Mid Term Review of The Market Improvement for Food Security, Rural Income and Natural Resource Conservation under the Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) Project

The Project

The overall goal of the project is to improve market access and producer prices for vulnerable households in areas proximate to fragile environments in exchange for their increased compliance to conservation friendly land use practices under what is commonly referred to as the Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO). The Norwegian Embassy, Lusaka has signed a tripartite project financing contract/agreement with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Program Against Malnutrition (PAM) in 2005. Under this new model (COMACO) where poverty and food insecurity is addressed the Norwegian Embassy is facilitating the testing of an alternative to the traditional benefit sharing schemes of community natural resources management programmes that Norway has been supporting during the last twenty years in Luangwa Valley.

Interesting Findings

• In Lundazi District where the project started, rural communities have embraced the COMACO model. The communities are now producing food crops that were never produced in the area but suitable for the ecological conditions in the Luangwa valley.

• The COMACO model is an interesting and cost effective rural development model that could be replicated across rural Zambia. This is because it is dependant on a cooperative model with an out grower scheme where rural farmers have an assured market for their produce. The main factor influencing the increase in production levels was access to the market which COMACO had created with better producer prices than any other buyer in the area. The COMACO model fills in the void created by the government liberalisation of the crop marketing arrangements. At the moment the COMACO model is still very fragile and therefore requires continued financial support. The proposed expansion to other districts should be postponed until the program is well established in Lundazi and starts to operate as a self sustaining Community Trading Centre with capacity to meet its operational costs.

• Alternative livelihood activities have been implemented thus reducing pressure on wildlife and forests such as the growing food/cash crops like rice, soya bean, bee keeping and fish farming.

• The project is moving towards gender equity, but more needs to be done in targeting especially female headed households as the vicious circle of inter-linkages between food insecurity, HIV/AIDS and gender inequality need to be emphasised in all livelihood improvement activities.

• Based on the field observations, the objectives of the Project appear to have been achieved. However, these have been achieved at a higher cost than budgeted. Th team states that this could have been due to under budgeting, or inefficient use of resources.

• The financial management and administration has been good and efforts have been made to ensure that project funds are utilized and accounted for in line with agreements. The team, however, notice that a larger proportion of the budget has been spent than what should have been expected at this stage, resulting in a probable need for extra funds to accomplish planned activities. There is scope to improve on the financial management of project funds.

• The Constitution of PAM is not in line with the present day corporate governance principles. It was also observed that in practice there is no clear demarcation between the Board and the management responsibilities.

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