Review and Implementation Support Mission

ETHIOPIA

AIDE MEMOIRE

REVIEW AND IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT MISSION

FOR SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT PROJECT

October 06 – 27, 2010

ETHIOPIA

AIDE MEMOIRE

REVIEW AND IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT MISSION

FOR SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT PROJECT

October 06 – 27, 2010

Introduction and Acknowledgements
As per the September 22, 2010 letter sent to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) announcing the joint donor/Government of Ethiopia mission, a team comprising staff from the World Bank[1], German Development Cooperation (GDC), the Delegation of the European Union, Government of Finland, World Food Program, UNDP and the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (GoE) undertook a review and implementation support mission (RISM) for the Ethiopia Sustainable Land Management Project (SLMP) between 6th - 27th October 2010. The main objective of the mission was to undertake a review of the overall progress in project implementation, review the effectiveness of the institutional arrangements at different levels (federal, regional, woreda, kebele, community), and assess the operational effectiveness of the project, and review key issues emerging from implementation of project activities as well as challenges faced.

The mission divided itself into six groups and visited selected watersheds and woredas in all six project regions. Primarily, these field visits were aimed at assessing and reviewing implementation readiness of the various implementation structures and arrangements on the ground and tracking progress in the implementation of the project activities.

Funding currently available to this Project comes from the following sources: US$8.8m from the Government of Ethiopia (GoE); US$20.0m IDA; US$9.0mGEF; €13.3mKfW grant financing and a €15.4m GTZ grant technical assistance financing. A bilateral grant support of €12.8mis expected from the Government of Finland (GoF) to the SLMP. The European Commission has recently provided a grant of €13.7m out of which €8.5m will be invested in the SLM program though a Delegated Cooperation Agreement with the GTZ and the remaining amount will be disbursed through the AgenceFrançaise de Developpment to be used to carry out climate adaptation interventions in Ethiopia.
This draft Aide Mémoire summarizes the mission’s key findings and agreed actions (See table 1), which were discussed at a wrap-up meeting held on 27th October 2010 and chaired by the State Minister for Natural Resources Management Sector and attended by staff of MoA (federal and regional coordination units), the mission members, as well as World Vision Ethiopia and several development partners including staff from other units of the World Bank, GTZ, WFP, and Governments of Finland and Norway.

The mission expresses its appreciation to the State Minister and his entire staff of MoA, the SLM Project Support Unit (PSU), the regional bureaus of agriculture, regional land administration authorities, woreda cabinet members, woreda offices of agriculture and land administration, and the steering and technical committee members for the arrangements made towards the RISM and to all the individuals and groups with whom the mission interacted (See annex 2).

Context

6.The development objectives of the Project are to reduce land degradation in agricultural landscapes and improve the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers. The global environment objective is to reduce land degradation, leading to the protection and/or restoration of ecosystem functions and diversity in agricultural landscapes. Achievement of project objectives will be measured using the key performance indicators below:

Percentage increase in area under sustainable land management practices in the targeted watersheds;
Percentage increase in agricultural productivity (for dominant crops and livestock);
Percentage of development agents and woreda experts in project areas using information on best management practices in sustainable land management from MoARD’s knowledge management system;
Percentage increase in the number of beneficiary farmers with a sense of tenure security compared with non-beneficiaries.

7.The objectives of the SLMP are: (i) to scale up best management practices in sustainable land management practices and technologies for smallholder farmers in the “high potential” (“food secure”) areas that are increasingly becoming vulnerable to land degradation and food insecurity; and (ii) to expand the coverage and enhance the Government’s land certification program, with the aim of strengthening land tenure security for smallholder farmers.

Key Issues from Previous Mission

8.Progress

The absence of baseline data has made it difficult to monitor and report sufficiently on time series targets. Raw socio-economic data has been collected by the Ethiopia Central Statistics Agency (CSA) and are being analyzed to be used to populate the M&E system for the project. The mission was assured by the PSU that analyzed data is expected by 28th February 2011. Also, collection of technical baseline data on land cover/land use, vegetation index, soil fertility parameters and soil carbon stocks is underway and early results should be ready by 30th June 2011.
The Government has made good progress in improving project management capacity by nominating additional staff for procurement and financial management. However, staff turnover remains a challenge to project implementation.
The proposed restructuring of the project has been initiated by the Government’s side and will be completed soon. The key performance indicators, outcome and output indicators have been revised to align with all donor requirements to make them easily measurable and relevant. The mission noted that the lack of clarity of the Project Implementation Manual (PIM) hindered speedy implementation of the projectduring the past two years of project life. There was a consultant appointed and a workshop conducted at the end of June/2010 in Debrezeit, and a lot of information has been collected that could used to improve the current PIM. However, the revision of the PIM is delayed, and the mission urges the project team to bring this soon to conclusion so that it would be used for completing the project restructuring that is expected to be completed before the Mid-term Review (MTR) that is planned to take place in March/April 2011.

