Scaling Up the Fight Against Rural Poverty - FIDAfrique
Scaling Up the Fight Against Rural Poverty - FIDAfrique
Scaling Up the Fight Against Rural Poverty - FIDAfrique
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of local government and communal institutions and organizations accompanied by an open<br />
investment menu leveraging people’s own resources.<br />
• As regards institutions, IFAD’s project initiatives were replicated and scaled up by at least two<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r donors: by <strong>the</strong> World Bank in <strong>the</strong> ALIADOS project which built on IFAD’s successful<br />
strategy in <strong>the</strong> Sou<strong>the</strong>rn highlands; and by <strong>the</strong> KfW of Germany in <strong>the</strong> Agro-Environmental<br />
Program, which applied <strong>the</strong> competitive awards mechanisms and o<strong>the</strong>r instruments used in<br />
IFAD projects. Recently <strong>the</strong> government broadened <strong>the</strong> institutional framework for rural<br />
poverty reduction by creating <strong>the</strong> AGRO RURAL umbrella organization under <strong>the</strong> Ministry of<br />
Agriculture for all rural interventions under which all governmental and donor-funded<br />
programs are now systematically developed and implemented.<br />
c) <strong>Scaling</strong>-up pathways – <strong>the</strong> drivers:<br />
Among external forces that helped shape <strong>the</strong> development of <strong>the</strong> Peruvian approach to rural<br />
development <strong>the</strong>re were <strong>the</strong> economic crisis and structural reforms in <strong>the</strong> 1990s. They had undermined<br />
<strong>the</strong> capacity of <strong>the</strong> state to pursue top-down, centrally led rural development programs. In addition<br />
<strong>the</strong>re was <strong>the</strong> impact of <strong>the</strong> battle against <strong>the</strong> Shining Path movement and its aftermath. All <strong>the</strong>se<br />
factors encouraged a community-based rural development strategy that involved a unique approach of<br />
bottom-up championship and leadership, rooted in a broad-gauged trust of “campesino” (farmer)<br />
community-led development. A network of local experts and NGOs pushed this process forward,<br />
supported by successive governments and assisted by IFAD. IFAD’s long-term Country Program<br />
Manager, who exceptionally was based in Peru for over a decade, apparently played a key role in<br />
pushing <strong>the</strong> process forward.<br />
Ano<strong>the</strong>r critical driver of <strong>the</strong> long-term process of scaling up was a well-aligned and comprehensive<br />
system of incentives and accountabilities, focused on <strong>the</strong> articulation and transmission of community<br />
demand as a key factor pushing <strong>the</strong> scaling up process forward. This included a number of important<br />
instruments that empowered and incentivized <strong>the</strong> highland communities:<br />
• <strong>the</strong> transfer of funds directly to communities through a democratic process involving “local<br />
resource allocation committees”;<br />
• <strong>the</strong> empowerment of communities to allocate <strong>the</strong>se funds according to <strong>the</strong>ir own priorities and<br />
to local contractors of <strong>the</strong>ir choice; and<br />
• <strong>the</strong> incentives provided to communities through <strong>the</strong> mechanism of competitions among <strong>the</strong>m,<br />
which served as an effective means of encouraging, sharing and replicating local technological<br />
and organizational innovations throughout <strong>the</strong> project area.<br />
d) <strong>Scaling</strong> up – creating <strong>the</strong> space to grow:<br />
The Peru case study identified a number of key spaces that were created by <strong>the</strong> government, <strong>the</strong><br />
communities and IFAD that made it possible for <strong>the</strong> scaling up process to proceed:<br />
• Political space: No significant political obstacles got in <strong>the</strong> way of expanding systematically<br />
and consistently <strong>the</strong> bottom up, community driven rural development process. This was in part<br />
because of <strong>the</strong> external drivers mentioned above, and in part a result of <strong>the</strong> broad-gauged<br />
networking efforts involving many stakeholders in and out of government, in academia and<br />
think tanks, NGOs and with international partners.<br />
• Policy and institutional space: Over time <strong>the</strong> necessary policy and institutional space was<br />
created by establishing <strong>the</strong> legal foundations for <strong>the</strong> decentralized and community driven<br />
approach, including <strong>the</strong> development of institutional focal points at <strong>the</strong> local level for <strong>the</strong><br />
disbursement of funds, <strong>the</strong> integration of <strong>the</strong> project implementation units (PIUs) into <strong>the</strong><br />
ministerial structures, continuity in <strong>the</strong> staffing and leadership of PIUs, and <strong>the</strong> recent creation<br />
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