Mid-term Evaluation

Jordan is a small country with a population of 4.5 million (1997). Its total area is 89 200 km2 of which only 1% is inland water. The country is divided into four regions starting from the West and running from North to South: (i) the Ghors, which includes the River Jordan Valley, (ii)  the highlands, (iii) the plains, and (iv) the Badia (the arid desert). The climate is Mediterranean. The temperature increases and rains decrease towards the east and the south where only grazing livestock can be sustained in the rainy season. The desert constitutes more than 85% of the total area. Only 10% of the land receives more than 200 mm rainfall annually while (1%) receives more than 500 mm. Jordan faces an acute shortage of water. The economy is dominated by the service sectors accounting for 65% of GDP. Per capita income has been estimated at about USD 1 650 for 1996. The agricultural sector contributes 5.5% of GDP. Of Jordan's total area of 8.9 million ha only 270 000 ha are cultivated annually of which some 65 000 ha are irrigated. Food crops and livestock dominate the agricultural sector. Wheat is the most important food crop followed by barley. The Jordan Valley irrigated agriculture is capital-intensive and high-yielding, producing fruits and vegetable. Livestock contributes 50% to agricultural GDP. Livestock population is dominated by sheep and goats. The rangeland has been overgrazed for many years. The project area encompasses a number of agro-ecological zones, covering rainfed areas above the 200 mm per year.

It does not include irrigated areas in the Jordan Valley neither the rangeland in the semi-arid desert. Administratively, the Kingdom of Jordan consists of 12 governorates: Amman, Irbid, Mafrag, Zarqa, Balga, Karak, Tafila, Jarash, Ajlun, Madaba, Aqaba and Ma'an. The project area straddles all the twelve governorates of Jordan.

Project design and objectives

Target group

The incidence of rural poverty is highest in the low rainfall areas in the south and in the east. Small and decreasing farm sizes, unsuitable soils, unavailability of technical and financial sources and large family sizes combine to depress incomes. Fluctuations in rainfalls result in instability in household income and in food security. The project target group consists of 8000 resource-poor, households below the poverty line in the project area including those with: (a) limited access to alternative sources of off-farm income; (b) limited opportunity for diversification of farm enterprise, (c) restricted access to financial resources; and (d) lack of ownership of land to make longer-term investment, or lack of hired labour. Households headed by women are specifically targeted. Targeting was meant to be implemented using a number of criteria including household income, gender aspect, access to off-farm income, ownership of land and livestock varying by agro-ecological zones, annual rainfall as well as various ceilings on loans for various activities. Women in the male-headed households of the target group were meant to be separately targeted hence, multiple credit lines for target group households were to be encouraged.

Objectives and components

The objectives of the project are to increase household income and enhance its stability for the disadvantaged, resource-poor women and men in the project area by improving the productive potential of their livestock, land, water resources and labour. The project has been designed to benefit the very poor strata of rural livestock keepers with particular emphasis on women, marginal and landless farmers. The objectives of the project were to be achieved by: (i) upgrading of family flocks with Shami Goats, breeding stock, selected breeding of sheep, in conjunction with improved forage production and integrating it with crops; and fattening of purchased lambs; (ii) supporting the planting of olive and fruit trees; water retention and harvesting, and protected agriculture; (iii) supporting produce processing and farm services with emphasis on family and small scale enterprises.

The project components are : (i) Credit for onlending to target groups (40% of cost) covering medium-term loans for: Shami goat multiplication and production; Baladi goat production; Awassi sheep production; lamb fattening; permanent/annual crops; produce processing and farm service enterprises. Credit also covers short-term/seasonal loans as a package linked to the medium-term loans; (ii) Institutional support covering: rehabilitation and expansion of two MOA small ruminants breeding stations; production and service support for smallholders; and strengthening field level financial services (23% of cost); (iii) Project coordination covering staff training, target group mobilization/training, coordination and M&E (7% of cost).

The design of the project entails delivery of goods and services in a coordinated manner, from a number of implementing agencies: Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Agricultural Credit Corporation (ACC), Jordan Cooperative Corporation (JCC) distinctly delineating their functions and responsibilities: (a) MOA for upgrading the livestock, its distribution and monitoring the technical parameters, transfer of appropriate technology through demonstration and extension; (b) ACC for provision of comprehensive and viable credit packages and improved financial services; and (c) JCC for identification and mobilisation of beneficiaries, promotion of groups/coops, their needs (focus on women), and provision of training in association with NGO. A Project Coordination Unit (PCU) were to be hosted by MOA to secure: smooth and effective coordination; progress/impact monitoring; targeting; overall efficiency in project management; and collective accountability for the project as a whole. This unit will be headed by a Project Coordinator. The PCU will be guided and directed by a Project Coordination Committee (PCC), with senior members drawn from the Ministries of Planning, Finance and Agriculture, ACC and JCC. PCC can coopt other representatives as and when necessary and will be chaired by the Minister of Agriculture. It will have access to the existing high level National Permanent Steering Committee (PSC).

