By T, Staffer of De Birhan Media
30-10-2011
The Rural Capacity Building Project (RCBP) a
Project run by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MOARD), launched with the loan
from the World Bank, and jointly financed by the Canadian International
Development Agency to assist Ethiopian rural development will cease tomorrow,
October 31, 2011. The Project was started in 2006 with the objective of strengthening
agricultural services and systems to make them more responsive to client needs.
The World Bank estimates the
total project cost to be over US$ 71 million. The major components of the Project are:
1) Capacity building for Agriculture Technical
and Vocational Education and Training (ATVET).
2) Capacity Building and support for Agricultural
Extension systems
3) Agricultural Research
4) Improving information and communication system within
MOARD
5) Development of Agricultural Market Intuitions
This and similar
kinds of Projects funded by the Bank with the aim of reducing poverty or for
food security purposes have often been criticised for failing to meet their
targets. The targets were unachieved mainly due to the politicisation and corruption
of the funds by the main implementing body that is, the Ethiopian government. The
RCBP, one of these many WB funded projects in rural development areas, is
another Project that just completed without any tangible progress i.e. achieving
food security or rural development, in the opinion of this writer. Ethiopia with this many funds and projects in place
still begs the world for more food aid and assistance to its framers who
nominally have been “benefiting from these agricultural and rural development projects”.
Sequence 11 of the Implementation Status Results Report of the Bank published in May 2011 (here) states that the Overall Implementation Progress (IP) of the RCBP was Moderately Satisfactory. This writer also acknowledges the level of progress seen in training more Ethiopian rural development scholars in merited Western Universities. However, the same Report states
Implementation
progress over the last six months is mixed (before May 2011). Disbursement
continues to be high relative to earlier years, particularly on Components 2
and 3 (Strengthening Agricultural Extension Services and Enhancing
Institutional Capacity of the Agricultural Research System) which constitute
the bulk of the Project but other Components are delayed, some seriously.
Furthermore, some key weaknesses are observed in financial management and
procurement; and, land for the construction of a Livestock Quarantine Station previously
used by 12 households has been acquired without a Resettlement Action Plan
(RAP).
For
instance, one of the major components of the Project, agricultural extension
has been one of the areas identified by researchers as a component that lacked improvements
and was full of challenges such as a client-oriented extension system than being
client-driven, lack of cooperation between farmers and extensionists and
political roles of the extension workers.
The
Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum, a.k.a. Medrek, in its press statement
last week accused the Ethiopian government of using its Development Agents and
Extension Workers for political and spying purposes disabling the social
capital, fabric, and trust at the grassroots.
In 2005, the World Bank and other donors suspended direct
budget support to the Ethiopian government following a post-election crackdown but
aid was soon resumed under a new program, "Protection of Basic Services”
that channelled money directly to district governments.
On
a recent investigative report conducted by Human Rights Watch (HRW) entitled "Development
without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repression in Ethiopia," a World Bank staff member was quoted as saying
"Which
state are we building and how? It could be that we are building the capacity of
the state to control and repress." With
the knowledge of the misuse of aid for corrupt and political purposes , channelling
the fund through the regime is farcical.