III.Key Findings/Progress of Implementation

9.According to the results framework for the SLMP, the project is expected to focus on laying the foundation (i.e., setting up the institutional and implementation arrangements at all levels, putting structures in place for implementation, establishing project support units, establishing teams, building capacity by providing training and skill upgrade, creating awareness, mobilizing stakeholder support, undertaking planning activities, etc) during project years one and two (PY01 & PY02) for actual on-the-ground execution of project activities, which are to start in project year three (PY03). Hence, quantitative results are expected to be reported during PY03. During the past two years since the project became effective, satisfactory achievement has been made in establishing strong institutional foundations for implementing the project at federal, regional, woreda, kebele and community levels. Implementation structures have been established at all levels and they are firmly on the ground and operational.

10.In those sub-watersheds currently being rehabilitated much physical treatment of degraded areas has taken place, and gullies have been effectively treated through application of both physical and biological measures. Lands that were hitherto non-productive have been made productive to grow and produce high value crops such as papaya, avocado, citrus, etc that are generating incomes to poor farmers in the rural communities. Also, bee keeping and honey production have been promoted on reclaimed communal lands and these are good alternative income-generating sources for project communities. Providing income sources to the communities has been one important incentive that has resulted in the high community mobilization and participation that is being observed everywhere in the project areas. We believe that this would be important for ensuring sustainability of the project.

11.Despite facing some start-off (for instance, delays in the release of IDA and GEF grant funds on time and implementation challenges such as low awareness and comprehension levels among key project stakeholders of what the SLMP was about, lack of familiarity with SLM technologies and land certification in some of the regions, etc) at the start of project implementation, nearly all time-series targets set in the result framework for PY1 & 2 have been achieved. These challenges have so far been satisfactorily addressed.

Achievement of Development Objectives

12.Progress

Woreda administrators who hitherto were seen to be inactive in the implementation of the project are now operationally active and providing oversight for SLMP. In most woredas the SLMP has been successfully mainstreamed into the woreda level development plans. The mission was pleased to note that someworeda administration do provide financial and technical support to the project. There is continued and active participation of communities in the implementation of the project.
Achievements to date in rehabilitation and stabilization of degraded landscapes through various land management technologies have been remarkable. There has been significant reduction in soil erosion and gully formation, significant improvement in soil fertility, increased groundwater recharge, all leading to increased crop and biomass production. Vegetation (predominantly trees, shrubs and grasses) have returned on previously degraded landscapes, and biodiversity (floral and faunal, especially avian and butterfly species diversity) has improved markedly on the rehabilitated lands. Communities report of significant reduction in the frequency and intensity of landslides and flood that in the past had destroyed crops or caused crop failures and threatened animal and human life.
Rehabilitated communal lands, farmlands and homesteads are used for the cultivation of multi-purpose perennial trees and high value crops such as onions, garlic, papaya, mango, avocado, citrus, etc. Some participating farmers have already derived incomes from the sale of some of these products, particularly from onions, garlic and papaya. The introduction of off-farm alternative livelihood schemes such as bee keeping and honey production is expected to impact positively on household income levels in the near future.
Land administration has become a high priority national agenda in Ethiopia, and is further strengthened by the August 2010 establishment of a Land Administration and Use Directorate (LAUD) under the Natural Resources Management Sector within MoA. LAUD will be responsible for overseeing rural land administration and use in the country. It will lead the implementation of the government’s five-year land certification program that seeks to cover the sedentary and highland areas in four regional states with 2nd level certification by 2015. Other positive developments include the establishment of land administration and land use offices in all regional capitals and in some cases at woreda levels. In some regions land administration units that were hitherto part of the larger Environmental Protection and Land Administration and Use Authority (EPLAUA) have been hived off and upgraded to self-standing bureaus.
One major achievement is that regional governments have implemented gender-sensitive institutional, policy and legislative reforms that provide equal rights to women and men land parcel holders. The issuance of first level certificates that started in few regions of the country has now been extended to all remaining project regions.
There have been tremendous improvements in project disbursement. As at 23rd October 2010, theproject had disbursed US$5,736,595.56 ofIDA Grant resources, representing 29.22% of the total IDA grant and US$2,810,500.17 of total GEF Grant funds, representing over 31%. From June 2009 to June 2010 over €5.122m of GTZ funds were disbursed, representing about 33% of the partner’s support to SLMP. The counterpart funds allocated for the fiscal years 2010 and 2011 were about US$119,000 and US$79,000, respectively.

