Programme and Mission Purposes
1. The ALCOM Programme's purpose has been to assist SADC member countries to investigate aspects of aquaculture development, and to test and demonstrate methods and approaches that are socially and economically viable, as well as technically feasible. This is carried out through small pilot projects. Tested and demonstrated methods that yield positive results are intended for wider application, either at a government's own initiative or through external assistance projects.
2. The present Joint Evaluation Mission's purpose is to examine the experience gained and results obtained to date. It is anticipated that the findings and recommendations of the Mission will aid the parties concerned to augment their insights of the results achieved, the technical and managerial aspects which require improvement, and the need of further assistance and follow-up procedures. The Mission was composed by Kenneth Ruddle, Luc Risch representing SIDA and BADC, respectively; Eduardo Quiroga was representing FAO and Team Leader; and Charles Maguswi, Raphael Lema, Defrair Bandula as resource persons from SADC. The Mission was briefed on 26 April and debriefed on 31 May, 1994 in FAO's headquarters in Rome.
Main Findings and Recommendations
Main Findings
3. The Programme's results have been prominent, especially with the outputs in extension methodology development and application in Eastern Zambia, a country which has been recently identified as having the highest poverty rate in Africa. It indicates the Programme's potential to contribute to alleviate poverty through food security in the region. For projects to be successful in poverty alleviation, the social and economic objectives need to be balanced; gender issues need to be taken into account; and potential beneficiaries need to be involved in project design and implementation (IBRD 1992). These are some of the characteristics of ALCOM's efforts in Zambia (Annex 8). There are good prospects for replicating them in Mozambique (Annex 6) and Tanzania.
4. In essence, the Programme has developed a practical extension methodology for use in Eastern Zambia; it has successfully trained extension agents, and it has successfully raised the awareness of aquaculture among small-scale farmers. Specifically, the Programme's outstanding achievements during 7 years of activity are:
in bringing together the authorities of different countries.
5. In addition, there are good prospects for the development of management methodologies for community-based fisheries enhancement. The early results from the Zimbabwe work are heartening particularly with respect to the effective application of Rapid Rural Appraisal to obtain community consensus on management procedures (Annex 9). The Programme has been hampered, however, by design and associated implementing constraints.
6. Although the Programme design set out to tackle a relevant development problem, the design itself was less than satisfactory. The objectives, though relevant, required more precise definition and beneficiaries needed a clearer identification. There were a large number of activities: 27 in total within a set 7 incoherent target areas. No joint effect could be expected. The scheduling and duration of nearly half of these activities had to be determined during implementation. The work plan described planned activities logically. Its realism diminished considerably because nearly half of the activities lacked scheduling and duration. In consequence, the overall logic suffered from weak linkages among inputs, activities, outputs and objectives. This was compounded by an inappropriate managerial structure. A relatively small core staff, headquartered in Harare, was expected to conduct testing on innovative techniques, in collaboration with national organizations, throughout the region.
7. During Programme implementation, the donor's uncertain pattern of financing disrupted the timeliness and quality of input delivery severely. The Programme ended up being financed in periods of 1 or 2 years. This financial uncertainty was compounded by inappropriate management priorities, as will be shown below. Owing to that, budgets were nearly always overspent, with consequent delays in planned activities. It was only in 1994 that a detailed budget management system became operational as is shown in Annex 10.
8. The constraints of funding affected staff recruitment and continuity and aggravated by counterpart scarcity and regional institutional weaknesses, led to a shortfall in the execution of activities. Thus, a pattern of nearly haphazard shifts of activities from year to year emerges from the data (Annex 11). This led, per force, to many unfinished outputs and/or outputs of short duration. In fact, out of the 7 target areas, only 3 (women in aquaculture, information service and aquaculture and farming systems) produced relevant outputs to the fulfilment of objectives. Nonetheless, the staff produced a substantial amount of technical publications of uneven quality. The extension publications, in English/Portuguese and Nyanja and Shona, respectively, are clear, practical and relevant as shown in Annex 3.
