The purpose of the Joint Evaluation Mission is to examine the experience gained and results of the ALCOM Programme 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 needs of further assistance and follow-up procedures. The Mission's Terms of Reference are found in Annex 1.
The Mission was composed of 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. After briefing sessions with FAO officers in Rome, on 28 April 1994 the Mission arrived in Harare at the ALCOM's Programme headquarters. The Mission's field procedures used throughout the five countries visited (Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia) consisted of holding working sessions with the FAO Representatives, national, provincial and local authorities involved in the Programme, and ALCOM's field staff. Subsequently the Mission proceeded with field inspection of activities executed, and made every effort to enter into a dialogue with the target population: extension agents, fish farmers, women's groups, chiefs and community members of villages surrounding small water bodies. A detailed account of the Mission's itinerary in the five countries, together with a list of the resource persons interviewed is found in Annex 2. Annex 3 contains ALCOM's list of publications. Annexes 4 – 8 contain field visit reports of the 5 countries. Annex 9 is a case study of community-based management of two reservoirs in Zimbabwe.
Although the Mission's duration in absolute number of days (40) was long, the time was not sufficient with respect to the magnitude of the task. There was an enormous amount of material to process and many location-specific issues to take into account--without considering time spent on travel.