C. Assessment of Implementation Performance

Execution of the project components and activities has been on track and some significant outputs and outcomes have been achieved in the last two years. PY03 targets will largely be achieved, but there could be some delays in the so-called emerging regions of Gambela and Benishangul-Gumuz, where implementation capacities are relatively low. The project is holding discussions with several DPs to solicit technical assistance support for these regions.

The project complies with all critical legal covenants. The project is supported by competent financial officers at federal, regional and woreda levels. IFRs have been submitted on time and in quality acceptable to the Bank. Annual financial audits have been submitted on time and unqualified. Disbursement of project funds has improved significantly during the 1st quarter of fiscal year 2011. The mission advised that withdrawal applications must be submitted more frequently so that the project does not suffer from lack of funds. Overall, safeguard compliance has been satisfactory. Project activities implemented so far seem to have resulted in no significant adverse environmental impacts or social risks. However, the mission advised the project managers to ensure that the checklist developed under the ESMF is used in vetting activities before they are carried out.

Agreements Reached

A number of issues were discussed and agreements reached with the Grant Recipient. These include:

The mission learned that the regional government of Benishangul-Gumuz intends to embark on a region-wide ‘villagization’ programme, with the objective of bringing dispersed farmers together to small village units in order to be able to readily provide the population with basic amenities such as good drinking water supply, sanitation, school, health care, infrastructure, etc. The target is to move 45,000 households within three years starting in 2010. Information received was that the programme has been approved by the Federal and Regional Governments. However, the government doesn’t seem to have developed any resettlement planning tool or instrument to be used to guide the actual resettlement so as to avoid, minimize or mitigate potential environmental and social safeguard risks that may arise. The mission agreed with the Government of Benishangul-Gumuzthat a fact-finding mission should be arranged to visit the region from November 28 to December 5, 2010 to investigate the situation on the ground. It was agreed that the field team would submit a report to Bank senior management and other DPs who are financing the SLMP that would be discussed with the Government of Benishangul-Gumuz.
Delineating and incorporating all upper catchments that were initially left out of the selected watershed areas and developing proposals how these areas can quickly be covered by the project. The mission was of the opinion that it simply defeats the principle of watershed management to leave out upper catchments from any rehabilitation, whilst treating middle, lower and downstream areas of the catchments. Hence, the mission agreed that the project support unit at the federal level will submit a full list of those watersheds that will have to encompass the upper catchments, revise the existing work plans to cover the extended upper catchment sections and submit these revisions to development partners for consideration and endorsement no later than 28th February 2011.
Bringing new and additional watershed areas on board the SLMP, whilst suspending support to areas where progress has been woefully suboptimal and/or the likelihood of making progress is for now ruled out because community interest and participation is lacking. The compilation and notification of development partners is expected to be completed by 28th February 2011.
Aligning SLMP with other ongoing initiatives in the country such as PSNP, MERET, SUN, etc. , and harmonizing procedures (e.g., community cost contribution on communal and individual lands, nominal payments offered to communities for volunteering labor, etc.), technologies and approaches. The project, working closely with the SLM Technical Committee, will convene a discussion meeting on this issue no later than 28th February 2011.
Speeding up procurement of vehicles, motorcycles, office and field equipments and distributing these items quickly to the regions and woredas. The mission was of the opinion that there was sufficient rationale to acquire additional equipment, vehicles and motorbikes so that all woredas would be covered. The PSU will assess additional needs and make a formal request to the World Bank and other DPs for their consideration no later than 28th February 2011. The PSU should encourage procurement of additional equipment by the Regions and Woredas.
The mission believes that the Government’s counterpart financing has been underreported because the PSU failed to quantify the full in-kind contributions made by government.
Undertaking the proposed project restructuring as part of the Mid-term Review (MTR) that is planned to take place from March 1-15, 2011. The restructuring has become necessary because of the following: (i) the project indicators have to be revised to make them measurable and relevant; (ii) new components will have to be incorporated; (iii) scale-up and incorporation of the lessons learnt from the CDM-type Humbo Community-assisted Regeneration Project and carbon financing schemes into the SLMP; (iv) an additional financing of €12.8m from the Government of Finland (GoF); and (v) re-allocation of IDA and GEF grant funds.
Upon a request from the Government, the mission agreed that MoA will lead a team comprising the World Bank, World Vision Ethiopia, World Vision Australia, Federal Environmental Protection Authority and other interested donors to convene a national workshop on carbon financing during the 1st quarter of 2011.
The next mission will be the MTR to be undertaken from March 1-15, 2011

Table 1: Matrix of Priority Actions Agreed Upon during the October 27, 2010 Mission (To be Implemented by the Client)