Nouakchott City Aftout Essahli Drinking Water Supply Project

Evaluation Team

This interim assessment report was prepared by a joint team of the departments of the assessment of the African Development Bank Group operations (ADB) and the Islamic Development Bank Group. The team is made including:

• Anasse Aissami, Head of Division, special assessments and projects - IDB / GOE;
• Ahmed Ag Aboubacrine, senior specialist assessment - IDB / GOE;
• Joseph Mouanda, upper Evaluation Officer - ADB / OPEV; and
• Clement T. Banse, Evaluation Officer - ADB / OPEV.

The team received guidance and technical advice notified of Manaï Hedi Mohamed, Head of Division (ADB / OPEV). The report was written, first, on the basis of technical notes prepared by Babacar Dieng (International Consultant - Specialist Water and Sanitation), Ndah Sidna Mohammed Saleh (Local Consultant - Socio-Economist Statistician) and Mohamed Abdellahi Ould Selme (local Consultant - Environmentalist), and secondly, from the results of missions carried out in Mauritania from 22 to 27 September 2012 and 7 to 22 December 2012.

Objective

This evaluation was designed and conducted to focus on learning with the aim of helping the Bank to improve its support in this area. The specific objectives were to (i) draw evidence based conclusions on what the Bank is doing and achieving in this area (ii) identify lessons that can be used to improve support in the governance area(iii) learn from experience in the governance area for such work in other sectors.

Main Findings

• The project to increase the capacity of water production by SNDE, to essentially cover the needs of the population of Nouakchott. However, the project has not improved any significant way the sustainable access to safe drinking water, the people of Nouakchott and rural areas along the pipe, due to delays in achieving accused the network of distribution. Moreover, failure to implement the sewerage network could have huge environmental impacts in terms of the amount of wastewater discharged into nature.

 

• Finally, serious concerns remain both in the short, medium and long term about the ability of SNDE ensure optimal management of facilities made available by the project. There are still significant risks on the operationalization of the equipment and the sustainability of project effects. Thus, large-scale actions are needed to make better use of this qualified project "Project of the Century", and for the good of the beneficiaries. They concern both aspects: (i) securing production; (Ii) improved distribution and marketing; and (iii) the sanitation of the city of Nouakchott.

Main Lessons

• Understanding the context. This was highlighted as important in terms of understanding both the context within and beyond the institution supported. Successful projects tended to be based on solid needs assessments, and a design that recognizes the complex political economy in which the institution operates. In the governance sector, political economy is especially important. For example, enhancements in institutional capacity and performance results not only in winners, but some stakeholders lose out from changes to the status-quo, such stakeholders can therefore block reforms and capacitation efforts.

 

• Country ownership and leadership. High level ownership and leadership, particularly where projects seek to support reforms, are crucial. Political blocks can derail projects. Aligning ISPs to broader capacity development or sector strategies supports ownership. Similarly, ownership and leadership at working levels supports project success – including in design and procurement stages.

 

 

• The realism of the time period. Agencies are often unrealistic about the time it takes to develop institutional capacity. They want to demonstrate results quickly, and while outputs may be delivered quickly, capacity development is a longer term process. Short term projects with transformational objectives frequently fail to live up to expectations. Further, in the rush to deliver the outputs on time, longer term sustainability concerns can be deprioritized. This problem is exacerbated by the problem of late start-up –reducing often already limited time for implementation.

 

• Clarity of objectives alongside flexibility in implementation. Successful interventions are characterized by objectives which are clear to all, both at strategic and at operational level. At the same time they include a degree of flexibility both in the design and approaches available and during implementation. The review of evaluations revealed that opportunities to enhance project performance were missed because of limited flexibility in the implementation phase. Capacity development is a complex process, and institutions are constantly changing – both in terms of needs and context, supporting projects also need some flexibility to ensure they are still relevant. In the governance sector specifically, contexts and political economy and change quickly, and projects at the centre of governance reform efforts may be the first affected by political change.

 

 

• Sound monitoring and evaluation. Poor monitoring frameworks are associated with under-performance for two reasons. First, where a framework to establish a logical link between activities, outputs and outcomes (which under the theory of change behind an intervention) has not been developed, there is less assurance that the planned activities and outputs will indeed lead to the desired outcomes. Second, the main role of monitoring is to track progress and to use the information to make adjustments where necessary. This means that poor monitoring, or monitoring focused on financial accountability rather than progress towards results, strips project managers of the tools they need to identify problems and to correct projects that are heading off course.

Main Recommendations

• Reduce fragmentation by: (i) making clear in Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and Regional Integration Strategy Papers (RISPs) the level of prioritization given to this work and ensuring selectivity in which sub-sectors the Bank intends to engage in, based on analysis of country needs, the Bank’s added value compared to other partners, and complementarity with other Bank investments; (ii) designing individual projects which are focused, particularly when funds are limited, rather than fragmenting funding into small parts.

 

• Address the gap in the strategic framework when it comes to the role of Bank operations in supporting capacity development, beyond training, in RMCs and RECs. Develop technical guidance for staff and partners designing and managing projects to support institutional capacity in the governance area, which is practical and also provides criteria which can be used to inform the quality assurance process and which covers the following key areas: i) Context, in terms of needs and political economy. ii) Objective setting and appropriate indicators. iii) Value for money, guidance should include an idea of unit costs (for training, equipment and TA). iv) Preference for coordinated or integrated implementation arrangements and of using of country systems. V) Linkages with Bank guidance on working in fragile contexts, including.

 

• The Bank should invest in its existing staff by developing further in-house expertise in the following key areas crucial to project design and management: i) Assessing country capacity gaps and needs and identifying objectives and indicators that enable measurement of progress towards capacity related objectives. ii) Political economy analysis and the new sub-sectors where the Bank is intending to engage, according to the Ten Year Strategy and the Governance Action Plan II.

 

• Re-focus on regular and substantive engagement with partners rather than periodic supervision of institutional support efforts by (i) re-assessing whether bi-annual supervision remains the most useful indicator to drive monitoring practices; and (ii) devolving overall coordination and leadership for design and implementation to field offices and regional resource centers, wherever possible.

 

• Use institutional support projects to pilot: (i) streamlining of Bank procedures and practices, particularly the long approval process; (ii) using partner's procurement systems wherever possible and, particularly where they have been assessed as adequate for Policy Based Operations.