Review of Bolivia"s rural development planning grant

Special evaluation covers the period 8/78-11/81 and is based on site visits and interviews with USAID/B and Bolivian officials and project consultants. Contractor activities focused one-sidedly in the last 2 years on developing five project planning and identification methodologies - urban functions in rural development (Potosi), the most successful of the five; statistical profiles (Oruro); lines of intervention (Chuquisaca); sector analysis (Tarija); and ex post facto evaluation (La Paz). As a result, only a few Department Development Corporations (DDC"s) were helped in preparing annual operating plans, and work with the Ministry of Planning and Coordination (MPC) to develop planning system guidelines never got underway. Shortfalls were due to the contractor"s internal disagreement on the focus of project activities and its lack of integration with DDC staffs, the latter"s misconception that the methodologies were to be combined, and - in reference to the MPC - to the 6/80 suspension of U.S.-Bolivian relations and the fact that there were 4 governments and 5 MPC heads during the evaluation period. A victim of the MPC"s low commitment to the project was the Public Administration Institute"s proposed public planning/management training program for the MPC and the DDC"s. On the positive side, a project management methodology (the SMP) using the contractor"s Marco Logico approach was introduced to the DDC"s, significantly increasing their planning capacities and providing a common development language for MPC-DDC cooperation. To redirect the project towards its original objectives, it is recommended that: the project"s entire focus be operational; the MPC become the main implementor and define planning guidelines for the DDC"s; the five methodologies be summarized in a manual and given to the DDC"s along with follow-up technical assistance as needed; the SMP be fully institutionalized in the DDC"s; and, for the next 6 months, only short-term technical assistance be provided to the DDC"s. Also, contractor scopes of work should be approved by the respective DDC"s and the MPC should develop a capcity to service DDC"s by training its own and DDC staff members in the use of the SMP.