Expected effects and assumptions

The principal direct result of the project will be an increase in crop and livestock farm production. Incremental meat production has been estimated at 2300 tons on an annual basis representing 1% of the total annual small ruminant off-take of which about 15% is expected to be consumed by the producing households. Incremental milk and dairy production is estimated at less than 3% of the national current production. The small incremental fodder production is estimated to be readily absorbed by the households. Other incremental agricultural output is an equally small fraction of total production. Households participating under the project are expected to achieve reasonable increases in their disposable income varying by the composition of activities engaged in. Institutional benefits were expected through upgrading MOA breeding stations, support to JCC and NGOs for participatory development, as well as the creation of a replicable model for coordination.

Project's design implied a number of assumptions including (i) diversification of income sources for poor households is feasible through product/processing activities, new crop options and on-farm water conservation; (ii) multiple socio-economic, financial and agro-ecological targeting criteria can be easily combined and implemented to reach the specified target group through NGOs, JCC and front-line staff; (iii) fattening activities by small farmers will remain remunerative under conditions of unsubsidized feed and forage production will respond positively to higher feed prices; (iv) a separate funding mechanism for the credit component through ACC and its full autonomy will facilitate credit disbursement throughout the project area will not compromise coordination and targeting efforts to reach the rural poor; (v) institutional capacities of JCC and the two NGOs involved in the project are adequate (with some added support) to perform the mobilization, training and targeting tasks within the project; (vi) the need for coordination between various agencies can be taken care of through the proposed PCC mechanism.

Evaluation

An interdisciplinary MTE mission visited the field for a period of four weeks. The MTE mission held discussions with Project Staff in Amman and the governorates, staff of MOA, Ministry of Planning, ACC, JCC, NGOs involved in the project, animal breeding stations, university staff, staff of relevant research institutions and members of the Project Coordination Committee. The mission operated in four teams and travelled, with the appropriate national counterparts, to eleven of the projects governorates: Amman, Irbid, Madaba, Ajloon, Jerash, Mafrek, Karak, Tafilah, Zarqa and Al-Salt. A large number of project beneficiaries were interviewed by the mission in the eleven governorates in group discussions as well as individually. An open-ended questionnaire was devised and pre-tested before field use and activities promoted through project credit were assessed.

Implementation context

An interdisciplinary MTE mission visited the field for a period of four weeks. The MTE mission held discussions with Project Staff in Amman and the governorates, staff of MOA, Ministry of Planning, ACC, JCC, NGOs involved in the project, animal breeding stations, university staff, staff of relevant research institutions and members of the Project Coordination Committee. The mission operated in four teams and travelled, with the appropriate national counterparts, to eleven of the projects governorates: Amman, Irbid, Madaba, Ajloon, Jerash, Mafrek, Karak, Tafilah, Zarqa and Al-Salt. A large number of project beneficiaries were interviewed by the mission in the eleven governorates in group discussions as well as individually. An open-ended questionnaire was devised and pre-tested before field use and activities promoted through project credit were assessed.

Project achievements

Overall Objectives. The well documented problems associated with the importation of Shami goats have severely hindered the overall progress of IDP. As a result project objectives have been so far only partially achieved. The number of beneficiaries covered by project credit by MTE varies by source of information. In all sources the numbers referred to represent individuals (loans) not households hence it cannot be compared categorically with project target of 8000 households. It is also not possible to distinguish the number of loans received by one family nor the overall coverage of rural women and the landless. The real beneficiaries' coverage of the project remains therefore somewhat obscure. At best it does not exceed 25% of the aggregate planned target. Nevertheless given the unforeseen exogenous constraints encountered this achievement should be considered reasonable. By end 1997 project disbursement was just 25% of IFAD's loan. Incremental farm and non-farm output remain therefore quite limited.

