Mid-term evaluation

Situated off the coast of Senegal, to the west, the ten volcanic islands making up the Republic of Cape Verde have a dry tropical climate, with a rainy season from July to November. Precipitation is highly variable and increases with elevation. The slopes facing north-east receive more moisture. Agro-ecological conditions across the archipelago are diverse:

• the arid zones (average annual rainfall below 200 mm), located in the lower-lying parts (all the flat islands and the fringes of the mountainous ones), account for over half the country's land area. They are akin to deserts and lend themselves exclusively to pastoral or silvo-pastoral use;
• the semi-arid zones (average annual rainfall 200-400 mm) and sub-humid zones (400-600 mm) are mostly found on sloping land at middle elevations. Rainfed farming (mostly maize and beans) and livestock raising is practised;
• the humid zones (average annual rainfall over 600 mm) are found limited to smaller areas at higher altitude, in excess of 500 m, and with north-east exposure on some islands;
• the irrigation schemes constitute a category on their own. They are small and scattered, and found mostly in coastal extremities of valleys.

Project design and objectives

Target group

The project targets the resource-poorest households in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid zones in the four zones on Santiago island (three arid, one partly semi-arid and one sub-humid). The target population comprised at design 1 010 such households, with a total of 6 060 persons. Yet, the pilot nature of this project implies that the extension recommendations generated should be replicated for all arid, semi-arid and sub-humid zones. Hence, ultimately, the entire population of these zones should become beneficiaries.

Objectives and components

The project has four objectives to: (i) improve the living conditions of the target group; (ii) acquire an understanding of the physical and socio-economic environment in these zones, and test and finalize extension recommendations and methods of intervention capable of replication in all the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid zones; (iii) ensure that the knowledge generated, and derived technical recommendations, are appropriated by the relevant national institutions (INIDA, INFA, INERF, etc.) by involving them directly in project implementation; and (iv) improve knowledge and diffusion processes through the formation of farmers' associations.

Four components were included: (i) development of rain-fed farming and family livestock raising (in the semi-arid and sub-humid zones); (ii) silvo-pastoral development in the reforested arid zones; (iii) credit; and (iv) institutional support and strengthening.

Expected effects and assumptions

The country since Independence, has concentrated agricultural development efforts on the irrigated and humid areas. Technical recommendations have been generated, extended and are well adopted in these areas. Examples are improved techniques for seed multiplication, for potato and sweet potato cultivation in the humid areas, and water management in the irrigation schemes.

In contrast, the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid zones, accounting for by far the greater part of the island area - and rural population - have received little attention. This is explained since suitable technical packages have not been available. It is true that a major acacia (Prosopis) tree planting programme has been achieved since Independence; with 40 000 trees, plant cover in the arid zones in large part has been reconstituted. But no efforts had been made to turn these replanted areas into silvo-pastoral use, under community management, to assist the population resident in these areas.

Poverty alleviation could take off once methods of intervention and extension recommendations have been generated for the semi-arid and sub-humid zones, and for improved silvo-pastoral use, Furthermore, it was expected that poverty would be reduced through appropriate environmental conservation and anti-desertification measures. The potential impact would be substantial:

• it is precisely in these arid, semi-arid and sub-humid zones that the country's poorest population are to be found. There is little hope for them of being able to leave these parts. The number of people living in rural areas remains stable; the number of households relying on farming for a living, fully or in part, is on a rising trend.
• developing extension recommendations in these areas is a response to two major national-level concerns: desertification control in the arid zones, and control of water-erosion in semi-arid and sub-humid zones. Soil erosion makes surface water retention very difficult (excessive wash-load); this limits the possibilities of improving the country's water resources. All currently available sources are from groundwater, and exploited to the limit.

Moreover, the project is expected to introduce improved community based management approaches in these areas. The "food for work" arrangements for acacia (Prosopis) planting and for road construction works, etc., enable the population to survive where, previously they had been victims of successive food shortages. These activities, directed and managed from afar, have fostered attitudes of "excessive dependence". PRODAP is expected to counteract such dependency by promoting management schemes better suited to the preferences of beneficiaries. Of concern is not only better use of "results" - i.e. the plantations - but participation in design and implementation of such schemes. Even, in a not too distant future, some local participation in funding such schemes may be necessary, since food aid is declining in volume, while financing from private sources may be increasing, notably in the form of emigrant remittances).

A fundamental assumption is that extension recommendations and intervention methods for the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid zones will have to be generated through a research and development approach. This means experimentation, pilot activities, village level try-out and adaption as called for, prior to extension. PRODAP unambiguously is a research and development project.

