Somalia N.W. community forestry project, CDA forestry, phase I (OEF) 649-0112 : internal end-of-project evaluation

External final evaluation covers the period 12/84-12/86 and is based on site visits and interviews with personnel of, inter alia, SWDO, OEF, USAID/S, NRA, and other cooperating PVO"s. In terms of employment provided and beneficiaries reached, the project more than achieved its targets. In only 2 years, OEF and its NRA and SWDO counterparts created a service-oriented extension/community education organization which operates at both refugee camps and villages in and near Hargeisa, and is managed mainly by local staff, many of whom are women. Project-trained male and female extension staff are actively promoting a range of forestry, conservation, and horticultural activities (beyond targets), and a local capacity to instruct additional staff is in place. The project"s emphasis on helping refugees and villagers set up their own enterprises (e.g., fruit tree nurseries) has led several groups to develop small businesses on their own. Also, an encouraging number of unsolicited requests for advice, seedlings, and assistance (e.g., in establishing live fences or nurseries) were addressed. However, efforts to establish woodlots for fuelwood production were not successful because the NRA, unable to resolve traditional land use rights in the project area, could not provide OEF with good-quality land as agreed. Some 60-70 ha of woodlots were planted, but growing conditions are poor and survival rates are expected to be under 60%. As a result, two of the project woodlots are now being used as model natural resource rehabilitation sites, with encouraging first results. In all, some 270,000 seedlings were produced - about 50% of the unrealistic target, which was based on technically inaccurate spacing criteria for plantings in arid areas. About 80,000 of the seedlings were used for amenity plantings around compounds and in public places and these are doing well. Construction is far behind schedule due to, inter alia, delays in receiving funds and lack of cooperation from Somali offices, but more discouraging, in OEF"s view, has been the lack of collaboration from NRA and USAID/S. The remoteness of the project area and the fact that OEF, alone among cooperating PVO"s, does not have permanent in-country staff or a local headquarters in Mogadishu appear to have put OEF at a disadvantage. In sum, OEF has made impressive progress in a relatively short time and in a difficult situation. A continuation - with funding from other donors besides A.I.D. - is merited.