
2. The recipients’ reaction capacity
a. The proactiveness of civil society
The participatory approach has a highly positive effect. In deprived regions with a social fabric that is clearly disrupted, especially by extensive rural emigration, the community nevertheless remains capable of getting involved when the project is vital to these regions. We were most impressed by our visit to a village (Tiliouine) that had fallen into deep poverty due to drought and the rural exodus. Not only had this douar conducted the part of the work in which it was supposed to participate, but it had gone further than that by spontaneously extending the water network to neighbouring villages. When we visited the village, 213 families were benefiting from the network whereas the initial target had been set at just 73 households. In addition, everyone had evidently been connected to the network much faster than in other more prosperous villages less affected by the drought. Likewise, in Skoura, the women’s association managed to enlist the help of the emigrant network in Europe to sell its textile production. However, we were sometimes surprised to see that potential recipients in less underprivileged areas were slower to bring a project to fruition and sometimes even made somewhat surprising demands, which makes it hard to help them. The delay with the ecotourism development project in Imlil appears to be due to this type of situation whereas the commune’s rich landscape and abundance of water predisposed it to considerable tourist development.
Another source of revitalization consists of using well-known figures from a village who have succeeded outside and agree to come to help with and advise on actions in their village, to valorise the products by processing them on site, branding them or even hooking them up with an existing market (see organic production in Darjama village and the Amiz miz beekeeping co-operative).
Craftspeople are sometimes prepared to develop their activity. All they need is a small amount of assistance. Such is the case with the metal lampshade maker in Asni. With a mini loan, he was able to rent premises, hire four people and increase his production, which he had no problem selling. A simple microcredit operation10 can therefore stimulate the local fabric, hence the two components of microcredit (short term) and douar microfinance associations (to have direct access to medium- and long-term loans from banks such as Crdit Agricole).
b. Responding to a deteriorated situation
In the Dades Valley, where drought has hit nearly one in every two years over the last decade, the consequences are so dramatic that project implementation is almost certainly disrupted. For example, one emigrant businessman told us that he had decided to take part in the project when he became aware of his home village’s economic slump and the impoverishment of his fellow villagers due to the terrible droughts of the 1990s. With the necessary technical knowledge and access to the market, he set up the medicinal plant-growing project.
In the cases of environmental deterioration, it is no doubt hard to guarantee the profitability of the projects even though they are so sorely needed. In other words, from the moment a project is developed to the moment it is implemented, climatic conditions, for example, can make the project even more necessary, but even harder to implement. It would definitely be a mistake to withdraw, but it would also be a mistake to judge the success of the project based on the initial hypotheses.
c. Imaginative actions
In less dramatic situations, ideas also emerge that may seem surprising at first glance, but nevertheless give rise to interesting projects.
The Agadir village’s Tifaouine (“light”) association in Asni started out with a number of public-utility activities: water conveyance, sanitation, pooling of farming equipment, improvements to collective premises, workshops for women, etc. Today, one of the new projects consists of building public baths (hammams). This is not necessarily a luxury, as it might at first appear. It is first and foremost an important element of hygiene for the village and it is cheaper and more egalitarian than private installations. It is also expected to be a source of income for the association to finance its other activities.11 In addition, it should reduce the consumption of wood since it runs on solar power.
At its session in September 2003, the Executive Board adopted a report recommending field visits for the Executive Board Directors as is found with the other IFIs12. This mission confirms the validity of this move. Our findings demonstrate, in particular, the extent to which IFAD’s action should be flexible and pragmatic. Personally, having seen three projects in their start-up or implementation phases, I would like to take part in an evaluation mission one day to gain a better understanding of how the projects operate and adapt to the needs expressed by the community and to the reality of the situation while striving to maintain the maximum effectiveness possible.
Alain Guillout
IFAD Executive Director for France
Bern, 11 December 2003
1. The report on this July 2002 mission can be found on the IFAD site.
2. The Al Haouz project was approved by the IFAD Executive Board meeting of 7 December 2000, whereas the Ouarzazat project was approved on 20 April 1994.
3. This mission is briefed to report on the initial lessons of and outlook for the implementation of the 2020 rural development strategy (see below).
4. The recipients’ participation represents 50% of the cost of eliminating the jujube trees as opposed to a maximum of 10% for most of the other components. Despite this high rate, demand is extremely high.
5. A joint mission by the Moroccan Government and IFAD to Djedda presented the project to these partners.
6. A territory is often the collective property of a given tribe with an ethnic lineage.
7. This is made even more problematic by the fact that the so-called collective land is often the subject of usage rights governed by oral tradition.
8. Water distribution calls for close monitoring. In Ait Abdoun, where there is both a seguia and a well, the rules differ by supply source in the event of rationing and the tariff is different. The priority goes to those who financed it.
9. The contribution in kind – hours of labour – generally represents 7.5% to 10% of the investment value.
10. The Asni microcredit office grants loans for periods of up to two years at an interest rate of 8% per year. The average loan is just over 100 dirhams (€9.20). Some 80% of the loans are used for farming, most often for breeding. The project prioritises women and young people. The loan is granted to a solidarity group of at least four people, who together guarantee repayment. IFAD finances the line of microcredit with FONDEP taking charge of the operating costs (wages, renting premises, equipment, etc.).
11. In this regard, the leaders’ bookkeeping and concern for transparency are as impressive as their obvious solidarity and efficiency. Essential information is posted on the premises (see photo No. 29). The detailed documentation and accounts are kept on a computer provided by an NGO.
12. See EB 2003/79/R.31, Field Visits by Executive Board Directors