Northern zone infrastructure development project

Evaluation covered the period 7/83-2/87 and was based on document review, site visits, and interviews with Government of Costa Rica (GOCR) and USAID/CR personnel and with beneficiaries. In general, the project is having a positive and wide-reaching development impact. The road improvement and community development components have been success stories and have generated optimism among area inhabitants (although assumptions about the ease of executing a host country contract for road construction were overly optimistic), and the land settlement component is making quite acceptable progress, given its late start and the unexpected shift from simple land purchase to full-blown resettlement and development of asentiamentos. Achievements include: (1) the expected upgrading to all-weather status of 104 km of trunk and feeder roads by 8/87, against a life-of-project target of 152 km; (2) completion of 43 of 65 targeted community projects, with 73 more underway (this overachievement is due to higher community contributions and lower construction costs than expected); (3) 21 of a targeted 55 community development organizations legally established, for a total of 52 in the project area (no more are needed); and (4) one of 5 targeted feasibility studies completed, with 2 other studies and 3 pilot activities planned or underway. On the negative side, only 4,291 ha of land (with a capacity of 548 families) have been purchased against an unrealistic target of 15,000 ha; 320 families have been settled. Progress in land titling has also been slow: against a target of 1,000, only 124 titles have been registered and only 62 delivered. Problems here have been the erroneous assumptions that: (1) it would be possible to select a few blocks of land containing the target group of 1,000 untitled farmers; and (2) titling implementation problems affecting project 521034 were about to be resolved. The target of 1,000 titles should be reached, however. Finally, activities of the Project Coordination and Pre-Investment Fund have been unsatisfactory due to ineffective management by the GOCR Coordination Office. Corrective action in this area was already underway prior to the evaluation. The above-mentioned poblems, combined with a delay in the GOCR"s ratification of the project, have required a 1-year extension of the PACD to 4/88. This delay teaches a lesson: projects that require ratification by the Costa Rican legislature will involve a long delay due to the legalistic bent of GOCR officials.