Income Diversification and Stability. While beneficiaries reaction to project interventions indicate some positive effects on household income, the mission found no evidence that any diversification hence higher income stability has taken place. Activities financed by credit are still largely dominated by traditional livestock (sheep and goat) activities. Of total cumulative project beneficiaries about 90% have taken loans to finance such activities. Crop production and product processing remain at 10% of the total. The latter fall almost entirely within the domains practised traditionally by the small farmers in Jordan. Existing opportunities for diversification outside the livestock sector require relatively large capital and implies high risks. Only better-off farmers seem currently willing and able to undertake it. Other relevant possibilities of diversification have not been so far fully explored by the project. Some institutional strengthening has taken place but these have still to be adequately translated into improvement of ground level field services offered to beneficiaries.

It is the assessment of the mission that with the improvement of livestock productivity offered under the project and the continuous high demand for these products in the country, the livestock based activities will continue to provide remunerative opportunities for the target group despite increases in feed prices (and temporary drought related lower animal prices). The first tier of project objective remains therefore valid. The objective of enhancing income stability through diversifying production opportunities appears, so far, to be unattainable for the targeted poor.

Livestock Activities. Only 10 Shami goats multiplication units have so far been initiated by the project (14% of target at mid-term) while achievements for Shami goat importation is only 15% of the planned mid-term target. No Shami goat production units were established. Baladi goats and Awassi sheep production achieved implementation rates of 87% and 50% of mid-term target respectively while lamb fattening achievement was almost 200% of the target. Home based and small-scale dairy processing achievements are less than 10% of target and forage production is an equally low 8%.

To overcome the problem of shortage of Shami goats and problems associated with distant sources of supply, the project decided to start its breeding activities at Ma'an station for Shami goats (not stipulated at Appraisal). However, official annexation of the station to the project was still by MTE awaiting a decision by MOA. In addition, delays in reaching an agreement with NCARTT for co-operation at Khanassri and with the University of Jordan for Science and Technology regarding the application of Embryo Transfer techniques has held back progress in the implementation of upgrading of Awassi sheep and multiplication of Shami goats.

Support to Breeding Stations. Support extended to the breeding stations (including veterinary equipment, mobile clinic, vehicles and others) are so far adequate and the technical standards of the stations are satisfactory. However, MTE established that the capacity of Wadi Wala and Fujeij stations cannot provide (in the rest of the project life) breeding does and ewes to complete implementing the planned programmes of SAR. Moreover their geographical location is a great inconvenience for the beneficiaries and limit their effective coverage. The research programmes at the station can be expanded to allow for the investigation of the potential of goat breeds other than just Shami goats as well as the potential role of cattle in the dryer areas of Jordan.

The decision not to recruit the Animal Breeding Specialist (ABS) has led to delays in proposing breeding programmes and decreased project the ability to address the problem of the supply of Shami goats. The capabilities of staff and the capacities of the institutions involved with livestock need to be enhanced if the livestock component of IDP is to be implemented as planned. The project technical staff at the breeding stations are being unnecessarily constrained because of lack of managerial freedom and flexibility hence they are unable to react with adequate speed to emerging constraints.

Implementation progress for the up-grading programmes for Baladi goats and Awassi sheep are satisfactory. Performance of improved Awassi sheep has been equal to or better than sheep from Fujeij in all respects, and farmers reported little difficulty in repaying loans. This success seems to be owed to the inherent knowledge of the farmers in keeping these animals. The achievement of home based dairy processing and small-scale dairy processing (i.e. the establishment of facilities by farmers' groups, cooperatives and/or small family enterprises) was far behind scheduled at MTE. The exceptionally low rates of progress in these activities are due to the fact that they have not been well publicised and beneficiaries not adequately trained and mobilized. Fattening was meant to be exclusively targeted to landless households. This was not categorically followed during implementation and the high demand for fattening loans was met to make up for shortfalls in demand for other activities. Moreover, the exact usage of fattening loans have not been established. Clear guidelines in terms of the selection of recipients and the analysis of the proposed source of feeds need to be supplied to Credit officers of ACC and extension staff in the governorates as soon as possible.

The removal of subsidies on livestock feeds by GOJ in August 1996 has had deleterious impacts on all aspects of livestock production in the project. For example in multiplication units most of the farmers do not feed balanced rations; quantities fed do not meet more than 50-60% of the daily production requirements of the animals, and consequently milk yield has decreased. With the higher cost of feed the existing size of loans for this purpose is unrealistic. In addition, MTE calculations demonstrated that fattening activities are no longer financially viable.

The mission found little interest in forage production and in crop/livestock integration despite the great importance of these activities on environmental and economic basis. There is however, a pressing need to try and reduce the costs of animal feeds following the liberalization of feed markets, which needs to be addressed through, inter alia, such integration.

