Botswana rural sector grant : an assessment after one year

Special evaluation covers the period 10/80-10/81 and is based on document review and interviews with project officials. Good progress is being made, despite delays due to A.I.D."s late obligation of funds. Two land use planning projects, four agricultural projects, and a rural industrial development project have been implemented. With regard to land use, four land board buildings were constructed, commodities were supplied to land board staff, and a detailed water points study was completed in Eastern Botswana. Under agricultural production, the Arable Lands Development Program (ALDEP) has instituted a credit scheme to test an improved technical package. Other ALDEP activities, including donkey draft, water tank, fencing, and extension schemes, have not progressed as quickly but lessons are being learned from the problems encountered. Less successful than ALDEP have been agricultural diversification, horticulture, and forestry projects. The rural industry project provided logistic support for a newly created cadre of rural industrial officers. The most serious long-term problem facing the project is a critical shortage of local manpower. This factor, along with institutional bottlenecks and problems in recruiting technical advisors, has delayed several land use activities, prevented implementation of a wildlife development project, and constrained the ALDEP, horticulture, and forestry projects. In addition, while the project has strengthened decentralized planning and villager participation, it has not noticeably raised district-level capabilities to implement, monitor, or redesign projects, and only rarely were projects proposed which attempted to use the RSG in fresh or different ways. It is recommended that: dialogue with district and local officials be expanded to better identify local needs and local constraints; technical assistance budgeted for district officials be doubled; creative projects that capitalize on the RSG"s flexibility be developed; and future needs be carefully analyzed to determine if increased funding is needed.