Evaluation purpose and scope

Responding to an Executive Board request, it was decided that Country Portfolio Evaluations (CPEs) be carried out in countries where a substantial amount of experience has been accumulated. The purpose of CPEs is to contribute to better project design and implementation in the light of IFAD's actual experience in a specific national context. While this CPE could not be a substitute for individual projects evaluations, it aimed, however, at rapidly providing solid comparative information on the most essential aspects of project performance as well as of their relevance to IFAD's concerns.

The selected methodological approach gave priority to understanding how the projects interacted with their environment taken in a broad sense (natural, institutional, socio-political, etc.). This approach helped to put IFAD's intervention into perspective.

The assessment of project experience in Yemen started during the last quarter of 1991 with a desk review, the result of which provided relevant focus as well as background information for the field work. The latter took place in December 1991 during which the 11 project areas were visited. Time-wise, the CPE came at an opportune moment as the country was reviewing its development policy in the light of the new situation created by the unification of the country.

The evaluation report consists of ten chapters grouped into three sections. The first section provides an overview of the IFAD country programme since its inception, putting it into perspective with the evolution of the national context (Chapters II and III). Project performance is subsequently described from an operational and financial point of view (Chapter IV). Chapter[V concludes this Section by analysing in depth the project's contribution to institution-building. Particular attention is paid to the various forms of project organisation and their effects on project performance.

The second part of the report (Chapters VI to VIII) assesses project experience in the major fields of IFAD intervention in Yemen: irrigation and rural infrastructure, generation and dissemination of improved technology and agricultural credit. Essential facts on project achievements are presented together with the relevant issues involved.

On the basis of the above, an attempt is made, in the last section of the report, to look at past experience from the specific standpoint of IFAD (Chapter IX). Beyond providing some indications on the contribution of the projects towards poverty alleviation, this Chapter discusses the specific issue of targetting approaches and instrumentalities in Yemen, as revealed by actual experience.

 The national context and the IFAD programme

Whereas the former South Yemen inherited educational and administrative structures which helped in the management of rural development projects, North Yemen, which was by far the most populated, had to build these capacities from scratch. Yemen, particularly the North, has nevertheless experienced rapid growth during the last 15 years, which in turn, deeply transformed a country and a society which only recently opened to the modern world (1962). Growth soon created new problems or exacerbated existing ones, particularly with the ever-increasing pressure on the narrow natural resources base. Hence, the lack of sustained achievements witnessed by many projects regardless of their source of financing. As in many countries which followed a similar pattern of growth, there are clear indications that equity issues were given insufficient attention.

In this context, marked by the high priority given to institution-building, the Government and its major development assistance partners used rural development projects to create the nucleus of future development authorities at a regional level. This strategy involved, by its very nature, less attention being given to both community level and national level development programmes. As a result of the weakness of internal resources mobilisation, institution-building has been greatly dependent on external financing. Hence the succession of project phases in the same area which is one of the salient characteristics of the Government's portfolio of rural development projects.

IFAD has financed a total of 11 projects in Yemen starting in 1979 in the North and 1980 in the South for a total project cost of US$[371[million. The share of IFAD amounted to about 25% of the total cost of the projects (US$[91.1[million), with a lower percentage contribution in the North. Eight of these projects were initiated by other donors and cofinanced by IFAD. IFAD-financed projects dealt with a wide range of projects and agro-ecological zones, whose objectives included: the establishment and rehabilitation of rural infrastructure; the development and dissemination of technical packages; and institution-building.