Togo low-income shelter

PES covers the period 4/81-12/82 and summarizes an attached A.I.D./GOT evaluation based on interviews with GOT personnel. Due to the worst economic and financial crisis in Togo"s history and the considerable delay caused by the GOT"s failure to borrow funds for the affiliated Housing Guaranty (HG) project (693HG001), only modest progress has been made. L"Agence d"Equipement des Terrains Urbains (AGETU) has received, together with the Togolese Savings Bank (CET), the bulk of project TA, and has evolved into a functioning institution, but one which has yet to implement a project without expatriate assistance and which, due to a lack of financing to implement activities, remains largely untested. Still, AGETU has prepared plans, specifications, and technical studies for five site development projects in Lome (including the prototype Baguida project with the CET) and Kara; its staff has received on-job training in engineering and construction management; and two persons are receiving long-term training overseas as a result of (but not funded by) the project. Although the target of evaluating socioeconomic delivery has substantially been achieved via several sectoral studies and surveys, no progress has been made in strengthening the institutional capabilities of the Direction Generale de l"Urbanisme et l"Habitat (DGUH) in coordinating shelter sector activities or in training its staff. This has largely been the result of personality frictions within the TA team, as well as a lack of cooperation among participating institutions. The technical expert originally assigned to DGUH has moved to AGETU. Major action decisions are to: have the GOT study the use of self-help measures and local resources for shelter improvement; provide TA for a marketing and publicity study related to the Baguida project; and identify appropriate training programs for GOT officials to assure long-term project effects.