Crop diversification. The rationale for crop diversification and processing in IDP rests on providing investment opportunities for farmers to improve the stability of their incomes and to reinforce (in the case of forage) livestock activities. Project design includes a number of low cost methods aimed at optimisation of water use (conservation and harvesting). The uptake of these activities has not been particularly popular; overall the project has achieved just 21% of the target at mid-term (of which 75% is for gardens). The provision by other projects of support to soil and water conservation by means of grants, has affected the demand for such activities in IDP. Farmers reactions to growing fodder crops were mixed. The traditional practice has been to grow cereals on small areas of the farm, for harvesting when conditions permit or grazing when the crop is not worth harvesting. Farmers' views seem to favour this approach, rather than growing a specific crop as animal feed. Few farmers were persuaded to grow vetch but, more time is required to tell if this practice will be continued as part of the farming system. Crop activities require larger loans than for livestock activities. Given ACC criteria for granting loans, beneficiaries of these activities are most likely to be the better-off farmers.

Credit. The project credit disbursement at the time of the MTE was 81% of planned disbursement. Over 85% of this amount has been used for the purchase, housing and fattening of sheep and goats. There are some evidence that part of these loans (particularly fattening) may have been diverted to other productive activities, or used for consumption. In terms of reaching the intended target groups (the poor, landless and women) the effect of the credit operations is below expectations. Neither ACC's nor PCU's data are systematically classified by gender. Mission estimates for the two years 96 and 97 suggest that just about 20% of loans have been allocated to women. The figures are far below the SAR stipulates that, at least 45% of credit beneficiaries should be women. ACC lending conditions require property collateral as well as a guarantor who will accept monthly salary deductions. This practice excludes many of the poorest and the landless. There is also no grace period for any activity, even if a gestation period is technically necessary for the flow of income. While few existing cooperatives benefited from project funds; no attempt was made by ACC so far to lend to farmers groups mobilized through JCC and NGOs as per appraisal stipulations. Savings mobilization is not on ACC's agenda.

The geographical allocation of disbursed loans was found to be biased to the richer northern and central regions. The poorer southern region has only 14% of disbursed loans. This reflects both the lower population density in the south, hence a sparser coverage by ACC, and a greater perceived demand for Islamic lending. There is also evidence that the poorer people in the south cannot easily find guarantors who are prepared to accept salary deductions. The loan approval process is unnecessarily long and complicated. The small size of the loans provided by the project and the time, effort, and cost incurred by the beneficiaries, as well as the excessive collateral required, means that a large proportion of potential beneficiaries could lose interest in participating in project activities. Except in few governorates effective coordination between ACC and MOA staff locally is lacking .

The recovery rates on the project are inevitably high at 95% because of the rigid lending and repayment criteria, especially the salary deduction scheme. High recovery rates do not means that beneficiaries are not facing uncertainties in the production process. They face problems of price fluctuations of inputs and outputs, livestock mortality, drought and feed shortages. ACC did not comply with appraisal stipulations to study the possibility of introducing a credit risk fund. The deduction system is masking inefficiencies in other more traditional methods used to achieve high recovery rates, such as the efficiency of appraising loans, the efficiency of loan collections, and the efficiency in managing available funds through continuous monitoring of the ratio between long, medium, short and seasonal loans.

The conversion of ACC to a rural development bank will affect all activities of the Corporation, including the project's lending programme. If a credit risk fund is not established, ACC will probably insist on maintaining its restrictive credit policies, which are a serious barrier to the project target group taking loans from ACC. As a result of the liberalisation policies changes occurred in the relative profitability of the project activities included in the SAR, and these need to be fully analysed to ensure that benefits can continue to flow to project participants.

Organization and management. Overall, it was found that the decision making processes in the project are highly centralised, with substantial authority retained in the Project Steering and the central Project Coordinating Committee (for almost all budgetary items). The result of this pattern of control is that decision-making tends to rise to the levels of higher authority, reducing both the incentives and enthusiasm of the middle-level staff to propose and be responsible for their own activities. At the governorate level, the local project supervisor has little authority, equipment or in many cases, staff to implement project activities. Not surprisingly, a lack of motivation was noted in some staff. In addition many of the staff at the governorate level have limited identification with the aims and objectives of the project. This lack of authority continue to the level of the Project Coordinator, who only has authority for expenditure up to JODs 500.

Co-ordination of project activities. Despite the need for coordination receiving so much prominence in the design, the synchronisation of project activities was found to be poor. Little coordination of plans occurs so that annual programmes of the PIs are not compiled into a single comprehensive work plan for the project. Similarly coordinated reporting and the exchange of results does not take place. Beneficiary participation in the planning of project activities is largely absent. In addition, the ACC has assumed a dominant role in the determination of beneficiaries and the allocation of loans effectively marginalizing other project entities. This was facilitated by the separate funding mechanism granted under the project to ACC.

