Rural poverty and environmental planning participatory evaluation of development initiatives in Afri

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Rural poverty and environmental planning
participatory evaluation of development
initiatives in Africa

• Ton Dietz
• Professor Human Geography
• University of Amsterdam

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Poverty map Africa 2004GNI per capitaAltas
method(Current US)Source World Bank 2004 l.
Yellow Less than 530 D. Yellow 530 - 1,250
Orange 1,250 - 3,000 D. Red gt 3,000 
Blue  No data
http//www.ruralpovertyportal.org/english/regions/
africa/index.htm
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Citation from Rural Poverty Portal (IFAD, June
2007)

• Poverty in Africa is predominantly rural. More
  than 70 per cent of the continents poor people
  live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for
  food and livelihood, yet development assistance
  to agriculture is decreasing. In Sub-Saharan
  Africa, more than 218 million people live in
  extreme poverty. Among them are rural poor people
  in Eastern and Southern Africa, an area that has
  one of the worlds highest concentrations of poor
  people. The incidence of poverty in Sub-Saharan
  Africa is increasing faster than the population.
  Overall, the pace of poverty reduction in most of
  Africa has slowed since the 1970s.

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IFAD citation continued Rural poverty in many
areas of Africa has its roots in the colonial
system and the policy and institutional
restraints that it imposed on poor people (...)
Structural adjustments have dismantled existing
rural systems, but have not always built new
ones. In many transitional economies, the rural
situation is marked by continuing stagnation,
poor production, low incomes and the rising
vulnerability of poor people. Lack of access to
markets is a problem for many small-scale
enterprises in Africa. The rural population is
poorly organized and often isolated, beyond the
reach of social safety nets and poverty
programmes. Increasingly, government policies
and investments in poverty reduction tend to
favour urban over rural areas.
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Rural development in 1970s and 1980s

• Long history of project interventions, either as
  stand-alone interventions, or as part of
  integrated rural development programmes,
• both by central or decentralised governments and
  by NGOs,
• often donor-sponsored, and with specific care for
  isolated, marginal areas

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Examples in Dutch aid to Africa

• Integrated Rural Development Programme Western
  Province Zambia
• District Programmes Tanzania
• Arid and Semi-arid Lands Programmes in Kenya
• Resource management in Kaya, Burkina Faso
• Office du Niger, Mali

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Measuring aid effectiveness

• Gradually more logical frameworks in project
  design (1980s), but also process approach
  incremental learning
• Increase in Monitoring and Evaluation attempts
  during project implementation (1990s)
• If done well
• - base-line survey
• - annual reports with (measured) progress
• - and longitudinal analysis
• However within the aid industry very few
  examples of long-term commitment to these
  longitudinal approaches.

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Problems of Measuring the Impact of Integrated
Rural Development Programmes

• Often donor-driven lack of institutional
  sustainability lack of donor continuity
• Difficult attribution of cause (intervention)
  and effect (development/ change)
• Contextual change often more important than
  project/programme interventions.
• Quality of measurement depends on quality of
  lowest-level data collection lack of quality
  assurance, lack of continuity, political
  cooking of data, just filling in forms.
• Dishonesty/corruption in project implementation
  often covered by non-transparant reporting or
  no reporting at all.
• Often naive neglect of existing power structures
  in intervention regions and of existing
  geographical and cultural-institutional barriers
  between area of intervention and higher-order
  regions.

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Late 1990s-2007

• Rather sudden dismissal of (integrated) rural
  development programmes by major donors and by
  recipient governments
• Instead allignment and harmonisation (Paris
  agenda policy coherence for development),
  resulting in sector support and budget support to
  central governments
• Choice of sectors often social sectors (health
  care, education) and physical infrastructure
  (roads, dams, drinking water) also stimulated by
  attention for MDGs
• At the expense of productive sectors, and
  rural/agricultural development in particular
• And at the expense of marginal areas.

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However....