Evaluation

The Mid-term Evaluation mission visited Cape Verde, the Island of Santiago and all project sites from 5 to 31 May 1996. The analysis of impact is based on existing surveys (though these had been made little use of by the project) and supplementary enquiries made by the mission itself.

Implementation context

The project had been designed one year prior to the first democratic elections held in Cape Verde, which in 1991 led to a change of Government. The changes in economic policy introduced by the new Government have scarcely affected the project, but the institutional reform in the agricultural sector fundamentally altered its context. It was necessary to review the entire institutional setting of the project in 1992.

Project achievements

Soil and water conservation

The project has made good the shortcomings noted in the appraisal report regarding soil and water conservation activities; much has been done to enrich the applied research aspects. The approaches employed represent a break with the traditional conservation method in Cape Verde, where barriers and walls are constructed of stones. The final evaluation of impact can be made only over the longer term and may have to exceed ten years. Yet, the increased production of biomass from Leucaena is substantiated. There is also some evidence for that yields of maize and beans have improved. The progress in limiting erosion will be firmer once species have been found that complement the Leucaena hedges and make them more compact. The project has attained its quantitative objective by covering about 620 ha as defined by the appraisal report.

Livestock

Project activities to raise livestock started up without thorough understanding of the farming systems. Current practices and underlying strategies of farmer-pastoralists were almost totally ignored. Conversely, results from the animal husbandry activities are not in line with expectations. While genetic upgrading of cattle has been successful, that of goats has failed. Intensive poultry raising with purchased feed produced acceptable physical results, but at a too high cost. Replication is not possible (technical follow-up every day; loan repayment dates repeatedly put off). Moreover, silvo-pastoral activities in the arid parts have not progressed beyond the stage of demonstration plots.

Extension; awareness building; training

The project's objectives for extension, awareness building and training implied a high level of community participation. The project document set rigid targets for the building up of farmer associations. The project management wanted to improve upon the approach reflected in the SAR. But the cooperating institution defended the approach and targets set. This precluded the emergence of a two way communication between project staff and beneficiaries. The associations formed remain an artificial construct, with unclear objectives. Beneficiary dialogue and participation are quite limited.

Not less than 18 extension agents are active in awareness-building and rural mobilization, but their role should be expanded. The number of agents is excessive, since there is one "animator" per association. They have all attended a six-month training course. They have been trained more in the transmitting messages to the farmers than to gather information for feed back. Their training and monitoring leaves much to be desired.

Credit

This component was conceived rigidly with little attention to institution building. The objective was to see the beneficiaries supplied with the cash or credit resources to ensure that they would start the directly productive activities designed by the project. The financial institution was unable or unwilling to assume its responsibility; the project itself provided credit to 21 households for intensive raising of improved poultry, and pig fattening, with purchased feed.

The loans were not well adapted to the beneficiaries' technical and financial capacities. Loan repayment rates have been insufficient (at 54%), despite debt rescheduling and the intensive monitoring.

Effects assessment and sustainability

PRODAP in the semi-arid and sub-humid zones has responded to the challenges. The introduction of plant (vegetable) cover on the bunds of the farmers' plots is one example. For the first time conservation practices have been carried out on farmers' plots, with their help. The aim remains to raise their incomes through higher labour productivity (e.g. through higher output and enhanced yields) and reduced soil erosion. The results are still not sufficiently certain. Surplus forage production is not yet turned to profit in line with expectations; enhanced yields are still uncertain; additional extension recommendations are needed if meaningful results are to be achieved in the matter of erosion control. Nonetheless, the project seems to be moving in the right direction: it is realized that the validity of these results can be confirmed only over the longer term.

In contrast, project results in the arid zones are not encouraging, and are limited to demonstrations of fodder production.

The salient feature emerging from this Evaluation is the ineffectiveness of PRODAP as a research and development project. Activities such as intensive poultry raising have been carried forward as pure extension activities which fall outside of the research and development approach. Similar remarks apply to the credit component. This omission in applying the research and development methodology, even though this approach was to have been the project's main thrust, explains the failures. The knowledge base has not been built-up to permit that activities spring first from a diagnose and understanding of the constraints that affect the target group, and second from an appropriation of the methodology involved for generating solutions.

