Gomal Zam command area development project : midterm performance evaluation

The project sought to improve the agricultural and livestock productivity and incomes of 30,000 farm families by helping them fully realize the benefits of a perennial source of irrigation water. The project is far behind schedule, however, thus deferring much-anticipated benefits. The evaluation focused on producing recommendations to accelerate implementation and identifying lessons learned to improve the design and implementation of future government-to-government projects. To address this purpose, the evaluation team reviewed a rich set of documents, interviewed a wide range of stakeholders and beneficiaries, and drew from secondary sources to triangulate findings. The evaluation concludes that a poorly managed design process failed to produce a design document specific enough to effectively guide implementation. Furthermore, staffing and compensation issues embedded in the design left the project without the skills and experience necessary to effectively manage project activities. Because the project has made little meaningful progress on its foundational activities, it generated few benefits. Nevertheless, the evaluation concludes that completing the project has the potential to sustain benefits achieved so far and enhance them substantially. Recommendations for accelerating implementation focus on bolstering the project’s management capacity, producing detailed work plans, filling staffing gaps, reassessing the suitability of consultants, and managing contracts more tightly. In future government-to-government projects, USAID should take a more hands-on approach to project design and implementation, reserving a role in approving design documents and selecting key personnel and providing short- or long-term technical assistance as necessary