The community development component focused on involving women in the project activities. The project adopted the women in development approach that emphasised the women's traditional reproductive role (Brohman, 1 996:283/84). At the beginning the project provided women with loans through the ABS and the FCB . These loans were aimed at generating income through activities such as dairy cows, poultry, carts, goat rearing and food processing. This component also included nutrition, food processing and literacy classes. The project used women' s groups and two women agents in each scheme as voluntary facilitators.
The women agents received more training in order to work as facilitators and maintain the sustainability of the programme. The project targeted women within the age range of 1 5-45 years old. The project records showed that 44 women training centres were established (IFAD, 2002b: 22), and various activities, especially training and lending, were implemented. These activities are shown in table 6.3. Hundreds of women participated in these activities. Regarding the total number of trainees, these numbers do not add up. The number of participants exceeds the actual number that attended because women attended more than one training session. The project provided the schemes with trainers, ingredients, and food processing and kitchen equipment to conduct the women ' s training programme. The research participants indicated that they had enjoyed and benefited from new information and the social interaction. They also revealed that after the project stopped all equipment was distributed among the members of local organisations. One of the participants commented :
'Not only the kitchen and food processing equipment, but even some parts of the pumps that were installed by the project as part of the rehabilitation programme were taken by some people and sold in the market. Everyone knew them but we could not report the cases to the police or the MAAI because those people are our relatives. Therefore we could not continue our activities, no equipment, no money and no technical staff to help' (FP-FGD, 1 1 12005).
Table 6.3: Women's Programme (1996-2001 )
Number attended
sessions
Literacy 1 ,057
Handicrafts 1 ,396
Nutrition and food processing 1 ,666 Tailoring and sewing 966 Credit
Number/value No. of women borrowed 1 ,558
Loan value (SDD) 25,020, 1 34
Loan recovery 63. 1 %
Source: Produced from UNOPS (200 1 :35-36) and IFAD (2002b:22-29).
The community development programme was conducted in community centres that were established to carry out the intended activities. In Ahamda, an old government building was used as a women' s centre while in Ganfaria a donated house was used for that purpose. However, during my fieldwork the women's centres no longer operated. This can be attributed to the lack of financial and technical support.
It appears that women's groups and female agents were not empowered enough to sustain any of the project activities. Nevertheless the formation of women's groups created a space for women in the household, they gained knowledge and their involvement in micro credit activities had contributed to improved household functioning. Women were not directly involved in facilitating the credit procedures, as men-dominated organisations were dealing with banks. Apparently this form of participation did not challenge the gender division of labour in the society. Women' s perceptions and choices, especially in the homogeneous community, were not presented in public and their participation in community affairs did not exist.
The WNASP has been like perhaps most development projects, planned and evaluated by outsiders, and beneficiaries have only been involved during the implementation phase. Dhamotharan ( 1 995) explains that this top-down approach has several disadvantages: 1 ) designed projects may not coincide with a community's needs and priorities, especially with those of some unprivileged groups (e.g. women, poor); 2) local people are just seen as implementation tools; 3) local people do not feel responsible for the project, as they do not develop any kind of linkages, or technical capabilities that can sustain their participation. Research participants confirmed this argument. A planning officer at the Ministry of Finance and Labour Force who worked as a consultant for the WNASP blamed the project design for being top-down and did not consult those who were concerned. He stated that 'the project document did not respond to people's needs and priorities, moreover, its operational process maintained the exclusive environment' (PO-SSI, 1 1 /2005). During a focus group discussion a male farmer stated what people expected from the project:
'During the project time we used to have big dreams, we made applications for establishing small enterprises for production of oil and processing of food. We thought we would get some health services and our schools would be supported but nothing of that has happened. The project chose to work with some people and left its assets to them' (MF-SSI, 10/2005).
The UNOPS (200 1 ) report, which was prepared immediately after the completion of the project, criticised the project reports that focused only on highlighting achievements while ignoring problems, failures and impact assessment. The UNOPS (200 1 : 1 1 ) suggested that WNASP records should include an impact assessment and an assessment of the prospects for sustainability. If the communities are encouraged to participate meaningfully in the establishment of project design as well as monitoring and evaluation through their real representative groups, participation could achieve the intended objectives. These objectives are efficiency, effectiveness, empowerment and sustainability.
The WNASP performance and outputs were monitored and assessed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and national government representatives. In fact, government representatives were mainly involved during field visits, leaving the preparation of reports to development agencies. However, local communities and many related institutions, such as the Forests National Corporation and the national banks, were neither involved in this process nor received copies of these reports (SM-SSI, 1 0/2005 ; SIO-SSI, 1 1 /2005). Theoretically the
project had some non-material goal, which entailed empowerment. The project efforts in achieving this goal were not addressed in the project completion report, which indicated that the conventional evaluation procedure was basically dependent on qualitative measures. As it has been explained in Chapters Two and Three, people's perceptions and views can be reflected through participatory monitoring and evaluation, which could be achieved by adapting a process approach (Mosse, 1 998:6). When adopting participatory approaches, monitoring and evaluation should be shared by all actors, considering the fact that people are able to evaluate their own inputs and achievements from their own perspectives (Schneider and Libercier, 1 995b: 47-48).
