Joint follow-up of results of the Sustainable Agricultural Development Programme PROAGRO
The Swedish Embassy in La Paz needed an international consultant for the joint follow-up (Control de Avance) of the Sustainable Agriculture Programme PROAGRO. PROAGRO focuses on improving the livelihoods for small-scale farmers living in arid and semi-arid areas of Bolivia, where the effects of climate change (such as increased frequency of extreme weather events, changing patterns concerning rainfall and water availability) will further increase the vulnerabilities faced by this population group. In other words, the Program sets out to combine the overall development goal of poverty reduction with concrete needs for climate adaptation efforts in specific geographic areas.
PROAGRO is a tripartite undertaking by Bolivia, Germany and Sweden with external funding shared between the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Sweden. The signatory counterpart to the Specific Agreement on the Program is the Bolivian Ministry for Planning, with responsibility for implementation at the sectoral level delegated to the Vice Ministry for Water Resources and the Vice Ministry for Rural Development.
The PROAGRO programme is coordinated and managed by GIZ. The total cost to be financed externally amounts to SEK 170 million for the duration of the first period (3 years and 6 months) of the Program's second phase, to be implemented during 2011-2014. The requested contribution from Sweden amounts to SEK 80 million (of which SEK 75 million has been disbursed), whereas BMZ will contribute with the remaining SEK 90 million. National contributions are estimated to some SEK 27 million, making a total of almost SEK 200 million. Depending primarily on its results, the Program is expected to continue until 2017. The Embassy commissioned an external mid-term review of the programme in 2013.
A programme results review (Control de Avance de Programa = CAP) was carried out by a team of GIZ experts. The CAP is the overall analysis process of advances in PROAGRO II, and the development of recommendations for PROAGRO III, to be held in accordance with regulations of German cooperation. The third phase PROAGRO III is planned to be carried out during 2014-2017. Sweden was invited to provide an expert on climate change adaptation to the CAP team.
The purpose of having a Swedish expert on the CAP team was also to give the Embassy the possibility to integrate Swedish priorities into the new programme.
The Terms of Reference for the results review (Control de Avance) had been developed by PROAGRO/GIZ with contribution from Sweden and Bolivian partners.