• Lot of interventions continued/started by
• International and local development NGOs
• Faith-based organisations
• Environmental agencies
• Local governments, assisted by supporters
  (jumelages home-area associations of migrants
  abroad)
• International and national companies (e.g. as
  part of their socially responsible
  entrepreneurship)
• Transnational migrants
• Do-it-yourself aid entrepreneurs

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Recent developments in the Dutch aid industry-1

• Ministry more emphasis on quality assurance and
  measurement of impact (Directorate Effectiveness
  and Quality DEK)
• Integration of classical aid with human rights,
  conflict management, fair trade coherence
• 2003-2007 MDGs central, particularly primary
  education and health care
• 2007 onwards also attention for failed states,
  womens rights, energy, fair trade (and more
  support expected for rural development and
  agriculture, in line with the new World
  Development Report of the World Bank)

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Recent developments in the Dutch aid industry-2

• Major boost to support via Non-Governmental
  Organisations
• Until 2001 mainly NOVIB (now Oxfam-Novib),
  Cordaid, ICCO, Hivos and Plan
• 2001 onwards also Thematic Co-financing
  Programme (TMF)
• 2007 onwards new integrated Co-financing
  Framework for NGOs (MFS)
• More independent role for SNV, Netherlands
  Development Organization

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PME boost

• Now
• Ministry, SNV, and gt100 Dutch NGOs busy with
  more professional attention for Programming,
  Monitoring and Evaluation many have formed
  knowledge units, and support their many
  partners (often NGOs) in the South to improve
  quality and become better learning organizations

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New alliances scientists and Aid agencies in PME
designs

• E.g.
• Economists Free University for DEK
• CIDIN Nijmegen for Cordaid
• ISS The Hague for HIVOS
• AMIDSt for ICCO, Woord Daad and Prisma
• DPRN organised a major thematic meeting about
  measuring impact in June 2006. See www.dprn.nl,
  under publications

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What is evaluated?

• The policy relevance of a set of interventions
• The effectiveness outputs, outcome/effects,
  impact
• The efficiency inputs compared with outputs (and
  impacts)
• The sustainability the robustness of
  technological and institutional change
• The attribution what changes can be
  believably attributed to a set of
  interventions, given many other interventions and
  many other causes of change

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Different approaches diversity breeds quality

• Project PMEs (often using logical frameworks)
• Comparison of same type of intervention in
  different places/countries, studying the
  importance of contexts
• Effects of budget support on macro-economic
  indicators, including poverty indicators
• Effect of sector support on sector-specific
  indicators (e.g. in education, or in HIV-AIDS
  programmes)
• Controled case studies Comparing change in
  intervention areas with non-intervention areas
• Holistic, Participatory Evaluation (our approach)

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Holistic, Participatory Evaluation

• Is an ex-post method of measuring change and of
  attributing change to most significant
  actors/change agents
• It enables the population/the leaders of a local
  area to look back themselves
• Covering e.g. 20 years
• And it does not restrict itself to one sector and
  not to one intervening agent (an organisation or
  a project) it looks at all of it together
  (holistic approach).

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Approach tried out in NW Kenya, the area of North
Pokot in 2001-2002, in three different areas

• Example Kiwawa-workshop
• 60 local leaders of an area with 25,000
  inhabitants, 30x50 sq. km.
• gathered for three days in June 2002
• to discuss their ideas about the recent history
  of the study area.
• Participants came from four different sub-areas
• Participants were (elected) councillors,
  (appointed) chiefs and assistant chiefs, local
  church leaders, women group leaders, and
  teachers, both men and women.

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Research team
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Kiwawa area, North Pokot
Kapenguria, district HQ
K
Nairobi, national capital
Kenya district boundaries in 1980s
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Type of area

• Culture of pastoralism (cattle, goats, sheep and
  some camels), easily crossing Uganda-Kenya border
• But after disasters in 1979-1986 mixed economy
  (agriculture, livestock, gold digging, trade)
• Mainly Pokot ethnic group, reluctant to accept
  Kenyan state authorities very autonomous
  attitude
• After 1979 influx of aid agencies, churches,
  state agents, and Dutch development assistance
  (ASAL Programme)
• Lot of poverty and insecurity (cattle raids,
  interethnic violence with Turkana and Karimojong
  military actions by Kenyan and Ugandan army)
• Rapid increase of education, health care and
  provision of water not much improvement in
  economic wealth perception of loss (of livestock
  and pastoral way of life) and being surrounded
  by enemies.

