Morocco - Agricultural Sector Investment Loan

 Agricultural sector investment loan Report No: ; Type: Report/Evaluation Memorandum ; Country: Morocco; Region: Middle East And North Africa; Sector: Agricultural Credit; Major Sector: Agriculture; ProjectID: P005441 December 21, 1995 Morocco: Agricultural Sector Investment Loan (Loan 3403- MOR) The Morocco Agricultural Sector Investment Loan (ASIL) in the amount of US$50 million was approved in FY92. The Implementation Completion Report (ICR) was prepared by the Middle East and North Africa Regional Office. The Borrower's views are reflected in the ICR mission's aide memoire, but the borrower did not comment separately. The loan helped finance an estimated eight percent of a two-year (1991-92) time slice of the government's total agricultural investment program. In addition, the ASIL was to support institutional changes in the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Operations, specific reforms in the irrigation and livestock subsectors and improve the process of making agricultural investments. Thirtyone percent of the loan was earmarked for grants to farmers to promote improved farming techniques. Planned policy reforms repeated reforms that had been objectives of earlier agricultural sector adjustment loans (Loan 2590, approved FY85 and Loan 2885, approved FY87) and of various irrigation loans. The borrower's public agricultural investment budget during 1991-92 was 31 percent below appraisal projections due to a lower than anticipated government allocation and lower foreign aid. However, the ASIL was fully disbursed and achieved most of its investment objectives. Results in the policy reform area were mixed. Mandated studies were completed, after delays. The Ministry was reorganized, but without reducing overstaffing or improving staff technical quality. A new computerized budget monitoring system was introduced. Livestock privatization continued. Progress in increasing irrigation cost recovery was modest. Project outcome is rated as satisfactory and sustainability as likely by the ICR. However, the Operations Evaluation Department (OED) rates project outcome as marginally satisfactory and sustainability as uncertain, on the basis of the ICR's recognition that benefits are undocumented, the failure of some of the reform objectives, and severe budget cuts that have made achieving adequate levels of agricultural investment difficult. The ICR and OED rate institutional development as modest. Bank performance is rated as satisfactory in the ICR. However, some project objectives were unclear, borrower commitment was underestimated, there were no M&E performance indicators, and the quality at entry of this complex and risky project was unsatisfactory. Supervision is recognized as deficient in the ICR. Hence, OED rates Bank performance as unsatisfactory. The most important lesson of this project is that it would have been better to restrict the investments to areas targeted for policy adjustment. Other lessons point to the need for a strong analytical focus during the supervision of projects with major reform objectives coupled with the need to develop efficient monitoring and evaluation of the investments funded. The ICR provides as adequate an assessment of this complex project as the data available permit. An audit is planned. ........... ...........