Natural Resources Institute - South Africa REED Workshop:
Bloemfontein 25th January 2005

Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein

Background

The Rural Economic and Enterprise Development (REED) workshop aimed to develop further the conceptual framework and project tool for the fostering of rural economic and enterprise development in South Africa. This programme coordinated by the Natural Resources Institute (UK) and funded through the UK Department for International Development is part of a multi country initiative to develop and test the REED framework which itself builds on established international practice. The workshop aimed to enhance understanding of recent trends in REED and Local Economic Development (LED), related concepts and their implications, and the development of practical strategies to operationalise the REED framework. Due to the complex nature of the subject and the fact that there are no blueprints for addressing rural economic and enterprise development, participants were encouraged to share their practical experience of working in the field of Local Economic Development and REED.

The full REED document is available on http://www.donorplatform.org/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_view/gid,50/Itemid,98/

The workshop was designed for local economic development (LED) and enterprise development project managers, coordinators, advisors, academics, and staff at design and implementation level of programmes related to rural economic and local development, agriculture, enterprise and rural development (government, private sector, NGOs etc.). Numerous institutions were invited to attend the workshop, please see list of participants in Annex. The NRI research team was represented by Dr. Junior Davis (Enterprise, Finance and Trade Group, J.Davis@gre.ac.uk) and Felicity Proctor (Director Programme Development).

Dr Doreen Atkinson (Karoo Institute) facilitated and organised the workshop in cooperation with Professor Lucius Botes, Centre for Development Support, the University of Free State. The workshop was hosted at the University of Free State campus. Table 1 outlines the workshop programme.

Resource paper shared with the workshop participants. This was:
Working paper 3 - Addressing poverty through local economic and enterprise developments: A review of conceptual approaches and practice. Junior Davis and Catherine Rylance. February 2005 (Click here [PDF 399Kb])

Table 1: Workshop Programme

Workshop discussion

Felicity Proctor welcomed the workshop participants and outlined the objectives of the meeting. The REED framework and methodology was presented by Dr Junior Davis. Dr Davis outlined the REED approach, the proposed NRI use of the framework, its relevance to recent international local economic development initiatives and its potential applicability to South Africa.

This was then followed by an open discussion chaired by Doreen Atkinson (South Africa, Karoo Institute) with the workshop recipients to:

1. Evaluate the utility of REED in the South African context and identify potential partners in taking forward REED research;
2. Identify clear key researchable themes in the context of REED and South Africa; and
3. Propose follow-up actions and lessons learned for future activities e.g., conference/workshop/publications etc.

There was a positive response from many participants. Comments included:

1. The methodology can be used as an evaluation tool by government departments to evaluate project proposals.
2. Defining “rural” requires several indicators, including spatial location, density and function. The term acquires different meanings in different localities. In the South African context, this is more defined in terms of administrative boundaries and responsibilities for different levels of government.
3. REED can be usefully linked to municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) – as a tool for planning, a check list for assessment, and for monitoring and evaluation.
4. REED framework might be used in South Africa to turn around failed projects.
5. REED framework can be used to draft job descriptions of municipal LED staff.
6. REED framework can be used to promote the establishment and functioning of multi-purpose community centres.
7. One of the key challenges in South Africa, is that sectoral government departments function in fragmented, compartmentalized ways and the link between line departments and decentralized functions is still evolving. The REED framework can be used to promote synergies between departments and between central and local administrations.
8. REED framework can be used to promote an effective “client interface” in South Africa, i.e. better and more accessible service delivery for poor people.
9. Some participants also felt that REED framework support document should also include an analysis of project failures, as we can often learn as much from project/programme failures as successes.

Several proposals were made on the future use of the REED framework in the Free State by the participants. These include:

1. Department of Local Government and Housing proposes to use the REED framework to evaluate municipalities’ Integrated Development Plans in the Free State – as a check list and also as a possible tool for training LED municipal staff.
2. University’s Department of Town and Regional Planning proposes to use REED as one of a set of tools for MA projects and theses – projects: spatial planning for tourism and economics for planners.
3. The REED framework has already been reviewed and elements adopted within the World Bank – Netherlands Evaluating and disseminating experiences in LED in South Africa M&E working paper and will be considered for use in a related rural- urban linkages study in Mangaung Local Municipality in cooperation with Khanya- MRC
4. The Centre for Development Support University of Free State will also explore follow up opportunities

The NRI team will work with the above and other tentative proposals to support the processes and actions. Follow up meetings with individual teams were arranged and held to work through next steps.

Annex. Workshop participants

The Natural Resources Institute, Department for International Development funded research project aims to develop further a conceptual framework and project tool for the fostering of rural economic and enterprise development in South Africa and Bangladesh.

General discussion

A number of the programmes recognized the need for some broadening out of the framework within which they operate e.g. KATALYST, BRDB although there was concern expressed by some participants on taking on too wide a mandate. Whilst the Chars programme of DFID has a wider operational framework, it has yet to become fully operational.

Some participants felt that the different cornerstones of the REED framework operate at different levels and suggested that it would be helpful to differentiate these. Others questioned how poverty was specifically addressed through the framework.

It was recognized that many current initiatives in Bangladesh may not be giving adequate attention to sustainability and that a number of programmes were weakly integrated within and or associated to public sector activities.

The extent of poverty and rural focus in some of SME and BDS work was questioned and there exists scope to seek to understand who benefits and losses from particular types of intervention. In general, there are opportunities to: strengthen the linkages between the formal and informal sectors; deepen the understanding of the labour market including associated remittance management; strengthen the empirical basis which informs investment choice; build a common understanding between practitioners on how to intervene within the market (noting in particular the level of effective subsidy offered through some donor initiatives); and deepen an understanding of the linkages between urban and rural economic activity.

The need to strengthen the mechanisms for lesson sharing was emphasised. A new initiative (web-based learning platform) supported by DFID through CARE was noted and aims to strengthen good practice sharing for BDS – this was welcomed. Additional opportunities exist for lesson sharing and validation of replicable practice within all the key elements of the REED framework.

The group felt that the REED framework offers a framework for joint learning, a tool for analysis and dialogue, a check list for project development and a tool to inform monitoring and evaluation. A number of participants expressed interest in holding follow up discussion with the REED team.

Timetable for follow up action

• Post all papers on the website – beginning December 2004
• Agree collaborator partner by end December 2004
• Undertake preliminary secondary data and institutional assessment for pilot location – January 2005
• REED workshop at pilot location (1-2 days) and research planning – February 2005
• Host follow up workshop in REED principles with specific groups e.g. BRDB – February 2005
• Undertake field action research – March – July 2005
• Undertake complimentary empirical research (subject to ESRC or DFID supplementary funds) March – October 2005
• Host review meeting – November 2005