The role of JCC and NGOs. The JCC no longer has a central role to play in the project implementation, and hence the NGOs, which were to be contracted through the JCC, have also not played an active role in the project. In part this situation has arisen because of the changing status of the JCC (to more regulatory and auditory functions for cooperatives), and in part because the MOA was given the right (in the loan agreement) to sub-contract the designated activities assigned to the JCC. Unfortunately these changes were not incorporated in revisions to the project design, and the JCC has continued to claim the role described in the SAR. The result has been dissension in the planning forums, especially the PCC. It is perhaps unlikely that JCC could have successfully implemented the tasks assigned to it given its weakened status, but what has happened is that the MOA has assumed a pivotal role in training and social mobilisation, a role which it is patently not equipped to perform.

Project staffing. The project has a complement of 90 staff located in the central PCU (Amman), the Research Stations, and the Governorate offices. In addition two staff members are funded in the JCC and 2 consultants are retained to support the livestock programme. For the present stage and rate of implementation of the project the staffing levels are adequate, with the exception of the need for more veterinary services. The staff in IDP are adequately qualified for their tasks, although many are young with only a few years' experience. They require intensive and extensive practical training to enable them to properly perform their tasks and to make them able to deal with the project's farming beneficiaries and to interact effectively with ministry's senior staff.

Technical assistance. The project included the possibility of hiring short-term technical assistance for specific tasks including an animal breeding specialist, a resource person to assist with the design of the baseline survey, and a sociologist to help with refining the definitions of the target groups. MOA has chosen not to make use of these assistance posts so far. MTE's assessment is that given the relatively junior level of IDP staff and the complexities of some technical issues encountered, technical assistance in the early years of the project could have provided the ideal practical training for the staff. It could have also helped to establish the implementation methodology on a sounder footing.

Training. At the time of the MTE total expenditure on training was just under JOD 20 000, which amounts to approximately 10% of the planned expenditure by mid-term. A number of training courses have been arranged but the numbers trained are still limited. At MTE there was no strategy for training in the project and training takes place in a piecemeal fashion. The programme design offered scope for a very wide range of training activities, with the possibility of extensive capacity building for all the PIs. Both the scale and intensity of training required for this national project are still absent. In addition, neither training needs of the staff nor of the beneficiaries have been or are being assessed. The capabilities of staff and the capacities of the participating organisations are not strengthened to permit smooth implementation of the project. The discrepancy between design documents and the loan agreement on the responsibility of training and the ensuing disputes have been partly responsible for this state of affairs.

Monitoring and evaluation. The M&E unit of the project is computerised (at central PCU) and consists of one M&E specialist and one data-inputting assistant. Data collection and reporting have been timely and comprehensive and cover all aspects of the project. However, exclusive emphasis is given to physical progress in project implementation based on some quantitative indicators of monitoring which reflect only partly design requirements. No attempt was made to assess project effects and impact on intended beneficiaries given project objectives and rationale. Indicators specified in the project design document to measure effectiveness have neither so far been quantified nor used. Data collected have not been geared nor used to identify constraints, analyse their causes and propose corrective actions. The baseline survey had only just been completed by MTE.

The work of the mission has been affected by the lack of baseline information and systematic disagregation of data by gender, number of loans for one household, extent of benefit to landless and women, and the socio-economic characteristic of beneficiaries.

Substantial amount of time has been devoted by the M&E unit to the development of a computerised database system, PROMIS. By MTE (December 1997) the design of the system had not been finalised and only a limited pilot data-inputting phase has been initiated. As a result, the project remained by that time, without a well defined Monitoring and Evaluation System. Data collection by PCU at governorate levels is undertaken manually without clear and coherent linkages to an overall M&E system hence the observed scepticism about the usefulness of such data. Staff, including managers, still lack rigorous and comprehensive training on the use of M&E as a management tool.

Project supervision. The supervision function is regular and financial matters (disbursement and procurements) have been followed up adequately. However, the technical, managerial and socio-economic issues facing the project have not been dealt with promptly and adequately. Many of the problems and constraints discussed in the MTE report could have been identified by supervision ad remedial actions proposed. This could have accelerated the rate of implementation. The short duration of supervision missions for a large project like IDP, and the fixed missions' composition (i.e. lack of use of experts of various disciplines reflecting sociological and specific technical issues) affected the coverage of reporting and decreased the capacity of supervision to provide a true implementation support function to IDP and its staff.

