Kenya

The ratings for the Second National Agricultural Research Project for Kenya were as follows: outcome was moderately satisfactory; risk to the development outcome wa... Show More + s moderate; Bank performance was moderately satisfactory; and Borrower performance was also moderately satisfactory. Lessons learned from the projects included: when the outcome of an operation is contingent upon a parallel program on which the project has minimal influence, the risk mitigating measures should be identified at appraisal. Establishing partnerships with research organizations and allowing independent external evaluation of research institutions operations, management, and performance enhance institutional maturity. This is the hallmark of Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). Other research organizations value KARI's scientific knowledge and reciprocally, KARI seeks partnership to fill in-house knowledge gaps. KARI has benefited immensely from independent external evaluations. This reflects an openness to new ideas that is important for institutional development. Adopting a pluralistic approach for the delivery of agricultural services requires the parallel placement of complementary input and service delivery institutions. Care should be taken in assuming the readiness of new service providers. Lessons from the reforms of the 1980s teach us that due to incomplete policy reforms and market failures, the expected service and input providers may equally fail to step-in or delay their full integration in the pluralistic market and create delivery gaps. A case in point is the failure of the national parallel Training and Visit (T&V) system which was critical for the dissemination of KARI's new agricultural technologies. A good lesson is KARI's gradual withdrawal from a number of commercial commodity research areas which are handled by growers associations whose members were strongly supporting the transfer of responsibility. Show Less -

Project ratings are as follows: Project outcome is satisfactory; sustainability is un-evaluable; institutional development impact is high; overall Bank performance ... Show More + is satisfactory; and overall Borrower performance is satisfactory. The following lessons may be derived from this project. First, the success of the project indicates that, in order to effectively respond to natural disasters such as drought, there are two principal requirements: (a) there needs to be a structure in place at the local level through which the relevant government departments and non-governmental actors can meet speedily to address the situation and coordinate their actions; (b) that body needs to have some resources, not necessarily substantial, to fund initial measures to address the identified problems, so that response is not delayed by the need to obtain resources through normal bureaucratic channels. Second, the statement of project objectives is important. Care should be taken by both the Bank and the Borrower to ensure that the objective statement is clear and does not become blurred by vaguely stated goals. This is especially important when, for example, though the project may be broadly targeted to assist the poor, the nature of its interventions is such that it will be difficult to demonstrate whether it has met a specific poverty objective. Third, in operations like this one, it is important to design, at the outset, performance indicators to track qualitative as well as quantitative progress on achievement of objectives, or to agree at the outset on specific steps to monitor performance in meeting qualitative objectives. Show Less -

Project outcome is rated moderately satisfactory and sustainability is rated as likely. Institutional development is rated substantial. Both World Bank and Borrower... Show More + performances are rated satisfactory. Project experience also suggests several lessons. First, strong monitoring and evaluation programs--clear and measurable indicators that are systematicaly collected over time--are essential to assess program impact and to improve the effectiveness of future interventions. Second, the socio-political environment has a strong influence on the effectiveness of national HIV/STI prevention programs. The Bank and partners can contribute /to strengthened political commitment by promoting dialogue with and among political leaders and other stakeholders, but this tends to be a long-term process. Third, decentralizing project activities to district level can improve local implementation, but needs to be accompanied by capacity building and institutional reforms to give districts greater autonomy over planning and budgeting. Finally projects planning to finance nongovernmental organizations/community activities need to develop clear modalities for doing so, and develop strategies to ensure that high-risk groups are targeted and that mechanisms are in place for monitoring, evaluation, and sharing lessons. Show Less -

The Financial Sector Adjustment Credit Project for Kenya was unsatisfactory. The project did not achieve its objectives, institutional development was only partiall... Show More + y achieved, sustainability is unlikely, and the performance of the Bank was marginally satisfactory while the Borrower's was unsatisfactory. Several lessons can be learned from this project. First, the preconditions for an FSAO must be in place before successful changes in the pattern of credit allocation can be achieved. Second, unless disbursements of the foreign exchange lending accompanying FSAOs are closely controlled, they can offset or contradict the policy aims of the operations. Third, achieving market-determined interest rates requires that the Government operate in at least one truly competitive financial market, be it the market for bonds or foreign currency. Finally, the goal of bank restructuring exercises is to change Bank lending behavior not to make the balance sheets of troubled banks look like those of untroubled banks. Show Less -