The knowledge base is still limited. First, the understanding of the environment concerns mainly the physical dimensions, e.g. the important soil characteristics in semi-arid and sub-humid zones are now understood,

whilst the socio-economic dimensions are largely left unexplored. Second, promising avenues for raising productivity have been opened up in the semi-arid and sub-humid zones, the development of extension recommendations is still in an early stages. Third, even though soil and water conservation practices have been introduced for the first time in a participatory mode on the farmers' plots, and generate value added, the adoption of the research and development methodology (practically unheard of in Cape Verde before the project) is still at an early stage. Fourth, the required knowledge of the experimental methodology to be applied is still limited among institutions and beneficiaries. In short, in the absence of a managed, monitored and supervised approach, it is not surprising that the knowledge base is only slowly and imperfectly evolving.

The impact on the target group is as yet negligible. It is still too soon for the effects of the activities undertaken to emerge. Even so, what has been achieved is satisfactory in the case of the genetic upgrading of cattle. In other areas, e.g. in intensive dairy production the impact is negative in the sense that the cost of loans exceeds the profits made; this explains the weak loan repayment performance. In benefit and cost terms, PRODAP has a very high cost for the level of effectiveness it has achieved.

How efficient is monitoring and evaluation? The original design, the means brought to bear, the supervision missions and support from consultants have all failed to enable the M&E Unit to undertake the its role within a research and development project. Only the monitoring of planned activities and of their direct effects has proceeded relatively well. Evaluation of socio-economic constraints and of impact leaves much to be desired.

The M&E unit has not contributed to exchange information between the partner institutions, associated with the project, and the beneficiaries).

Unless, results are analyzed, communication flows are improved and useful knowledge is institutionalized, voluntary constructive action and change will not take place. The M&E unit activities need to be far better managed. To this end, the original design for all the activities to be completed need to be revisited. M&E units should not be overcharged with physical activities so that there is no time and space left for meaningful analysis and reflection.

It remains that the M&E Unit is far from playing its part as a builder of awareness, or stimulator of reflection within the project.

Principal problems. The principal cause of PRODAP's inefficacy, first and foremost rests in the ambiguity (which has characterized it from the start). Its very name (Community-based Agriculture and Livestock Development Project) and the detailed programming of activities contrast with the specificity of its objectives. The former are defined in minute detail in the project document, presented as a series of pre-conceived activities promoted by extension and addressed to the beneficiaries in terms of a participatory approach. On the other hand, as reflected by the objectives, the project unmistakably is intended as a research and development operation of national interest. To wit, its high cost when set against the number of beneficiaries could not easily be justified if it were not to have this pilot character.

The ambiguity characterizing this project from the start reappears at all levels, and this is at the origin of the contradictions inherent in the very project document. This ambiguity has led to different interpretations confusion among national institutions, donors and consultants. Three examples: (i) the rural awareness building and mobilisation (service d'animation) carries the name of Extension Service, and operates as such; (ii) the credit service was designed as a support to the extension function; and (iii) the project was placed under the wing of the Agricultural Extension Department, when logically, as a research and development project, it should come under the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Forests.

Several constraints have accentuated the project's inefficacy: (i) methodology and procedures; (ii) the cost/benefit (efficacy) ratio reported by the Ministry of Agriculture's services; (iii) communication and participation; (iv) competence; and (v) the use made of technical assistance.

Main issues and recommendations

The most important recommendation to be made is that the ambiguity be removed as to the nature of the project: this is the principal cause to its problems. The nature of the project must be clarified; the conditions must be created for it to develop its activities - those of a research and development project - to the full.

The overall objective of PRODAP, as research and development project, should be redefined: (i) to devise extension recommendations that can be taken up by the resource-poorest families in the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid zones, to assist in relieving their poverty; (ii) to assist in solving national-level ecological problems; and (iii) to devise and set in train a process of information and training in order for the relevant national institutions and other partners in development to appropriate the methodology of programming and executing research, development and ensuing extension activities through participatory processes.

This overall objective translates into three sectoral objectives, which are covered by the first three components, whilst the three "transverse" objectives are being taken care of by the fourth component.

It is necessary to abandon the artificial and hardly pertinent division into the five sub-components of the pre-appraisal report. The component entitled "integrated development of rainfed agriculture and family livestock raising" must become a component designed to improve farmers' systems in semi-arid and sub-humid zones. The starting point must be the extension recommendations available for these zones (these are being developed) and what the project has already achieved. With an approach geared to needs, the agro-economic potential and to the tangible solutions for the different types of household in these zones, family income status can be analyzed in the context of evolving farming systems; this has hitherto been lacking.