Effects assessment and sustainability

Targeting. The project design at appraisal arranged for targeting to be an integrated and coordinated responsibility of the various bodies and institutions involved in project implementation. By MTE the initial screening of beneficiaries was in the hands of the PCUs at the various governorates; but in the final analysis the beneficiaries were determined by ACC. The selecting mechanism is exclusively based on ACC lending criteria. ACC ended up having more control in the selection of borrowers than any other institution. The very final decision-making on loan approval is in the hand of the ACC branch credit committee. Many of the eligible beneficiaries could not qualify for ACC lending criteria and are therefore not encouraged to apply for a loan or rejected after identification by governorate PCC. The evaluation mission is seriously concerned that, by continuing to enforce its regular eligibility requirements, ACC is excluding the poor and landless farmers and poor rural women.

The design's detailed and elaborate criteria for determining the target beneficiaries proved too complex to apply during implementation. Both the PCU and ACC prepared their own simplified versions and distributed them to their respective constituencies. Very aggregate targeting criteria of income (1800-2000 dinars), household size (5 to 8) and land ownership (below 40 dunums) are generally applied, but no effort have been devoted to specifically target the landless or women. As these are not as a rule eligible for ACC lending their access to credit is limited.

Geographical distribution of beneficiaries. Poverty concentration of the target population is found in the governorates of Mafraq in the north and Karak, Tafilah and Ma'an in the south. SAR stipulated an equal distribution of beneficiaries coverage whereby 50% of beneficiaries would be located in the better-off governorates of Irbid, Balqa and Amman and the remaining 50% in the poorer governorates. So far the emerging pattern of beneficiary participation in project credit reveals a bias against the poorer governorates. About three quarters of project beneficiaries so far are concentrated in the better-off governorates .

Participation and mobilisation. Local leaders (mukhtars) as well as representatives of female and male farmers were to be identified at the onset of the project and trained to represent farmers in relevant committees. By mid-term no such involvement took place. Farmer representatives in governorates PCU are appointed and almost all males. A media campaign and one seminar in each governorate were organized by JCC in 1996, but JCC staff and staff of the participating institutions did not see mobilization as their task. Extension staff in the directorate were neither trained nor specifically assigned for that task. The participating NGOs, to date, are not clear as to their role in the project. They did not receive funds from the project as stipulated by appraisal towards training and assigning staff to the IDP. The mobilisation efforts undertaken by the various PIs can therefore at best be described as passive. That was substantiated by the interviewed farmers, most of whom reported that their awareness of the project was by word of mouth from fellow farmers.

Beneficiaries' training. To date the actual number of farmers who attended training was very little in comparison with appraisal stipulation. As such training coverage to date stood at 7% of intended beneficiaries. Modern development-oriented techniques of participatory training methodologies were not used in training.

Beneficiary training was not based on farmers' needs assessment.

Conversely, no impact assessment took place to identify the relevance or accrued benefits to farmers of the provided training.

Beneficiaries reaction to the project. The mission used a focused group methodology and met with farmers groups in eleven of the twelve projects. Overall, 85% of the interviewed farmers were content with the project and consider their participation therein a rewarding experience. More than 75% of farmers were engaged in livestock activities. They established, across the board, that the livestock activities contribute to family food requirements. The poorest, however, were worst hit by recent policy changes of lifting the subsidies on feed. Of all interviewed farmers, 41% said they were fully satisfied; 40 % were satisfied but had some problems; and 16% were dissatisfied. About three quarters of the farmers (75%) have not participated in any training workshops. About 40% were content with the current activity and will not change it. The remaining 60% expressed desire for land rehabilitation and gardens;  food and/or dairy processing; medicinal herbs.; and protected agriculture.

The majority of the interviewed farmers were aware that they had taken the loan from the ACC, but not necessarily that they were beneficiaries of the IDP. This situation constrains their knowledge of the array of services that the project can offer them, in terms of training, extension and veterinary services, as well as farm-enterprise feasibility analysis and management. Women participants displayed a higher degree of lack of knowledge about the project.

Long loan processing period by ACC was a major complaint by farmers. A significant number of farmers (more than 90%) complained that the loan processing time is very lengthy, costly and extend for more than three months in many cases. This is particularly significant with regards to fattening and other seasonal activities, where such delay could cause the farmer to lose a season -without generating income, while loan repayment starts immediately upon approval. A number of reason was given: (a) ACC's policy to screen and approve loans in Amman rather than at governorate level, which in certain instances, causes the farmer to go to Amman and incur an extra expense; (b) Some ACC directorate branches are understaffed; and (c) ACC document requirements are too many, involving several trips to many government agencies like the department of land and survey, MOA, etc. The cost of photocopying of documents, comprises an added financial burden to the ‘poor' farmer.

