UK Aid Match Project Completion Report

To be completed by DFID: This Top Sheet captures the headlines on the project performance over the course of its lifetime.

Review Date:
Title:
Project Code: / Start Date: / End Date:

1. Summary of Project Performance

Year
Programme output Score
Risk Rating

2. End of project Outcome score:

3. Financial Position

Project expenditure: Has an expenditure report for the entire lifetime of the project been received and checked? Y/N

(Attach this to the PCR).

Estimated match funding / £
Final match funding / £
Project Value / £
Project dates
Extensions/ amendments
Log-frame revisions (dates and quest numbers of revised logframe)
Total project spend

4. Summary of Communications Achievements

Appeal name
Appeal dates
Main communication partners
Number of donors to appeal
Number of Opportunities to view – Appeal
Number of Opportunities to view – Report back (date and comms partner?)

i)Information from initial six month report:

ii)Information from first annual report and any subsequent reports:

5. Follow up actions required following closure

To be completed by UK Aid Match partner:

This template is used for the final annual report of a project and covers progress made during the whole of the project life-time.

Please complete each section of the review template. Expand boxes as required.

Guiding notes are provided in red italics. Please delete guidance notes before submitting.

The Annual Review assesses and rates outputs using the following rating scale.
Description / Scale
Outputs substantially exceeded expectation / A++
Outputs moderately exceeded expectation / A+
Outputs met expectation / A
Outputs moderately did not meet expectation / B
Outputs substantially did not meet expectation / C

A: SUMMARY

Name of grant holder: Islamic Relief Niger / Project title: Food Security and Livelihood Rehabilitation Project in Tillabery Region (FSLR)
Project Value: / PCR Review Date:Agreed submission date 2/09/2016
Project Value:570,990 GBP (500,000 GBP DfiD and 70,990 GBP IRUK)
Start Date:1st April 2013 / End Date:30 June 2016

Summary of main lessons learnt during project

Main lessons learnt
  • The partnership with government district agencies greatly contributed to the sustainability of projectactivities. In fact, most of activities were conducted in partnership with relevant government technical district agencies (livestock, agriculture, rural engineering, and environment). That enable to better design activities and reach all the beneficiaries. In addition, a solid linkage between district technical bodies and beneficiaries was created. Thus, even beyond the project life time beneficiaries will continue interacting with technical agencies because of their continued presence on the field. Each community has the contact of all the extension services involved in the project.
  • Through community meetings and monitoring sessions IRN has learned from beneficiaries that irrigated farming (garden activities) has the highest likelihood to achieve food security and income that can lead to a better social wellbeing. As an evidence, where the gardens are successful, neighbouring communities have been inspired to replicate the gardens using their own means, so IR Niger has learned that there is a genuine appetite for these projects and potential to replicate them in other villages. However, there is a need to increase the size of irrigated land per beneficiary.
  • The community have preference forthe local goats compared to the red goat despite their higher economical advantage. During the first community mobilisation, the beneficiaries were willing to receive red goats, but after the delivery of the goats it has been found that they are difficult to manage and prone to fighting. Also, beneficiairies prefer female goats only. Therefore, during the second distribution cycle, local female goats were distributed and for those beneficiaries who requestedand received red goats, they were trained to better manage them.
  • In some of the villages, the irrigated agriculture land has been facing a lack of water from the existing deficient water points. Therefore, IR Niger has learned that in future, it is important to install new water point dedicated to irrigation only in addition to the communities’ existing water facilities. In the villages where the issues were observed the project dug additional shallow wells to solve the problem.
  • At the beginning of the project, most of benefeciries were reluctant to consume goat’s milk. This was captured through field visit and meetings with communities. An intense community mobilization on milk benefits and training on milk processing helped in positive behaviour change toward the consumption of goat’s milk.
  • Construction of artificial fish pond activities were very challenging and have negative impact on the environment due to the types of materials required and high cost. The discussion with the environment enabled to overcome these challenges and find appropriate way of stocking fish and managing it through natural pound.
The lessons learnt from the distribution of goat were incorporated not only in the DFID project but in the other project such as IR Netherlands funded project (Resilience in Ouallam (RIO)) where 1000 local female goats were delivered to 500 women. Also, training on goats milk processing were also conducted to increase awareness of its benefits.
Recommendations
  • Future projects should take into account the capacity building of district technical services agents. They sometimes lack training on new extension practices to provide higher quality support to rural communities. In addition, they generally lack appropriate means of transportation. For example in the districts where the DfiD project operated, out of 4 services involved in the project only one (environment service) had a field car. The rest doesn’t have even motorcycle to operate properly and timely. The agents have to go about looking some means of transportation to project sites whichis mostly the main cause of delay in implementation of some activities.
  • For gardening activities, future projects should increase the size of land per beneficiary (i.e. at least 200 meter square per beneficiary)to drive ahigher income and food security impact. The anticipated challenge will be the availability of good community land or willingness of individual farmers to provide their own land to the whole community.