The component entitled "development of silvo-pastoralism in the reforested rangelands/arid zones" is, again, a component designed to bring about an improvement in farmers' practices. It needs to be redefined around a strategic core of research and development of extension recommendations for silvo-pastoralism. In order to improve the chances of success with this essential but difficult component, the intervention should be limited to a single area and not three. As regards existing plantations, the experiment-demonstration element needs to be broadly diversified and enriched. In any case, it is essential that efforts should not be limited to the experiment area, but should be directed to launch as soon as possible the pilot development programme originally called for. As regards future plantations, a research programme needs to be mounted, together with the Forest Services, without delay.

The credit component must be made into a pilot component to explore decentralized, self-governing financial services with autonomy vis-à-vis the rest of the project. This component, again, must recover a research and development character in order for the relevant institutions to devise and adapt methods for setting up decentralized rural financial services. There is every justification for this component. As of yet there is no other method available in Cape Verde offering satisfactory results. Valuable experience in building up decentralised rural financial services is available in neighbouring countries.

The institutional support and strengthening component is expected to answer to three "transverse" objectives, namely: (i) an understanding of the national and socio-economic environment (here responsibility belongs more specifically to the M&E Unit); (ii) promoting the research and development methods (responsibility here belongs more specifically to the awareness-building services (rural animation); and (iii) acceptance of methodology and project results by the relevant national institutions (responsibility with the PMU coordinator himself). To be able to carry out these tasks, the services concerned will need to be revitalized and strengthened.

The foregoing redefinition of project objectives and organization needs to go hand in hand with an improved strategy for approaching the target group and, inter alia, aiming to:

• consolidate the extension recommendations by exploring their potential and actual adoption, and impact on household income;
• integrate these recommendations into approaches for participatory management of local areas. Forming local groups of labourers for the purpose of soil and water conservation would be one such step.
• make use of capital transfers from the outside ("food for work" arrangements; emigrant remittances) to generate multiplier effect in the local economy; and
• make allowance for the cultural dimensions of development and aim to bring about a change in attitudes, especially as regards the dependence on hand-outs and the feeling of non-attachment to the place where one lives.

The institutional situation of PRODAP needs to be clarified - in the sense that it should be attached to the Department of Agriculture, Forests and Livestock (DGASP). This would open up possibilities for collaboration on specific programmes, e.g. involving the forest services in the project's second component and turning the results to profit in the use made of the National Development Fund (FDN). In any case, relations with the other institutions need to be radically overhauled.

Most important of all, when these recommendations are taken into account they must be accompanied by a far-reaching change in the project's decision-making approach. Recommendations cannot be adopted simply because someone decrees that they should be. Their implementation calls for mobilizing the different partners and for thorough scrutiny. Recommendations will have to be thrashed out, effectively shared: a clear commitment is required from each and everyone. Only on these terms, will the project be able to take the qualitative leap forward that is now so necessary.

For this mobilizing to be possible, it is important to organize without delay an initial workshop to define and discuss the recommendations with the project management, the staff responsible for awareness building, farmers' representatives and the various institutions concerned. Following this, all means should be brought to bear in order that the recommendations could be put into effect and the results followed up.

Lessons learned

PRODAP is particularly rich in the lessons it has to teach by virtue of its nature as a research and development project. Despite its many limitations, it is a rare example of an IFAD-financed project going so far along this type of approach.

The research and development formula is essential in approaching the resource-poorest rural people - IFAD's target group. They are subsisting in large part from their own means on marginal or nonproductive land, such as that found in Cape Verde, and Santiago island in particular. The recommendations that have been developed to the point where they can be used by the extension services are usually suited only to the better-off farmers, who have the best land and are well integrated into a market economy.

On Santiago island, where PRODAP is going forward, the extension recommendations and methods of approach are insufficiently adapted to local constraints. The only recommendations currently available and sufficiently developed for extension purposes concern the irrigated areas and the humid zones at higher elevations. In the marginal areas, no specific technical recommendations (except for angola peas) are available for extension and direct adoption.

PRODAP has five essentials lessons to be borne in mind for research and development projects:

• the need to recognize "research and development needs"

It is fundamental, before designing any project, to identify those recommendations that are available, i.e. sufficiently tried out and adapted to the point where they are suitable for extension purposes. This means discerning also those that, need further development, testing and adaptation to the conditions of the target area and target group. This first phase represents diagnosis of research and development needs; it is essential that this process be conducted together with the target group itself. By such diagnosis, extension activities can be avoided that will later prove to be ill-adapted and not effective.

