Northwest Tunisia : rural development and natural resource conservation

28359 NUMBER 49 *Precis ! Operations Evaluation Department Ju 199 Northwest Tunisia: Rural Development and Natural Resource Conservation For the people of hilly northwest differed on the strategy Tunisia's would not be immediately profitable to Tunisia, land for farning has become Planning Mhnistry envisaged a group of farmers and pastoralists, but it was increasingly scarce but animal hus- punctual interventions. The Banks hoped that the improved practices bandry and cropping are still the main programs department envisaged an recommended by the project would be source of income. Farmers cultivate integrated, poverty-oriented, area-based diffused gradually throughout the narrow, vertical plots on steep slopes, project, and this eventually formed the project area. which causes erosion and soil degrada- basis of theproject's design. The tion. The erosion is hastening the Agriculture Ministry and the Banks This did not happen. With hind- siltation of the Sidi Salem reservoir and agriculture division doubted that enough sight, Tunisia might have been better off jeopardizing irrigation investments on was known to justify investment in an had NWRDP concentrated on building the Medjerda River. area with such limited potential, but rural infrastructure, remedial soil- NWRDP passed through the Bank's final conservation works, and action research In 1981, the Tunisian government reviews with important technical matters to identify land-use system changes began to address these problems through left unresolved, acceptable to farmers. the Bank-funded Northwest Rural Development Project (NWRDP), As approved, NWRDI's goals hnplementation recently audited by OED. * The project were to: supported the first part of a 15-year Despite the borrowes initial program administered by the newly- Eliminate the causes (by altering resistance, ODESYPANO was created as created Sylvopastoral Development current livestock and farming practices) a new, autonomous project authority. Authority for the Northwest and alleviate the effects (impoverished Project implementation was hampered (ODESYPANO). The project success- soils and downstream siltation) of by the decentralization of Agriculture fully provided badly needed infrastruc- resource degradation in the project area, Nhnistry operations and by a hiring ture, including water supplies and raising farmers'incomes in the process. freeze that caught ODESYPANO short schools, and raised consumption levels. 0 Provide public services induding of field personnel. But it did not persuade farmers to roads, water supply, and schools. change their cropping and livestock Organizing rural communities and practices. Its expectations for changes NWRDP aimed to persuade rural eliciting their participation was more in these practices would have been communities to intensify their livestock difficult than expected. The loan closing recognized as unrealistic sooner if basic raising by improving pastures on the was extended by three years. Overall, ecological conditions in the project's middle slopes. This would free the various micro-regions had been better upper, steeper slopes for reforestation. understood. Cropping was to be concentrated on the gentler slopes. Soil conservation mea- Tnsa ot vs ua Goals and design sures were to be introduced, using as Developient Project', Rport No. much local participation as possible. A 12031, June 199.3. OED report,; tire The project took six and a half years forest belt was to be planted around the available to Bank E.-tcutive to come to the Bank's Board for approv- Sidi Salem reservoir. Directors and 5taff from the Intenal al. Interested parties agreed on the need Agricultural specialists recognized Documenis Unit and (rom Regional to redress the region's problems but that the prescribed changes in land use Information Service. Centers. Construction of stone terraces along technical packages that were available, Summary of Lessons contours met targets, but all vegetative it had too few subject matter specialists I contour bunds soon disappeared. Stone and extension agents. ligh turnover in * It L. easier to provide rural public contour terraces were accepted on fallow project management and government works and ierxces than to convince land because the collection of stones restrictions on the recruitment of local farmers and pastorahsts to change made the land fit to cultivate. Pasture staff compounded the staffing prob- their practices. improvement met only one-fourth of the lem. ODESYPANO was so centrally * Without a sound technical target. oriented that extension agents devoted package, there can be no sustainable * Where ODESYPANO tried to change less than a fifth of their time to ad hoc improvement in l%ing standards. farm and stock-rearing systems, results extension. The monitoring and * For forecasting the adoption ot ranged from negligible to modest. Farmers evaluation system began operating nubstatut for a un ertand - were not willing to stop cultivating seven years late, and then was not ingol ogia thorugh andlagrono d steeper slopes, and production did not effective. The Bank was slow to oecological and aronomic intensify on gentler slopes. Since little recognize ODESYPANO's problems, * For tarners to eel part of an improved grazing land has stayed that but later Bank missions were more enterprise, participation has to way, project efforts to increase livestock aware of shortcomings. in olve more than gettmg paid for numbers may have been counterproduc- prescribed manual work tive. Milk and livestock production ODESYPANO's soil and water * Project outcome ratings are continued to increase in Sejnane and conservation engineers commented on inevitably influenced bN the original expanded modestly into adjacent project the involvement of local people in the expectations set for the % enture: the areas; no genetic improvement was project: "But of course they participat- Bank's unsatisfactory rating in achieved in sheep. ed," said the engineers; "we paid them, relation to the demanding tarmung- and they carried the stones and planted system changes that had been Though optimists believe that the the seedlings." Many of ODESYPA- visuahzed) contrasts with the program is on track, the improved NO's engineers believe that, with borrower's satisfactory rating im practices being promoted are unlikely to patience, the top-down approach to relation to more modest expectations). be widely adopted because they are not soil and water conservation, regional -- -_ - _ - - adapted to the ecology of the various planning, and civil engineering will about two thirds of projected works areas being served. Finding conserva- work. But the government, the Bank, were completed, and a third of the Bank tion cropping systems that are acceptable and other financiers now agree on the loan was canceled. to area farmers will depend on sociologi- need to reorient ODESYPANO to elicit cally-sensitive experimentation. beneficiaries' participation in changes What worked, what didn't that affect them. Seminars and ODESYPANO's infusion of cash government studies on partnership * In implementing public works, ODESY- and World Food Programme provisions and participation reveal a growing PANO did well. Drinking-water systems, was the main factor in the project area's drive for ODESYPANO to adapt. milk collection stations, and access roads 11 percent annual consumption increase Whatever happens, it is unlikely that to hamlets were built. The small number between 1985 and 1990 (compared with future public efforts will be as directive of expensive drinking-water systems 6 percent for Tunisia as a whole). and top-down as in the past. originally planned was replaced with 12 times as many simpler, more cost- While the Bank's regional office and The Bank's Country Department effective systems. Trees were planted on the audit found the project marginally notes: State forests are being brought under public lands and generally grew. Access unsatisfactory, the borrower, expecting management plans which are closing them roads made a big difference in the lives slow systemic change as forecast, found to access in order to undertake plantation of the isolated, rural people. the project satisfactory. and natural regeneration. Pilot improved * Efforts to slow down resource degradation pastures are being established on state land had mixed results; almost all measures on Institutional issues in such cases for use by herders and private land were resisted. Control efforts as compensation for traditional forest use succeeded in ravines, which were Overall, ODESYPANO proved which is increasingly unavailable. Local already lost to farming; installation of unequal to its complicated task. The participation is actively promoted in the gully plugs and plantings on banks project management unit failed to carry establishment and use of these improved exceeded targets two and a half times. out adaptive research. To promote the pastures, which is proving successful. OED Pr cis is produced by the Operations Evaluation Department of the World Bank to help disseminate recent evaluation findings to development professionals within and outside the World Bank. The views here are those of the Operations Evaluation staff and should not be attributed to the World Bank or its affiliated organizations. Please address comments or enquiries to the managing editor, Rachel Weaving, E-1204, World Bank, telephone 473-1719. June 1993