Ethiopia SOCODEP CE - main report - IFAD

Institutional Capacity Building
23. A great deal of training was carried out (estimates suggest that nearly 57,000 individuals
received some form of training). Individuals have benefited to some extent, but the ability of the
project stakeholder institutions to perform more effectively, during and subsequent to the project, is
questionable. A lasting impact on the institutions involved has been severely undermined by the
capacity buildings component’s ad hoc nature 5 and by the frequent Government restructuring and redeployment
of personnel.
24. SOCODEP’s capacity-building efforts largely ignored issues of attitude change, organizational
reform, and policy dialogue. These were major omissions.
Road Construction
25. The roads built are of good quality and have benefited those people living near them. The
Roads Authority has been left with a useful pool of heavy equipment for future road construction
work. As far as SOCODEP outcomes are concerned however, the aim of this aspect of the project was
to extend access to markets for cooperatives and their members. As with other project components, a
few people have benefited from the component, and its main shortcoming has been its limited reach.
Veterinary Revolving Drugs fund
26. The component was able to provide temporary relief for the few participants who were able to
access the fund. At the time of the evaluation, drug shortages were being felt, and animal health
problems were reported to be increasing, especially in those areas where tyrpanomiasis is prevalent.
Water Supply, Health and Basic Sanitation (US$4.02m, 18 per cent) – BSF funded
27. In some respects the WSBHS component has delivered the most visible and potentially
successful aspects of the entire project, with its most effective aspects being the strengthening of
health services (through construction, rehabilitation, equipping and training) and construction of water
supply points in the eight component Woredas. However, the functional sustainability of water points,
and the utilisation of improved excreta disposal facilities at household level, are areas of concern. In
particular, user fees for water point maintenance are too low, and access to spare parts for hand pumps
is extremely problematic.
Integration Across Components
28. SOCODEP was a multi-component project, involving at least 7 Regional Government organs 6 ,
three financial institutions 7 , and numerous other stakeholders 8 . There were important potential
synergies between components and stakeholders. The cooperatives were fundamental. Their capacity
to function as viable democratic business entities would determine the extent to which all the
individual project beneficiaries would gain. In the event, their lack of effective re-orientation and
capacity-building has limited the extent to which individual men and women have enjoyed the benefits
of cooperative membership. Credit disbursement depended on the sound functioning of both the
cooperatives and CBE, as the financial intermediary. Neither the cooperatives nor CBE were effective
in channelling loans to individual members. Institutional strengthening of Government organs was
greatly limited in its impact, because of the unsystematic and incomplete way in which it was done,
and because of frequent Government restructuring. Supply of veterinary drugs, construction of roads,
enhancement of health services, and construction of water supplies and sanitation facilities were
5 The evaluation team could find no evidence of any systematic training needs assessment.
6 Those responsible for Agriculture, Cooperatives, Veterinary Services, Water, Health, Finance & Planning,
and Roads, organised in different ways at different times.
7 CBE, OMFI, and Ethiopian Insurance Corporation.
8 Cooperatives and their members, contractors, and consultants.
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