• new procedures are needed

In the first place, a research and development project has to be developed in terms of the methods of approach and not in terms of detailed activities and outcomes. The analysis made of the results must be made first in terms of gaining knowledge and know-how, and not of material achievements. The utmost flexibility should be used in review procedures in such a way as to obtain rapid feed-back so that corrections can be made in light of results, whenever necessary.

• the time dimension needs to be taken into account in order to secure continuity in the approach beyond project end

Research and development take time. In the first place, one has to specify measurable objectives in helping the local staff and the relevant institutions to acquire the necessary skills in this research and development. In the second place, the objectives must be translated into a series of indicators against which acquisition of skills can be monitored.

• research and development costs must be kept to a reasonable level

Excessive and useless expense can be avoided if the research and development approach is carefully thought out (which it was not in the case of PRODAP).

• innovative solutions are required for technical assistance

Innovative or alternative solutions need to be found for long-term technical assistance. A compromise is required between the need of reduced costs, as against securing continuing longer term benefits from the knowledge generation process. A long-term partnership arrangement with an institution specializing in research and development, with regular support missions, training courses and attendance at workshops, could be one solution.

Lessons learnt for project design in general

As distinct from the lessons learnt concerning specifically the need for precise definitions, and the need to adopt a research and development methodology and clear-cut procedures at the design stage, PRODAP has five essential lessons to impart as regards project design in general.

• An understanding of socio-economic conditions at the start

The project's acquaintance with the socio-economic conditions of the target group at the start was very limited. The greater is this initial incomprehension, the higher is the probability that changes to the project concept will be needed in the course of execution. Moreover, the harder it will be to modify and adapt a project. This is why it is essential, at the design stage, to analyze the target group's socio-economic as well as physical environment, and to conduct highly specific surveys to ascertain constraints and the farmers' degree of motivation and their preferences.

• Strategies and procedures for adapting and reformulating the project.

It is also necessary, in the appraisal reports, to define clearly a strategy and procedures for revising in the course of execution a project's objectives and activities. In the case of PRODAP, such a strategy, and procedures, were not spelt out: this explains the series of problems discussed in this Evaluation.

• Forming farmers' associations - a means to an end and not the end itself.

Setting up farmers' associations cannot be an objective in itself. These associations are first and foremost instruments for their members. They in all cases respond to precise needs; and their place is given in a strategy for interacting with the target group; but they cannot represent, and embody, a final objective of a project.

• Transparency in sub-contracting

PRODAP brings out the risks inherent in a project based on contracting out to public institutions chosen in advance. It should be recalled that the underlying purpose of these contracts was to involve these institutions in the project so that the institutions in their turn might make the results, and the methods of approach their own. Yet the contracts - subcontracts - led to a lack of transparency in management: this led to high implementation costs. This idea of involving national institutions is important. But this presumes a genuine partnership arrangement, and accountability, reflected in a protocol of agreement and transparent co-management of joint activities.

• The project offers several lessons for the financial services in the rural context, and shows that:

- credit is a specific service that must be kept separate from the technical support services; credit is especially important for extension projects, but less for research and development projects; and

- the financial services may also need a research and development approach, especially when credit supply is poorly adapted to the demand and there are no institutional solutions in the country that are backed by sufficient experience, and are established, recognized and replicable.

Lessons learnt as regards project operation

PRODAP offers three important lessons for project implementation in general:

• evaluation and support provided by IFAD and the cooperating institution are essential for developing the capacities of the monitoring and evaluation units. The units should not be overloaded with demands for its services. Otherwise, the unit's ability to gather and analyze information, and to develop its own capacity for reflection and adaptation will suffer.
• recruiting and training farmer-"animators" are important for a participatory approach. These persons constitute a highly desirable kind of collaborator in awareness building; they belong to the environment, they are familiar with the target group and they remain when the project comes to an end. There are two rules that need to be observed to ensure that these persons will be truly operational: first, they should be recruited when they have a mature age (30-40), even if they have had less education than younger candidates. The latter in any case usually have other ambitions and do not easily remain in their environment. The training of these farmer-"animators",moreover, must be considered a priority matter. Such training should proceed alternating between their daily practices, and the need for analysis and reflection pursued jointly with other farmers and the project management; and
• the cooperating institution has an important and difficult part to play, in assisting research and development projects. A close dialogue and a partnership are needed between the project itself, this institution and IFAD. Sometimes this dialogue has been lacking: in the present case. the cooperating institution was not present at the project start-up workshop.