Loan eligibility criteria. Invariably farmers complained about ACC collateral and guarantors requirements. The farmers expressed frustration that the ACC's guarantee requirements far exceed the (small) amount of the approved loan. They believe that either the automatic salary deduction of the guarantor or the physical collateral should be adequate guarantee. Combining the two were seen as extremely harsh and unnecessary. Many complained that these requirements prevent them from applying for a second loan and affect their disposable income in the short run.

Lack of grace period for repayments and the small size of loans were also frequent constraints. Some argued that in the end they realised that the (small) loan approved was not worth the effort (and trouble), especially in light of the increasing cost of livestock activities. Participating women revealed that almost always they had to rely on the monthly salary or pension deduction of a male kin, usually husband or brother, and their land collateral. Very few women had land ownership in their name which restricted female coverage. Moreover, the loan procedures are particularly difficult for women whose mobility is limited by their productive and reproductive roles (on the farm and in the home). There was also an indication by some women of ACC staff scepticism regarding women's ability to run viable projects.

High prices of livestock in MOA animal breeding stations was an issue repeatedly mentioned. A number of farmers expressed preference to buy animals/livestock from the market than from the project as livestock market prices are lower than those of the breeding stations. In addition, there are traits associated with the breed that farmers traditionally seek that are not found in the imported MOA stock which further turn farmers away from station stock. Farmers generally complained about the inadequacy of veterinarian services, as well as the high prices of veterinary medicines. Another constraint to poor farmers is the high cost of hired labour. There were conflicting impressions regarding extension and project-follow-up services in general. This phenomenon seems to correlate with the energy and commitment levels of project staff in the governorate specifically the project supervisor, and on the distance of the farmers from the project.

Sustainability issues. Project activities could prove sustainable in the four areas under certain conditions: (a) the breeding stations can carry on their breeding and distribution programmes as long as MOA is communicated wishes to do so and provides the means; (b) the Shami goat multiplication units will provide pure bred does and bucks to other farmers provided multipliers are chosen carefully and followed-up adequately for financial and technical services; (c) the Baladi goat and Awassi sheep up-grading units can go on as long as in-breeding and intersexing are avoided; (d) veterinary services can continue by maintaining the equipment provided by the project and by replacing them when necessary; and (e) extension services can continue by maintaining the equipment provided by the project and by fully implementing relevant training programmes.

Main issues and recommendations

Livestock. The project should immediately appoint the Animal Breeding Specialist (ABS). It should take steps to further enhance the capabilities of staff involved in livestock, and to provide them with more incentives and better facilities. The technical staff at the breeding stations should be given more administrative and financial flexibility. The project should build on its positive experience with the mobile veterinary clinic.

To increase the supply of Shami goats the project should import female does from Syria and use modern techniques of reproduction (embryo transfer) on the existing flock at Wadi Wala. Both approaches should be pursued simultaneously and on a very urgent basis.

The project should also immediately (i) finalise the agreement with NCARTT to use El-Khanassri station as a source of Awassi sheep and if possible for Shami goats as was proposed by NCARTT, and (ii) complete the annexation of Ma'an station and provide it with all necessary equipment. Animal breeding stations should be non-profit making entities and animals should be supplied to farmers at cost. An accurate calculation of the cost of animals at the station should be undertaken and factors relating to efficiency of the stations as well as requirements to achieve adequate uptake analysed and addressed.

Careful selection of beneficiaries for the multiplication unit is essential on the basis of their earlier experience in keeping cross-bred goats and on their financial capabilities. The project should negotiate with ACC an increase in the size loans allocated for feed costs to be realistically consistent with current prices. Other technical recommendations detailed in the MTE mission report relating to Baladi goat and Awassi sheep should be implemented. The project needs to further examine the feasibility of lamb fattening in various locations, to investigate the viability of this activity under various conditions given current prices.

Where found viable the project should propose a method whereby the poorest members of the rural communities can benefit from this activity. The project should make sure that both home-based and small-scale milk processing activities are well publicised through its units in the governorates, extension officers of MOA, and social mobilizers of NGOs.

Increased awareness of the importance of promoting fodder production should be ensured. Agricultural staff in the project need to discuss the requirements for forage production with their counterparts from ACC to ensure that there is a clear and uniform message being given to goat and sheep producers in this respect. MOA should ensure that there is a concerted programme to investigate the optimum parameters for forage production under various conditions in Jordan.