B: PERFORMANCE AND CONCLUSIONS

B.1 Outcome statement:

Capacity of 994 HH (3282 men and 3,667 women) in 10 vulnerable villages in Tillabery strengthened to improve access to food and income.

B.2 Performance

Indicator / Baseline / Year 1 milestone achievement / Year 2 milestone achievement / End of project target (year 3 milestone) / End of project achievement (how much of year 3 milestone was met?)
%of households have access to three meals a day / 15% of people in the project area have access to three meals a day / Not on track / On track. / 20% of people in the project area have access to three meals a day / 50% of people in the project area have access to more than three meals a day (estimates)
% of households exceeding the income poverty line of $1 per day / 79% of HHs in the project area live on less than $1 a day / Not on track / On track / 28% of HHs live on more than $1 a day / 30% of HH live with more than $1 a day (estimates)
Households producing cereal and practicing gardening activities / Household cereal production is 640 kg/year and 17% of the population practice gardening / Gardening part On track
Cereal prodiction not on track (due to drought) / On track / 286 HHs produce 704kg of cereal per year and 28% of population practising gardening activities / 105% of target is achieved:300 HH trained in cereal production and more than 50% of population practice garden activities (women rarely practice gardening activities before pfroject). The production per year was estimated at 750kg per year. That could be greater if drought was not frequent during the last three years
Number of acres of land restored / 1,500 ha of forest and land is degraded and unusable / On track / On track / 47 ha of forest and land restored / 100% of target is achieved : 47 ha of forest and land restored
All the target for the outcome indicators were overachieved. The evaluation shows income diversification and improvement after the implementation of the project in all beneficiairies communities. Male farmers were trained in best-fit agriculture practices to adapt their farming condition to the climate change and poor soil quality. These technics had the potential to considerably improve the yields and improve food security. Whereas female were engaged in dry season farming to fill the gap caused by rain fed agriculture deficit. Since the installation of gardens in the 10 villages it is becames very rate to find a woman or a girl not practicing gardening activities. The 47 ha of land that was restored provided additional land to farmers for millet and cowpea production. In addition, the construction of half-moons prevented the neighbouring farms from the occurrence of flood and water erosion.
At the end of the project,beneficiaries no longer depend 100% on rain fed agriculture results. There were drought condition during the 3 years of implementation of the project but no famine was declared within these 10 communities as was in the past.

C: DETAILED OUTPUT SCORING

C.1

Output statement / Households supported with income generation initiatives
Output number / 1 / Output Score / A++
Risk: / Low / Impact weighting (%): / 25%
Output statement / Farmers supported to improve agricultural and livestock production
Output number / 2 / Output Score / A++
Risk: / Low / Impact weighting (%): / 45%
Output statement / Local CC adaptation strategies strengthened and women participate in natural resource management
Output number / 3 / Output Score / A
Risk: / Medium / Impact weighting (%): / 30%

C.2

Indicator / Baseline / Year 1 milestone achievement / Year 2 milestone achievement / End of project target / End of project achievement
1.1 Number of women receive microcredit in-kind grants / Women do not have access to micro credit in the project area / On track (110 women receive microcredit in-kind grants) / On track
(210 women receive microcredit in-kind grants) / 200 women receive microcredit in-kind grants / 210 women received microcredit in-kind grants
1.2 Number of women trained to start IGAs / 256 women (9% of all female beneficiaries) trained to start IGA's / Not on track (189 women trained to start IGA's) / Not on track (448 women trained to start IGA's) / 506 women trained to start IGA's / 750 women trained to start IGAs
1.3 Number of fishermen receive stocked fishponds / 0 fish ponds managed and stocked / Not on track / Not on track / Two fishponds managed and stocked for 10 fishermen / 2 natural ponds stocked with fish and managed by 10 fishermen per pond (20 fishermen in total)
1.4 Number of beneficiaries receiving cash income as a result of cash-for-work activities / No beneficiaries benefit from cash-for-work activities / On track / 1,060 beneficiaries (445 women/615 men) partake in cfw activities / 1060participated to cash for work and received income(537 women / 523 men)
2.1 Number of farmers receive agricultural inputs and trained in new techniques / 1,956 farmers (1,174 women, 782 men) trained and 4,050 farmers (2,390 women and 1,660 men) have access to agricultural inputs / On track / On track / 3,100 farmers (1,000 women and 2,100 men) trained and have access to agricultural inputs / 3,100 farmers (1000 women and 2,100 men) trained and have access to agricultural inputs (double counting was applied)
2.2 Number of community gardens maintained by women / No community gardens / On track / Not on track (9 gardens installed out of 10) / 10 new gardens established for 100 women / 10 gardens established and 1000 women trained in gardening (100 women in each garden)
2.3 Number of goats introduced to the community and receive care / 0 goats present in the community / Not on track / On track / 400 goats distributed to 200 women and 18,000 goats provided with treatment / 425 goats distributed to 210 women and 18405 small ruminants provided with treatment
3.1 Number of adaptation strategies adopted and women involved in the management of natural resources / No local initiative to manage local resources / Not on track / Not on track / 360 women and 40 men Implement community DRR plans / 500 female and 208 male beneficiaries identified and committees set up in each village
3.2 Number of hectares of forest areas rehabilitated / No locally implemented strategy for unused land and degraded forest recovery / On track / On track / 47 ha of forest rehabilitated with plantation of 5,175 agro forestry plants (Acacia Senegal) / 47 ha of forest rehabilitated with plantation of 7,206 agro forestry plants (Acacia Senegal) and 2,000 jujube fruit trees (Sisyphus Mauritania)

