AFRICAN WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT : KASSACK NORD EVALUATION REPORT

This special contracted evaluation covers the period 1/79-2/80 and is based on document review and site visits. The project is not progressing well. Project implementation was delayed 15 months by bureaucratic and budgetary difficulties between USAID and the Government of Senegal's (GOS) Societe d'Amenagement et d'Exploitation du Delta (SAED). The planned Association of Rural Interest (AIR) is not operational, although several seminars on its organization have been held. Funding for project inputs was inadequate in relation to targeted outputs. The grain mill, maternity clinic, poultry hut, and fabric dying hut were constructed, but are not yet functioning. Some six ha of rice fields are being prepared for harvest, but are not ready for cultivation. As a result, the villagers must live in temporary camps near GOS rice fields for five months each year, thus lessening pressure on SAED to implement project activities. Most outputs have not been realized. The only perceptible outputs achieved have been the vegetable gardens; literacy training (which pre-dated the project); hygiene and maternity instruction conducted by a trained midwife; and sewing and knitting lessons from the project coordinator. Although successful activities have been favorably received, there is little evidence that they have taken place, as planned, within the pre-cooperative AIR structure. It is recommended that: Kassack Nord rice fields be completed before starting other project activities; a feasibility/marketing study of planned activities be conducted; an AIR be made operational and a plan developed which coordinates inputs with women's contributions and focuses on activities with the greatest hope for success; AIR members receive training in bookkeeping, equipment maintenance, and cooperative management; SAED's management skills be upgraded; and USAID monitoring be improved.