Participation and rural development

Missions and host countries to undertake participatory rural development. Final PES covers the period 9/77-12/80 and is based on A.I.D. Bureau reports and project officers" comments. The project has enabled Missions and host country institutions to improve their understanding of the significance and means of achieving local participation in rural development; state-of-the-art papers (SOAP"s) and special studies produced to date been of uniformly high quality. In response to Mission demand, in-depth relationships have been established with six rather than the planned four Missions or LDC institutions. These relationships have been instrumental in strengthening rural organizations in Costa Rica, reshaping a rural water points project in Botswana, conducting baseline research in Yemen, promoting participatory strategies for small-holder irrigation in Sri Lanka, assisting intergrated rural development efforts in Jamaica, and in preparing a system to evaluate rural development projects in Tunisia. Nontheless, delays in implementation and in negotiations with Missions combined with reductions in funding have hampered information dissemination and technical assistance and make it unlikely that all targets will be achieved within the presently allotted time. Thus, project experience taught that local participation and an understanding of local institutions, incentives, and people are critical to the successful implementation of rural development projects. It is therefore recommended that: (1) the project be extended 1 year and receive an additional $250,000 (conditional upon the receipt of a proposed project budget by 5/15/81); (2) A.I.D. reassess its needs in light of the lessons learned in this project; (3) include specific evaluation criteria in the cooperative agreement funding the extension; (4) improve information dissemination; (5) reassess and compare the cooperative agreement mode to other contracting mechanisms in terms of cost-effectiveness, service delivery, proportions of long- and short-term work, design and evaluation work, and information dissemination; and (6) determine whether networking should be a part of future agreements.