ETMA Ruhengeri environmental analysis and management

The evaluation covered the period 7/85-3/86; no methodology is given. Project staff systematically developed a data base on the Prefecture"s environment, producing major reports on forestry and agroforestry, socio-ecological interactions, water resources, agroecology, mining impacts, soil conservation, and resource data base development and management, including resource maps of the Prefecture. These data, which are overall of good quality, are now being analyzed and synthesized in preparation for a final state-of-the-environment report. A more formal research plan would have facilitated the task of analysis/synthesis and made the use of consultants more efficient. In regard to institutional development, the project provided formal training in resource management to the assistant project manager (who has become a government official) and sponsored a formal prefectural seminar on resource management. The seminar was well attended by local and national Government of Rwanda (GOR) officials and made specific recommendations for future GOR action. The project also made a specific effort to employ University of Rwanda and other indigenous personnel. Informal institutional development has occurred through continued policy-oriented interactions with the GOR (whose interest and involvement, which has increased significantly, should be formalized in Phase II). OAR/R supported the evaluation"s recommendations with two exceptions. First, OAR/R feels that this 2-year project should focus on short-term training (and he will try to meet long-term training needs through other A.I.D. projects). Second, the project should try to develop institutional linkages not by creating a new formal structure but by integrating its activities with those of a GOR agency, preferably the Ministry of Agriculture"s Agriculture Survey Unit. OAR/R was disappointed that the evaluation glossed over the project"s inability to achieve a major objective - to help the GOR institutionalize integrated resource management practices in its development decisions at the prefectural level. For Phase II, OAR/R will address this issue by requiring GOR"s personnel and financial commitment, as well as its assistance in finding an institutional home for the project.