Interesting lessons emerge from the Rural Infrastructure Support Project that ran from June 2006 to March 2009 involving 1,840 rural villages in four provinces in Indonesia. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided US$ 50 million (EUR 36,677,900) for the project in less-developed districts in the provinces of East Java, East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, and South East Sulawesi. Each participating village received a block grant of about $25,000 (EUR 18,338) to upgrade infrastructure, including drainage canals, irrirgation systems and systems for safe water supply and sanitation.

Overall, the ADB rated the project as successful. Basic infrastructure for 1,840 rural villages was successfully upgraded, improving the welfare and standard of living of some 2 million people by improving roads, bridges, irrigation and drainage canals, irrigation systems, and systems for safe water supply and sanitation. Community members fully participated in carrying out civil works, but the potential of the project to empower communities and build capacity for community planning and development was not fully realized in poorly educated villages. Other lessons include: Less-developed communities need a longer period of socialization and capacity building to fully understand their options in selecting investment proposals that will maximize benefits. These communities need more time and assistance from facilitators or local government administrations to develop and implement village development plans. The appraisal report mentioned several lessons from earlier projects, but they were not incorporated into this project.

Read the full ADB completion report in PDF (November 2009)

Tags: east asia & pacific, monitoring & evaluation, participatory management, rural wash