9. Seemingly, outputs fell short of expectations stemming from the shift in programme rationale from the “preparatory” to the current phases. In the “Preparatory Phase”, ALCOM's rationale was the development of a methodology to introduce and integrate fish farming on small-scale farm. Despite previous recommendations to avoid a “high profile” approach, the current phase relocated headquarters and expert staff to Harare. ALCOM became centralized and attempted to test innovative techniques in the region's rural areas. The number of senior personnel was insufficient, so an unusually large number of APO's were recruited indiscriminately. Irrespective of the uneven performance of APO's, their donors cut down their commitments during execution--disrupting further timeliness, quantity and quality of outputs.
10. In addition, ALCOM expanded to most fields of inland water-related activities, either to please new donors (the human nutrition experience, the women and youth experience), or to satisfy members of the Steering Committee (mariculture, national fish marketing, seaweed collection and culture, intensification and commercialization). Although those fields are important for national development, they are beyond ALCOM's capabilities, unrelated to its central objectives and peripheral to the capabilities and capacity of its staff. In short, accurate and focused execution leading to practical results was needed. Instead management overreached itself by focusing on the promotion of the Programme.
11. Current implementing arrangements are not conducive to sustainability. There are no financial or personnel inputs from SADC to the Programme, and the Programme implements field sub-projects directly with the relevant departments or ministries. Although this modality provides flexibility in implementation, it is not conducive to sustainability because the final responsibility for results belongs not to the local institution but to ALCOM.
12. The effective operational and administrative support for the Programme by FAO Representations greatly facilitated the logistics of implementation. This could not have been replicated by other means. The provision of a TCP during the period of the financial crisis undoubtedly saved ALCOM from premature termination. The Executing Agency has in a large sense fulfilled its commitments. Backstopping was effective.
13. Unfortunately, it is premature to assess the Programme impact because the immediate objectives and target populations were never precisely defined. The impact from current results will become clearly visible only after a few years. The extension methodology developed in Eastern Zambia works well there. We will not until much later if it can be effectively transferred and adapted for application in Mozambique, Tanzania and other countries. Likewise, promising results in small water bodies management development need to be consolidated. The required data should be collected and processed at the earliest possible time in order to sustain the momentum of current developments on Zimbabwe's selected dams.
Recommendations
(i) To the Attention of Donors:
1. The development of community-based management methodologies and extension procedures to introduce fish culture systems into prevalent farming systems are long term objectives which can only be successful if financed continuously for long periods. Donors should assure continuity of project activities for periods of at least 5 years.
2. Since development projects geared to the adaptation of production techniques are complex because practical results must be produced which can be replicated in other countries, fielding preparation/appraisal missions can avoid unguided improvisations. The final design is an important management tool. The cost of these missions rarely exceeds 3% of total project costs. The potential losses, however, far exceed that figure.
3. Given that there is considerable correspondence in approach and objectives between ALCOM and the SIDA-funded Farming Systems Programme (FSP), SIDA should carefully consider ways to integrate common functions of these programmes within the existing institutional frameworks. ALCOM is promoting small-scale fish culture extension and fishing in communities, whereas the FSP is basically implementing a similar programme for other farm products. In both cases the target group is the small landholder. A consolidation of common functions at the administrative and information levels would make better use of donor funds and increase the integration of aquaculture with agricultural practices. ALCOM's best successes were achieved in regions where fish was considered as another crop, and as such was readily integrated into small-scale farming. However, careful attention would have to be paid to institutional arrangements, and the Programme would benefit from increased inputs from SADC. Lastly, the proposed programme design for phase III (Annex 12) is based on the participatory approach. This allows easy integration with agricultural projects.
(ii) To the Attention of SADC:
4. To ensure the sustainability of ALCOM's regional activities, it is highly desirable that SADC explore sources of finance in order that professional staff and other support can be assumed by SADC to the Programme. The communication-dissemination function, including the management of the regional database and library, would be SADC's most desirable activity because of its regional and strategic nature.
5. With respect to the above, SADC should investigate with its new member, the Republic of South Africa, ways and means for an effective participation of the RSA in the development of the region. Indeed, ALCOM's proposal for Phase III could be submitted for general consideration by the RSA, i.e. the financing of the communication-dissemination function could be examined.
