Public Service Provision Improvement Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development in Hoa Binh and Cao Bang, Vietnam (2008-2015)
Phase 1: 2008-2010 Development Goal To contribute to the improvement of livelihoods in the upland and ethnic minority areas of Hoa Binh and Cao Bang in terms of food security, income and environmental sustainability. Programme Purpose To contribute to building up efficient and effective decentralised public service delivery systems and processes in agriculture and rural development.
Phase II: 2011-2015 Program goal: To contribute to province- and district-wide mainstreaming of participatory local planning, financial decentralisation and improved public service delivery in agriculture, in order to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods in disadvantaged areas of Hoa Binh and Cao Bang provinces
Quick facts about PSARD Phase II Location: Hoa Binh & Cao Bang provinces Duration: May 2011 April 2015 Total budget: USD 13,791,513 - Hoa Binh: USD 7,917,116 - (provincial budget: USD 2,446,760) - Cao Bang: USD 5,874,397 - (provincial budget: USD 490,440) Technical assistance: USD 1,556,991 Funding: Provincial Governments and SDC Implementing agencies: DARDs, DPIs, DoFs, DPCs & CPCs Facilitating agency: HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Vietnam More than 1,260,000 people have participated in PSARD activities in the last 4 years
Public RAS in Vietnam Centralised system Not much autonomy at commune and grassroot level Lack of participation of community/far mers in the planning and implementation
PSARD intervention into Public RAS Organisational reform and capacity buiilding in ARD Introduction of participatory SEDP and decentralise d fund (CDF) guidelines Introduction of participatory approach and capacity building for ARD staff=> provide demand-based ARD service Capacity buiding to apply guidelines Community development Fund (CDF) for small infrastructures and production support
Project approach 1 Communelevel piloting by projects 2 District-range testing by governm ent departments 3 Province-range m ainstream ing by governm ent departments 4 Province-w ide standards for governm ent departments -ETSP I -CB GEM -SPAR I PS-ARD I 2008-2010 PS-ARD II 2011-2015 2015 onw ards
Three core areas of program Socio Economic Development Planning Commune Development Funding/ Commune Financial Management Agriculture and Rural Development Services (RAS)
Links between planning, finance and RAS SEDP Demand-based RAS CDF
Links between planning, finance and RAS Main topics for FFS in commune are identified through the Participatory Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) process Specific contents of FFS are identified and elaborated through Farmer Needs Assessments undertaken at the beginning of each year. This forms the basis for an annual plan for FFS for the whole province Some FFS are prioritized by communities and funded through the commune development funds. However, in general local people give higher priority to infrastructure. Majority of FFS are funded through government extension budget and SDC funds under PSARD
Socio Economic Development Planning 100% communes in Hoa Binh (210 communes) and Cao Bang (199 communes) applied participatory SED planning More than 200,000 people involved annually Hoa Binh & Cao Bang allocated yearly budget to SED planning at commune level
Commune Development Funds Cao Bang: 62 communes, 400 million VND/commune/year Hoa Binh: 87 communes, 200-300 million VND/commune/year Simple CDF guidelines developed and approved by PPCs Fund was transferred through District Treasury Decrease funding from donor, increase funding from government Hoa Binh 1002 pieces of infrastructure Category Number Road 447 irrigation canal 238 Dam/dike/bridge 106 cultural house 76 school 61 clean water system 29 drying yard 26 toilet 25 others 14 Cao Bang 350 pieces of infrastructure Category Number Inter-village road 201 Irrigation 31 Dam 7 Pumping Station 1 Clean Water 52 Bridge 6 Production Support 7 Culture House 38 Other 6 kindergarten 1
RAS - Improve the teaching method and attitude of ARD service provider through applying FFS - Institutionalize FFS as extension methodology - Improve access to ARD service through functioning VSP and PPSP/PPSG - Better irrigation management through better management of water user group (in CB)
Farmer Field Schools Hoa Binh: a total of 3004 FFS covering a wide range of topics and reaching more than 75,000 farmers Cao Bang: a total of 1349 FFS covering a wide range of topics and reaching more than 33,500 farmers
VSP results in Hoa Bình, a total of 130 Veterinary Service points have been established and generated income, in which 125 points have earned stable revenue In Cao Bang, a total of 66 Veterinary Service points have been established, in which 64 service points are well functioning and generating income.
PPSP/PPSG results In Hoa Binh: 206 out of 259 established service groups are well functioning, of which 70% can generate income through service provision In Cao Bang: a total of 42 service groups have been established and well-functioning.
Challenges and lessons learned
Limited Capacity and high turnover of staff at local level need for constant capacity building and retraining and poses significant challenges for institutionalization
Harmonization with existing systems Rigid procedures and cost norm of goverment Modify FFS to balance high quality with cost-effectiveness Political will to decentralized public budget to allow more demand-based ARD service Weak coordination among government agencies=> people needs into planning and budgeting of higher administration level Government staff lack of market knowledge and do not have much willing to update market information to support farmers It is hard to harmonize with governmental M&E system
Reaching ethnic minorities in upland areas Capacity of extension staff to introduce adapted technology to upland ethnic minority farmers It is more costly (time, human resources and materials) to support farmers living in upland Limited resource of poor, ethnic minority farmers to invest into higher benefited crops It is difficult to expect RAS/ARD service in upland to be selffinanced
Lessons learnt- The triangle of planning, finance management and demand-based services Participatory social economic development planning Capacity building through doing and coaching Monitoring and Evaluation Participation Transparent Local ownership Decentrlized budget (CDF) Demand-based ARD services
Lessons learnt- Reaching the millions and the role of public ARD sector Working with the government ARD system is a way to reach a large number of farmers/beneficiaries although some challenges remained. Question is how to balance between the cost-coveragequality Introduce and apply private and public partnership model??? The role of public RA services should be different between lowland with better-off farmers and upland with poorer farmers
Lessons learnt: Reaching the poor, ethnic minorities in upland and remote areas It is costly (time, human resource and materials) to support poor and ethnic minority farmers in upland areas=> require strong government/public sector support There should be a smart subsidy strategy for farmers and mechanism to attract enterprises working in upland and remote areas.
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