Objective
The main objective of this evaluation is to systematically review Bank assistance in the agriculture and rural development sector in Morocco, from the point of view of Bank and country strategies as well as aid in the form of lending and non-lending operations.
Main Lessons
- The experience of the Oriental Pastor Livestock Development Programme has shown that a two-tier administration can hamper the management of a project. Projects covering extremely vast areas may cause management difficulties. It is necessary to limit Integrated Rural Development Projects (IRDP) to smaller areas.
- The sustainability of some projects is threatened by beneficiaries’ lack of resources. There is a need to strengthen the community-based small producer financing system in order to render microcredit accessible to them.
Main Recommendations
Recommendation(s) to the Bank :
- Country Assistance Strategy : the Bank should gear its assistance strategy towards the preparation of in-depth sector studies (agroindustry, training, fisheries, rural crafts, etc.) likely to enhance both its policy and programme dialogue and project portfolio. Such an option should form the basis of a programme approach.
- Project Cycle : the Bank should participate vigorously in project identification and preparation phases in order to improve performance in the processing of goods and services contracts. Decentralization could contribute towards this process.
- Aid Coordination : the Bank should own the desire expressed by Morocco, thus assuming leadership to conduct consultation and harmonization of actions among donors.
- Bank Competitiveness : the Bank’s financial products should be marketed permanently to ensure their competitiveness.
- Training of Project Managers : the Bank Agricultural Management Training Programme should be used to train Moroccan project managers. The procedures mastery and performance improvement plan (PIP) modules should be taught to potential project officers.
Recommendation(s) to the Beneficiary :
- Training of Managers : the Government should use the Bank Agricultural Management Training Programme to periodically update the knowledge of the sector project officers on Bank procedures and project management. The performance improvement plan (PIP) is a very useful module for project management.
- The Government should avail itself of the PDPEO experience (Figuig and Oujda) to adopt a more local and restricted integrated development approach. Given their role, women should be specifically targeted in development projects.
- In the face of difficulties in financing small farms, the Government should design a new approach that makes a distinction between farms on the basis of production, agricultural land base and specific context.
- The sector policy dialogue should be extended to include various donors, with effective Bank participation.
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