(iii) To The Participating Countries:
6. To ensure the sustainability of Programme activities by participating countries, it is essential to increase their ownership of pilot projects in such a way that each country is responsible for the results produced. From the technical standpoint, the effective use of the participatory approach can ensure that the target population, national and project teams, jointly, diagnose the prevalent agricultural conditions, rank the community's felt needs, and design activities to meet these needs (see Annex 12). Ultimately, however, the increase in ownership should be reflected in budgetary allocation or similar commitments. The financial conditions of each country in the region vary significantly, however. Each country's specific commitment will have to be reviewed case by case with the purpose of ensuring that the country assumes responsibility for results produced.
(iv) To Executing Agency:
7. In concurrence with donors yearly supervision missions should be fielded. These missions should review management and disbursement issues but most importantly progress in the actual activities. If launching yearly supervision missions is cumbersome in terms of arrangements, then a mid-term evaluation mission is essential. FAO procedures for mid-term evaluation are adequate. This will provide an opportunity to rectify management procedures, if needed, and ensure future sustainability of activities.
(v) ALCOM's FUTURE
8. The Programme's outstanding success in Zambia, a country ravaged by rural poverty, clearly shows its potential contribution to improve both rural incomes and food security. Similarly, the possibilities to replicate the Zambian model in Mozambique and Tanzania are very promising.
9. From current experience, it is evident that the Programme should focus exclusively on fish culture integration to farming systems and the development of community-based management of small water bodies.
10. Annex 12 contains an outline of a proposed programme design for phase III: definition of objectives, beneficiaries and principal activities including Monitoring and Evaluation for management purposes. Hereunder, the basic features will be explained. It would be useful to field a preparation/appraisal mission. The activities are complex and the executing capabilities of participating countries must be evaluated in order to choose executing modalities proposed. The participatory approach is used to ensure that the target population and project team jointly design and conduct the project. The country must take increased ownership, control and direction of a pilot project so it is responsible for the sustainability of the results produced. The kind of commitment needed from each country will be assessed on a case by case analysis, given the varied conditions of the countries.
11. The Programme is composed of a core management and two projects. The projects are field-oriented and project teams will be out-posted for the duration of activities.
| Project 1: | Integrated small-scale aquaculture with small-holder farming. |
| Project 2: | Enhancement of fish production in community-based managed small water bodies. |
| Core Management: | Aimed at ensuring coordination, Programme management and information dissemination in the region. |
Core Management The core staff, located in Harare, is composed of a Programme manager, an information expert (national) and a librarian (national). The programme manager will ensure coordination between national/regional authorities, implementing agencies (when applicable) and project teams. This post will phase-off once the execution of projects is completed because post-project activities will be carried out by a national collaborating institution. However, the information expert and librarian will continue after phase-off. This is why it would be highly desirable that SADC finds the funds to assume these two posts from the beginning.
Project 1 The project team comprises a Sr. Aquaculturist, an Extension/Training
Expert and an Ag.Eco/Farm Management Expert. Several scenarios are available in
terms of the number of pilot projects and executing modality.
* Initially 3 pilot projects are anticipated in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia,
respectively. This is probably the optimum number. But according to resource
availability it could be increased to 4 or decreased to 2.
The scenarios on executing modalities depend on the country's executing capacity and
availability of implementing agencies.
* Option Acalls for intensive participation of the project team during a period of 4
years with progressive phasing-off to ensure active participation of national
counterparts.
* Option Bcan be used when there is considerable national commitment and an
available implementing agency. So the project team will phase-off after Year 2. This
allows the project team to commence another pilot project under the same option.
From Year 2 to project completion the implementing agency will progressively phase-off
so that by Year 4 the national counterparts will run the project.
At the end of the project, under both options, the national collaborating agency,
chosen because of its capability to absorb and disseminate project outputs among the
ultimate beneficiaries, will continue activities.
Project 2 The project team comprises a Sr. Inland Fisheries Expert, an Extension/Training Expert and a national expert on rural institutions/tenure regimes. Because the small water body conditions of Zimbabwe appear representative of the region, the project will be carried out there. The thrust should be on consolidating the efforts executed in Zimbabwe with the purpose of developing methodologies for community-based management of fisheries enhancement and strategies for reservoir stocking. Actual interdisciplinary analysis, focused on the potential of tenure regimes to absorb proposed management procedures, and precise coordination will be vital. Since the Rapid Rural Appraisal includes grass-roots participation, the participation of target groups and collaborating national organizations is ensured.