Extension advice provided should include appropriate messages on forage production.

Diversification. The opportunities for income diversification and improved income stability for farmers are probably at their greatest where there is an integration of crops and livestock. This has been given additional prominence with the removal of feed subsidies. The programme of demonstrations and the training provided to extension officers should be revised to reflect these priorities. Crop activities and crop processing should receive further emphasis (as detailed in mission report). The project should continue to make efforts to promote water conservation activities.

Credit. PCU and ACC in close coordination, are recommended to evaluate the activities for which credit is to be made available, so as to ensure that under the prevailing market conditions the activities are profitable for project beneficiaries. The result would be a series of credit models to be used in determining loan size and repayment schedules. ACC has to stop immediately all long term lending activities from the project funds and should correct the unbalanced allocation between short and medium term loans.

ACC needs to propose revised and relaxed credit conditions for project beneficiaries as well as loan application procedures with focus on the requirements of the poor and rural women. This will require ACC to examine in detail the implications and methodology of a credit risk fund, the possibilities of group lending, and savings mobilisation. In collaboration with PCU and Queen Alia Fund, ACC should initiate a limited pilot group lending (especially for women) based on the experience of Queen Alia Fund in this field supported by the results of the above-mentioned study. ACC should initiate an in-depth study on the effects of converting to a rural development bank on IFAD's target group.

The level of staffing, the training provided to staff and the existing management information systems available in the Corporation all need to be upgraded. ACC should recruit the six credit officers described in the SAR (including female credit officers) to support the branches of the southern governorates. ACC has to improve its activities and outreach in the southern region through, inter-alia, the introduction of mobile credit systems.

To create better coordination MOA Local Coordination Committees should be replaced by Loan Approval Committees consisting of the Director of Agriculture, the ACC branch manager, the branch credit supervisor, and the local project supervisor, to review and approve the project loan applications. The committee should have the right to invite any other PIs as deemed necessary to its meetings. The decisions of this committee have to be final, so that the ACC branch credit committee is only required to endorse them.

Organization and management. The central Project Coordinating Committee should function only as an advisory committee, with no executive powers. The role of the central PCC should be more strategic in nature and has specific functions which are not duplicated elsewhere in the project. The project Coordinator should control all budgetary aspects of the implementation and should be solely responsible for carrying out the annual work programme and report to the PCC only for strategic issues and approval of the annual work programme and budget. Coordination of regular project activities would be undertaken between designated senior contact officers in each organisation. The project supervisors in the governorates should become responsible for implementing their own project work programmes, their authority delegated from the Project Coordinator.

They should be given limited financial authority for this task.

Monitoring and evaluation. A series of national workshops should be held, on a regular basis, for IDP staff. These would re-emphasise project objectives, allow staff to determine and/or modify implementation methods, examine and unify where possible project procedures, and allow for exchanges of ideas and experience between IDP staff. Arrangements should be made for information to be transmitted between the project offices electronically which will require the purchase of at least 12 computers, plus software and staff training. The design of the computerised data system must be finalised and tested as soon as possible, so that all backlog of data can be inputted. An International M&E expert should be recruited to this effect. M&E workshops should be held with all project staff on a regular basis.

A series of focused local studies to assess the effects and impact of project activities and beneficiaries reaction should be undertaken, consecutively, over the coming two years 1998/1999. The project should be assisted in this respect by a consultant on impact assessment methodology. Project M&E staff and ACC staff should coordinate and harmonise the classification of data and the definition of beneficiaries entry for the project database. Both institutions should classify data by gender, by activities specified in the appraisal report, by number of households classified by number of loans received. Monitoring indicators (including gender sensitive indicators) spelled out in the design should be implemented.

Training and mobilization. MOA should take responsibility for training aspects of the project, and be able to contract training from the most appropriate sources, including the JCC. The rate of implementation and effectiveness of training should be specially monitored by the Steering Committee. A full-time training officer should be appointed for IDP. The starting point for a revised programme has to be a needs assessment for staff and beneficiaries.

The MTE report provides a guide to the scale and depth of staff training required. At least six full-time social mobilisers must be obtained from the NGOs and appropriately trained, ACC should activate and use training funds allocated under the project to strengthen capabilities in reaching the poorest. The techniques used in training beneficiaries need to be greatly improved.

Finally, while the project has so far involved limited expansion of livestock activities, any increase in livestock productivity and production in general should be assessed with due consideration to environmental consequences and the policy framework that will create appropriate incentive to achieve the right balance between livestock and natural resources.