Sustainability failure of donor-supported organisational reforms in agricultural extension : a Bangladesh case study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
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Date
2007
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Massey University
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Abstract
For several decades, international donor agencies have provided considerable
support for organisational reforms within the agricultural extension system in
Bangladesh. This support has been provided through a series of short-term
projects that have experimented with a variety of novel extension systems. These
have ranged from the centralised training and visit model to decentralised subdistrict
based systems to an even more decentralised farmer-led extension system.
They have also ranged from an extension system operated by a single government
agency to systems run by a partnership between government and non-government
organisations. The experimentation has also involved a country-wide or large-scale
system to local or small-scale systems. Furthermore, the reforms have varied from
a single organisation providing only advisory services to farmers to a constellation
of organisations providing a combination of services. However, in virtually every
case, when donor support was removed at the completion of a project, the
extension reform was found to be unsustainable post-project. Despite the continued
failure of donor sponsored extension reforms in Bangladesh, little is formally known
as to why such reforms have been unsustainable. Such knowledge is critical if
donor-assisted extension reforms in Bangladesh are to be effective and
sustainable. Therefore, the overall aim of this study was to determine the reasons
why a donor-supported extension reform becomes unsustainable in Bangladesh.
From a review of literature, a conceptual framework was developed outlining the
conditions/factors under which organisational systems or innovations supported
through donor projects do, or do not, become sustainable. Using a qualitative single
case study approach, a poorly sustained extension reform supported through a
donor project was investigated in depth in Bangladesh. From this investigation, a
model that explains the non-sustainability of a donor supported extension reform in
Bangladesh was developed.
Several theoretically important findings were identified in this study. The extension
reform was poorly sustained because the principles underlying the reform lacked
cultural legitimacy. This problem was compounded due to the presence of perverse
institutional forces in the operational context, and because the extension agencies
concerned lacked adequate human and financial resources. The sustainability of
the extension reform was also compromised because of poor implementation
performance, complex design, parallel modes of project implementation, a failure to
develop recipient ownership, and poor capacity to learn and adapt the reform. The
mechanisms by which these factors influenced the non-sustainability of the reform
are described in detail.
The results from this study suggest that the sustainability of donor-supported
extension reforms cannot be achieved within the short time frame set out in most
projects. Nor can such changes be sustainable unless they are aligned with the
norms, values and traditions of extension agencies and rural people. In particular,
sustainability will continue to be a serious challenge unless the perverse
institutional incentives confronted by extension agencies and rural people are
minimised. The donors concerned in Bangladesh should support a locally-owned
and single reform idea rather than undertaking haphazard projects with varied
ideas, improve inter-donor coordination and come up with a coordinated decision of
not providing monetary incentives to extension agencies and rural people, support
extension reforms according to the felt needs of recipients, and stop providing aid
in the event of repeated failures.
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Keywords
Donor-supported extension reform, Organisational reform, Sustainability, Rural development, Agricultural extension