Integration of Climate Resilience in Agricultural and Pastoral Production
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Project Evaluation Series 06/2021 Terminal evaluation of the project “Integrating climate resilience into agricultural and pastoral production for food security in vulnerable rural areas through the farmer field school approach” Project Evaluation Series 06/2021 Terminal evaluation of the project “Integrating climate resilience into agricultural and pastoral production for food security in vulnerable rural areas through the farmer field school approach” Project code: GCP/NER/043/LDF GEF ID: 4702 FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2021 Required citation: FAO. 2021. Terminal evaluation of the project “Integrating climate resilience into agricultural and pastoral production for food security in vulnerable rural areas through the farmer field school approach”. Project Evaluation Series, 06/2021. Rome. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dashed lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. ISBN 978-92-5-134547-4 © FAO, 2021 Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/legalcode). Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If the work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons licence. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: “This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original [Language] edition shall be the authoritative edition.” Disputes arising under the licence that cannot be settled amicably will be resolved by mediation and arbitration as described in Article 8 of the licence except as otherwise provided herein. The applicable mediation rules will be the mediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules and any arbitration will be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Third-party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user. Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected]. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: [email protected]. Cover photos: ©FAO/Pius Utomi Ekpei, ©FAO/Luis Tato, ©Centre de Services en Appui aux Organizations Coopératives et Paysannes (CSAOCP), ©CSAOCP Abstract This is the final evaluation report of project “Integration of climate resilience in agricultural and pastoral production for food security in vulnerable rural areas through the farmer field school approach” (GCP/NER/043/LDF) financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and jointly executed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO) and the Government of Niger between 2015 and 2021. The project aimed to strengthen the agricultural and pastoral sectors’ climate change adaptation (CCA) capacities. The evaluation used a participatory and systemic approach (documentary analysis, interviews with stakeholders) to establish findings and provide information on the performance, conditions of sustainability and lessons learned from the project. The project targeted Government, FAO, GEF and population priorities with regard to CCA, generated national technical expertise on the agro-pastoral field school (APFS) and CCA approach and supported the formulation and implementation of the APFS-CLC (community listeners’ clubs) component of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Support Project (PASEC). The master trainers of the project strengthened the capacities of project facilitators and others (PASEC, GCP/RAF/516/EC and ProDAF). The farmer organizations involved in the project delivered quality work and both the Village Savings and Credit Associations (VSLAs) and the Local Adaptation Investment Fund (FLIA) promoted by the project met with great interest among actors of the agricultural advisory chain in the Niger. The project reached 21 142 direct beneficiaries (or 106 percent of the target), including 51 percent women, and the project integrated gender concerns well. However, the project experienced shortcomings in terms of its management (from start-up to mid-term), its 3rd expected result (integration of CCA into development policies and plans) and its mobilization/accounting of co-financing partners. The expected 3rd result will be continued under the APFS-CLC component of PASEC. The evaluation rates the effectiveness, efficiency and adaptive management of the project as moderately satisfactory while its integration of crosscutting concerns is satisfactory and deems its sustainability likely. FAO must nevertheless improve certain project management and mobilization of co-financing mechanisms, strengthen the capacities of partners based on their needs-analysis, and develop a long- term partnership with farmer organizations to strengthen their extension and advisory support capacities. iii Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................. vii Abbreviations and acronyms ................................................................................................................ viii Executive summary .................................................................................................................................. ix 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Purpose of the evaluation ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Target audience ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Scope and objective of the evaluation ................................................................................................................ 2 1.4 Methodology ................................................................................................................................................................. 2 1.5 Limitations ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 2. Background and context of the project .......................................................................................... 5 2.1 General context ............................................................................................................................................................ 5 2.2 Vulnerability to risks and climate change .......................................................................................................... 6 2.3 Need to operationalise the new National Agricultural Advisory System ............................................... 7 2.4 Project description ...................................................................................................................................................... 8 3. Findings ............................................................................................................................................ 11 3.1 Relevance and coherence: Is the project relevant and coherent in addressing the strategic priorities of the Government and its partners (FAO, GEF) and in addressing the adaptation needs of the agriculture sector to climate change? ......................................................... 11 3.2 Effectiveness: To what extent have the capacities of