At the time of this study the local communities and the State Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Resources and Irrigation (MA AI) were discussing the challenges that might face the poor farmers as a result of the government decision to withdraw from productive enterprises. The same scenario was adopted in 1 996 by the WNASP on a large scale to support the government privatisation policy. Despite the failure of the WNASP credit programme, the government's current strategies are based on releasing the federal and state government from direct responsibilities; by encouraging local communities to deal with local financial institutions directly in order to develop themselves. The next section examines the impact of this decision in light of the WNASP's experiences.
New Government Policy: The Ignored Lesson
The WNASP assigned the credit component to Agricultural Bank of Sudan and Farmer Commercial Bank in 1 996/97 to enhance privatisation and replace the old system that was managed by the MAAI in the White Nile State. The farmers organised themselves into cooperatives in addition to old organisations such as farmers' unions and productive councils. As explained earlier, the new experience had failed, therefore in 1 998 the State Government and the MAAI established what was called the Agricultural Support Fund (ASF) locally called Sanduq to deal with financing agricultural operations. The UNOPS report (200 1 ) criticised the formation of the ASF and accused it of sending a contrary message to what had been addressed by the project' s objective of supporting privatisation and fostering self reliance. The ASF started to finance the farmers and to provide maintenance of the irrigation schemes and agricultural extension services. In fact, the ASF also had some difficulties with farmers' organisations. An ASF officer (SAO-SSI, 1 0/2005) explained that local leaders
(members of semi formal organisations) created many problems and criticised the ASF for not allocating more funds for their organisations. The local leaders used this money to cover the members' expenses, in form of incentives, transportation and accommodation costs. The same ASF officer also revealed that ordinary farmers had no idea of these issues and their representatives never informed them. The existence of these forms of incentives justified the competition and conflict around local organisations' membership, and explained why some members stayed for decades and held many positions at a time.
In 2004 the Federal Government decided to adopt a complete privatisation of the White Nile irrigated schemes (the previous WNASP sites) and therefore terminated the Agricultural Support Fund (ASF) because the cultivation season in 2004/05 would be the beginning for farmers' organisations to take full responsibility of their agricultural and community development activities.
At the time of this fieldwork the Agricultural Bank of Sudan (AB S), based on its previous experiences in mid 1 990s through the WNASP, refused to finance the farmers from the banks resources. Therefore the Federal Ministry of Finance and National Planning decided to finance the farmers in the White Nile State, only for one season, through the ABS. An ASF officer (SAO-SSI, 1 0/2005) explained that the government philosophy was based on the fact that agriculture is a farmers' responsibility and those farmers should manage the financial and all related marketing aspects by themselves. The same officer revealed that neither the specialists nor the farmers had been consulted about this sudden decision. During interviews, research participants showed concern and worry about this decision and raised the following objections. Firstly, the farmers' organisations lacked management and administrative skills and experiences. In addition there were internal conflicts, corruption and a lack of transparency. Secondly, the strategic thinking of the national banks was basically investment. The crucial issue here was the farmers' lack of confidence as well as their previous experience with the ABS lending' procedures. This meant that a similar scenario to the one during the WNASP time could be repeated again. Thirdly, the exclusion of the State Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Resources and Irrigation (MAAI) would deprive the farmers of the limited services that were provided through the ASF such as extension services, timely provision of inputs, and close supervision of the implementation. Fourthly, and most importantly, despite its ongoing claim about decentralisation and participation of local
communities in decisions that affect their lives, the central government still continues to make decisions on behalf of the state authorities and local communities.
Local communities as well as the MAAI were concerned about the impact of this decision, which might repeat the WNASP experience, an experience that was neither comprehensively assessed nor learned from. This indicated that policies and decisions could be made without involving those who might have been affected. Local communities in the White Nile State, through the WNASP as well as other development interventions, had developed a comprehensive experience that would offer a base for making better decisions in the future. The key issue here was the intention and willingness to benefit from these experiences.
Having described the project interventions that adopted people' s participation the following section presents the factors that influenced the project's ability to achieve its planned objectives.
Influen cing Factors for the WNASP's Outcomes
There were many factors that affected the WN ASP's journey. Some are related to the project' s internal strategy while others are related to community and government institutions. Exploring these constraints could provide information on the difficulties faced by local communities when dealing and interacting with external development interventions and offer answers to one of the research questions regarding the factors that have influenced people's participation in development projects.