Dominica agricultural sector support (DASS) program : program number 538-0176/538-K-605 -- program assistance completion report (PACR)

Each of the five planned outputs were accomplished: a comprehensive agricultural diversification strategy was developed and is still being implemented by the Dominican government and its private sector partners; there is now one national level joint public/private sector steering committee for diversification projects and a series of less formal working groups focused on specific crops or projects; the government passed a decree allowing non-banana producers access to banana marketing infrastructure, and also closed down and sold off or leased non-essential banana industry facilities to private processors and/or producers; the government passed a decree allowing private sector access to government packing facilities; and an in-house evaluation of the diversification program was completed and some important recommendations for the local currency funded activities are being implemented by the Dominican government. As a result, the program has created a climate more favorable to agricultural diversification and export promotion and has greatly expanded the capacity of both public and private sectors for analyzing, planning, and implementing policy reforms and activities in support of crop diversification and export promotion. Moreover, the Dominican government developed and continues to implement with local currency its own, complementary activities, including programs to support new and rehabilitated planting, postharvest marketing activities, livestock development, and farm to market roads. Lessons learned are similar to those learned under similar programs and projects undertaken under the Caribbean Basin Initiative. (1) Where government policies and regulations are impediments to crop diversification and investment/export promotion, the best strategy is to remove such barriers and to promote private sector investment. (2) This program's approach attacks the problem(s) from several directions and provides more than one type of resource (i.e., both U.S. and local currency) to support program objectives. (3) Well-designed programs are easier to manage and require less staff and other resources to make them work than do old style development assistance projects. (4) Under this program, one could clearly see all of the linkages among various program activities and resources. Conditions precedent were met, signifying that the government had removed barriers to private sector led investment, resulting in disbursment to the GOCD of U.S. dollars which in turn were bought by the private sector to import needed equipment and supplies from the United States; this in turn generated local currency which was used to support crop diversification and export promotion activities by and for small farmers and private industry. (5) Well-designed and managed non-federal audits are one of the most useful tools available to project officers and Mission management. The lack of such audits early in the life of the program resulted in compliance problems and delays in disbursements and overall program activities that should not have occurred.