C.3Comments on progress towards output targets

Indicator 1.1
The in-kind grant was designed to provide 400 goats to 200 women. Thus, FSLR project in Tillaberi region reached 210 women in two rounds of distribution by December 2015. During the 1st distribution 110 women were reached. In fact the overachievement was made possible through negotiations with local stakeholders and IR Niger to acquire more goats for 10 additional women. During the 2nd distribution 100 women received by the FSLR project following 2 lessons learned from the 1st distribution:
  • Beneficiaries have particular preference for local goat’s because they are larger than red goats despite the scientific evidences of advantages of red goats over local goats in term of leather quality, number of births per year and milk productivity,
  • There are enough male goat in the intervention area so that only female goats are needed by women for reproduction instead of male and female together.
The 210 women were reached by the in-kind grant under the condition of sharing offspring’s to their peers. In fact, in each of the 10 villages 2 lists of beneficiaries were elaborated. Through community mobilization activities each direct beneficiary was linked to a secondary beneficiary to benefit from 2 offspring when they reach a certain age. These women are organized in groups so that the monitoring of the goats and offspring’s sharing was managed at beneficiaries level.
That arrangement ensured pursuing of the goat’s offspring sharing beyond the project lifetime given the fact about 15% of goats produced kids by March 2016. However, about 5% of women have already shared 1 to 2 offspring’s (2 in Deytagui, 3 in Boukou Beri, 2 in Loga, 2 in Goutoumbou Goroutché, and 1 in Kanda).
The indicator was met at 105%.
Indicator 1.2
The FSLR in Tillaberi Region conducted capacity building activities to promote income generating activities controlled by women. Overall the 750 women were trained to start income generating activities. Three set of capacity buildings activities were conducted by the project to meet that indicator.
The 1st training was conducted on trees and seedling nurseries production where 266 women were involved. That activity enabled women to improve their knowledge in term of nurseries keeping. As a result they produced Acacia trees and Moringa that planted in and around the gardens.These trees provided shelter for garden activities against the harsh winds in December when garden activities are intense. The planted trees increased the productivity of vegetable crops by reducing the damage to crops by wind erosion.Women produced and sold vegetable crops nurseries to earn income. Following the training, the women were able to produce trees from their planting activities and sell them in the market, creating an income generating activity. That activity is well aligned with the Nigerien’s government’s ‘3N’ strategy (Nigeriens Nourishing Nigeriens) that promoted nurseries keeping.
The 2nd capacity building activity was conducted around goat’s milk promotion for women. Thus, 299 women were trained in milk processing (in dried cheese and yoghurt) and intensive animal rearing including small ruminants fattening. That activity focused on direct beneficiaries of goats of the FSLR project. These training were conducted under close partnership between IR Niger and the livestock agencies of Ouallam and Filingue. The training was mainly conducted around milk processing in local cheese (fresh milk of goat and cow) and yogurt (with fresh milk of goats and cow, and powder milk). That activity enabled women to add value to the distributed animals. Trained women undertook the transformation of the surplus of milk to produce dried cheese that can be used during the low milk production period. Most of communities was reluctant to consume goat’s milk at the beginning of the project. They were pointing out the fact that goat’s milk provokesdermatosis. The intensive community mobilization sessions carried on to create awareness on the importance of goat’s milk consumption for human being and especially children was successful. That was coupled with comprehensive training of women on milk processing in cheese and yoghurt. That yielded a growing consumption of goat’s milk in the intervention area. Theseintensive training and sensitisation of women on the importance of goat’s milk have driven some changes in villages where beneficiaries did not consume goat’s milk for cultural reason. In fact, most of women having goats with offspring claim that they now consume goat’s milk after being trained in milk processing. The small quantity of milk produced per goat becamethe major constraints to goat milk availability and consumption. But there are still women not consuming goat’s milk because the goat’s milk is still low at beneficiary’s household level. In other words goat’s milk consumption is now more limited by the availability than cultural dimension. In fact, beneficiaries that observed births of goats pointed out the low quantity of milk production due to lack of enough fodder to feed them. The lack of enough fodder to feed the animals in the intervention area was related to the recurrent drought faced by the region of Tillaberi during the three years of the project. Even the offspring hardly got milk from the mother goat. Women perceived the human consumption to reduce the availability of milk for the offspring and will have negative effect on its growth.