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The workshop programme consisted of eight major
elements 1. Introduction and a round of
personal life histories, focusing on the
importance of the disasters of 1979-86, and of
later years for their personal lives (day 1) 2.
Writing personal life histories (on-going during
the workshop, partly assisting one another). 3.
Reconstruction of the local history since 1979,
focusing on problem years (day 1). 4.
Discussion about poverty and about the changes in
capabilities between 1980 and 2002 (day 1) 5.
Reconstruction of all development projects in
four sub-areas (day 2) 6. Assessment of the
impact of projects and activities on each of six
groups of capabilities, and on their importance
for poverty alleviation (day 2). 7. Grading of
all projects per sub-area, per subgroup of men
and women, and selecting and discussing the ten
best and the ten worst projects (day 3). 8.
Final discussion about the development prospects
of the area and about the virtues and vices of
donor support (day 3).
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The 1979-86 disasters and external responses

• 1979-80
• insecurity/raids, rinderpest, drought/famine,
  army operation, cholera, Roman Catholic Mission
  (Italian) expands activities
• 1981
• same, Red Cross services, no dowry payments, gold
  mining, ACCK and AIC/RCA missions (both
  US-backed) start activities
• 1982/83
• Major Turkana and Karimojong raids, gold mining
  (many places), failed military coup, home guns
  provided by government for self-defence, peace
  treatyPokot-Karimojong, but failed start some
  ASAL projects Dutch aid (and start of our
  research programme), rapid expansion of education
  (school food aid)
• 1984/85
• raids (Turkana), major army operation,
  drought/famine, exodus to the South, peace
  Pokot-Karimojoing 1986
• major army operation, famine, start Turkwel dam
  construction, start Kasei dispensary by Kenyan
  government and Dutch aid

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Self-assessment of recent local history by using
the Capabilities approach (adjusted from
Bebbington)

• Changes in six capability domains since 1986
• - natural environment
• - physical environment
• - human resources
• - economic and financial capabilities
• - social and political
• - cultural
• Assessment type of changes, and value judgement
  positive or negative
• Based on different groups area-based and
  gender-differentiated

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EXAMPLE-1 NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
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EXAMPLE-2 CULTURAL CAPABILITIES
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Assessing interventions ( projects)

• Differentiating between four major intervening
  actors
• Government agencies
• Arid and semi-arid lands programme (Dutch aid)
• Church agencies (often foreign sponsored)
• Non-Church NGOs (often foreign sponsored)
• Status differentiation of each project
• A Project is still on-going, no impact to be
  decided yet
• B Finished projects
• - 1 project never really started, or was
  negligible just talk
• - 2 project existed, but had no lasting impact,
  nothing to be seen on the ground anymore,
  unsustainable
• - 3 project was finished and had an impact that
  is perceived to be positive
• - 4 project was finished and had an impact that
  is perceived to be negative

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Self-assessment of projects by men and women in
four areas
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Self-assessment of capability orientation of
projects
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Self-assessment of best 10 and worst 10
projects in four areas
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Reasons for judgement

• Positive
• Outcome fits own agenda of people
• Realistic ambitions at start
• Approach (planning and implementation) is
  respectful
• Long-term commitment
• Flexibility
• Negative
• Parachuted
• Unkept promises
• Disrespectful approach
• Hit and run by non-locals
• Creating tenions in the community without being
  there to assist in mediation

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Need for more holistic, people-centred
development interventions

• In practice, project/interventions often done
  with tunnel vision (sector aid, without
  integration integrated rural development
  cancelled for no good reasons).
• In practice donors/intervention agents have
  different and competing intentions
• national development
• national integration
• legitimise government authority
• restoring peace and order
• poverty alleviation
• empowerment
• environmental conservation
• proselytization (e.g. Evangelization)
• teaching them a lesson

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article Kikula et al. Tanzania

• Shows how many potential linkages between
  economic growth, poverty alleviation and
  environmental conservation get lost because of
• - lack of education and skills among
  development staff and in the community
• - lack of community participation in design and
  implementation of projects
• - Lack of effective representation of women.
• I would add lack of holistic, integrated
  thinking and current overemphasis on bureaucratic
  sectors (sector approach) and separate Goals.
• And lack of attention for how geography and
  (cultural) history matter.