In the period 1987-2002, for example, the Netherlands supported 14 district development programs in Tanzania. District development programs were also a major feature of the Dutch Development Aid efforts in Zambia focusing mainly on the Western Province. Similar programs were implemented in other countries.
The programs in Tanzania aimed to improve the governance and accountability of the District Rural Development Programs (DRDPs) in 14 districts and alleviate poverty and improve living conditions. Support was provided for a wide-range of activities aimed towards rehabilitation of physical infrastructure (roads, bridges, drinking water systems), strengthening of the economic base (investment in agriculture, crops, livestock, agroforestry), improvement of social services (building of classrooms and improve education standards; building of rural health clinics and improve health services), and enhancement of human capabilities in local governance (improve human resource management; planning and implementation; bookkeeping and accounting; development planning).
The IOB evaluation of two DRDPs in Tanzania in 2004 concluded, however, that the effectiveness of these district programs to alleviate poverty was limited as a result of (1) the ‘refractory socio-political environment and the non-conducive government policy’ and (2) ‘deficiencies in the aid approach’, including the non-identification of the basic problems among the rural population before the area based support projects in districts started and changes in the DRDPs during implementation, the latter having been mainly inspired by changing Dutch development cooperation policies actively endorsed by Tanzanian politicians and bureaucrats.
Another major concern that IOB highlighted was the ineffectiveness of the DRDP´s to enhance political empowerment of rural villagers and of local civil society organizations[1]. One of the main recommendations of the IOB evaluation was that “any program for poverty reduction in rural areas must indicate ways by which to increase production, productivity and profitability of agriculture by also addressing political/institutional constraints that are often of greater importance than technical constraints”.
Based on the DRDP evaluation IOB also noted that a district specific strategy for rural poverty alleviation requires making a distinction between issues that can be effectively addressed at district level and those that need changes at the national level. IOBrecommended to combine area based approaches with investments in sector-wide programs that addressed constraints at micro-, meso- and macro levels, a prelude to the sector-wide approaches adopted in various sectors at a later stage[2].
[1] In this context the work of the Paulo Freire Foundation (later Agriterra) to actively support advocacy and lobby by farmer organizations in Latin America is noted. A separate NICC timeline (to be developed) will focus on the farmer organization support provided by PFS and Agriterra.
[2] https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2888001/view
Source: IOB report No 296: ‘Poverty, Policies and Perceptions in Tanzania. An evaluation of Dutch aid to two district rural development programmes’. 2004
NICC physical collection A07372 (full report and CD) and A10350 (the Key Sheet of this evaluation by the Internal Evaluation Unit of NL-MoFA).
