Ethiopia SOCODEP CE - main report - IFAD

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101. Specific objective 5. Relief of livestock health constraints, particularly with respect to draught animals, through provision of veterinary drugs. 102. This component started late, and is now winding down. It provided temporary relief, but now there is evidence of increasing disease prevalence due to the inability of Government veterinarians to provide drugs. There are no significant alternative suppliers of veterinary medicines than Government. A better option than the one pursued in SOCODEP would have been the promotion of veterinary drugs through the private sector. 103. The component only took off toward the end of the project (2000/01). Drugs for relevant livestock diseases were bought by the government veterinary offices and made available to stockowners. The government drug supply for a Woreda lasts about six months and drug shortages are felt from July to September before the fiscal year budget is released. After the closure of the project in 2005, the incidence of diseases is reported to be increasing because the VRDF was dwindling. A better approach to dispensing drugs to farmers may be the use of Community Based Animal Health Workers selected from the community by the community and linked to drug vendors in Awassa and Addis Ababa. 104. Overall, the achievement of the VRDF was limited. It started very late, and by the time of closure of the project loans it had disbursed a very small proportion of its budgeted funds, despite the great need for the benefits which it promised. 105. Specific objective 6. Improve access of rural families to services and markets by rehabilitating and maintaining rural roads. 106. As far as it went, this component has improved access for many people 44 . Maintenance by cooperative members alone was never going to be a viable option 45 , and the adoption of the SOCODEP roads into the Regional road maintenance programme is a positive feature, as long as Government budgets permit maintenance to actually be carried out. The heavy equipment provided by SOCODEP will continue to be used and maintained for some time to come. This element of the Project does give rise to some environmental concerns however: erosion, destruction of natural vegetation, lack of restoration of quarries, and abandonment of equipment and materials are among the negative aspects observed. 107. Design standards and maintenance strategies. The main issues in the roads component of the project centre around design standards and maintenance strategies. The change to the project design agreed after the MTR, in which the design standard (and hence unit cost) was increased from RR 30 to RR 50 46 not only limited the amount of construction possible within a fixed budget, but had maintenance implications too. RR 30 roads were more suitable for labour-based maintenance, while RR 50 roads required heavy maintenance by a centralized authority. The expectation at Appraisal that maintenance would be carried out by cooperatives was far-fetched, as it is not only cooperative members who benefit from such access, but the wider community too. The communities in SNNPR have allocated one day a week for community endeavours such as access roads construction, school construction and maintenance, health facilities construction and maintenance, and soil and water conservation, which is in line with the construction of roads of RR 30 standard and below. 108. In terms of achieving the project objective, two aspects are relevant. First, the change in design standard significantly increased cost per km, and so greatly reduced the number of beneficiaries. Only 122km out of a target at Appraisal of 700km was achieved. Second, although the ability of some rural 44 Based on typical population densities, probably around 100 000 people live within 5km of the respective roads. 45 Especially after the agreed alteration of design specification from RR 30 to RR 50 standard. 46 RR30 and RR50 refer respectively to road designs for 30 and 50 vehicles per day. The designs specify different standards of drainage structures, gravel thickness and road width. The former RR standards have subsequently been replaced by a range of functional design standards referred to by DS numbers. 26
people and communities to move themselves and their goods has improved, no other measures were taken in SOCODEP to improve market access. Physical road access is only one necessary (but not sufficient) condition for achieving better linkages to markets. 109. Specific objective 7. (BSF Component) Reduce the burden of disease in 8 woredas of the SOCODEP area. 110. Probably the greatest effect on health will be through the upgrading of physical health facilities and staff and community skills. The sanitation component will only have a significant effect if latrines are actually used, and this is most likely if the Government strategy changes to a more persuasive and participative approach. The water supply interventions made by the BSF project will have a significant short-term effect on water quality and access for those living close by, but long term functional sustainability is in serious doubt. 111. Evaluating health impact is particularly difficult, but the measures taken in the BSF component at least provide some of the necessary pre-conditions for improved community health. However, without a significantly increased focus on sanitation utilization, hygiene promotion and water supply system operation and maintenance, these potential health benefits will fail to be realized. F. Assessment: Relevance, Effectiveness and Efficiency 112. Relevance. SOCODEP addressed some real needs of the rural poor in southern Ethiopia (need for credit, need for improved market access including rural roads, need for better health services and environmental health) and it was consistent with the government’s regionalization programme. At the time of design the rhetoric of the new Government and the framing of the new legislation made working through service cooperatives attractive and promising. However the use of service cooperatives as the channel for services to the poor turned out to be a significant design weakness. At the time of project formulation, cooperatives were seen as an arm of Government, and public attitudes to cooperatives would inevitably take a long time to change. As far as the selection of financial intermediaries is concerned, at the time of project design there was limited choice. However, CBE’s lack of experience in implementing rural finance, including through cooperatives, should have been addressed with greater seriousness. Weaknesses in other project design features have been highlighted above. 113. At a strategic level, the project was mostly consistent with the 1999Ethiopia Country Strategic Opportunities Paper and the 2002 IFAD Regional Strategy particularly in its support in developing rural financial services. Although the strategy provides a larger emphasis on establishing market linkages. According to IFAD’s rating scale therefore we assess SOCODEP as ‘Relevant’ (rating of 5) 47 . 114. Effectiveness. The Project achieved some, but not all of its objectives. Table 4 summarizes the extent to which each of the specific objectives were met, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. As indicated in Table 7, Specific Objectives 1, 3, and 5 were mostly not met. Specific Objectives 2, 4, 6 and 7 were partially met (to varying degrees). According to IFAD’s rating scales therefore we assess SOCODEP as ‘Moderately Ineffective’ (score 3) 48 . 47 “The project objectives are relevant to the needs of the poor or to IFAD’s country strategy” (IFAD OE Project Evaluation Guidelines, December 2005) 48 “The project met only a few of its stated project objectives” (IFAD OE Project Evaluation Guidelines, December 2005). 27
Page 1: PROJECT EVALUATION Federal Democrat
Page 4 and 5: Overall Responsibility Lead Evaluat
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Page 12 and 13: into farmer-owned viable business e
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