Rural planning I

Final PES covers the entire project period, 12/77-6/81, and is based on a review of project documents and interviews with contractor and GOK officials. Although a mid-1978 evaluation found the project unable to to retain trained GOK personnel, late in setting up a Management Systems Evaluation Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), and inadequate in providing GOK and contractor reports, subsequent improvements led USAID/K and other donors to fund a second phase. At the goal level, project staff helped prepare the 1979-83 Kenya Development Program, which stressed small farmer assistance programs, like those in the Machakos Integrated Development Program and A.I.D."s Arid and Semi-arid Lands Project; helped prepare the Kenya Food Policy Paper; and undertook a comprehensive in-country and overseas staff training program. At the purpose level, advisors to the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development"s Rural Planning Unit, with MOA help, conducted training programs and prepared standardized systems for infrastructure inventories, information flow, and project identification. In addition, nearly 40 district plans were developed by the District Development Committees, the heart of the decentralized planning process aimed at by the project. The quality of the plans varied, however, and many were not completed on time to be used in formulating a national plan. Assistance to the MOA resulted in functional sections dealing with strategy planning and commodity analysis, policy planning, project preparation, and management systems evaluation. The project taught that: (1) attempts to prepare 40 district plans simultaneously were foolhardy because of inadequate personnel, poor cooperation with some ministries, and the lack of a data base; (2) there is no clear division between the advisor and the operational line ministry positions; (3) authority over money is the key to decentralization; (4) finding trained counterparts for advisors, especially at the MOA, is a continuing problem; and (5) strong advantage accrues to donors who have access to high level advisors.