Project assistance completion report : Tara II integrated rural development project, Niger -- 683-0245

Despite the best efforts of all concerned, results of the project, which was largely implemented by local cooperatives, were far from its ambitious, perhaps even unrealistic, expectations. Rice, poultry, and fish production activities had decreasing outputs each succeeding year, while the component to train rural artisans encountered serious problems as the artisans had little access to credit. With the end of the project, all activities have apparently come to a complete stop and the project site has been completely abandoned. A mid-term evaluation by RONCO and Africare's own completion report cite various factors as hindering project implementation. (1) The people of Tara were not motivated because they never really suffered from serious drought problems or famine. (2) Since the beginning of activities under Tara I in 1976, the members of the different cooperatives were not required to pay for inputs and services. (3) The villagers did not associate their personal interests with the cooperatives' goals, objectives, or activities. (4) The members were not trained or involved in all the operations a production cooperative must manage (inputs, marketing, transport, etc.). (5) The village of Tara is split into different factions, and some people worked against the project because they were excluded from its decisionmaking hierarchy. Also, the chairmen of the cooperatives apparently were not elected by the members but appointed by the village chief from his family. (6) The TA team (agronomist, community development specialist) did not coordinate their activities in a way which supported one another, nor did they collaborate with similar projects in neighboring areas. A.I.D.-funded development projects should be set up according to A.I.D. standards. It is difficult to use A.I.D. policies and regulations to assess a completed project if these have been ignored during the project's life. Future grants should stress that village involvement - in terms of both labor and money - is required. TA should be used for training and counsel, not as a substitute for villager participation. Finally, marketing remains a critical problem in income-generating activities; the Tara experience shows that if grain stocks from previous campaigns are not sold, farmers will have no reason to continue farming during the dry season. A project situated so close to countries offering more competitive goods and prices than Niger is highly influenced by the domestic, regional, and import prices of agricultural products.