Training on Preparation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Agricultural and Rural Development Projects, Indonesia. Project findings and recommendations

"The project achieved the target of training a fixed number of Government officials (226) in agricultural and rural development project preparation, monitoring and evaluation, with 175 of these officials (77) from 11 provinces and the remaining 51 from central level agencies.In order to achieve continuance of the training activities initiated by the project, 24 of the ex-trainees from various agricultural in-service training centres and other operating agencies were selected and provided with courses and on-the-job training to enable them to perform as trainers in future training programmes. In addition, training of trainers was provided: indeed, 13 of the 51 participants from central agencies and 25 of the 175 participants from the provincial agencies who attended the project's training courses were from the regional training centres and from the Agency for Agricultural Education and Training (AAET). The project produced training materials in Bahasa Indonesia as well as training manuals to assist in the continuation of training in project formulation, preparation, monitoring and evaluation.The training provided by the project was of vital importance for the development of Indonesia, particularly in view of the nation's policy direction toward the modernization of the agricultural sector through the efficient use of resources. A significant part of the responsibility for preparing and implementing suitable and viable agricultural and rural development projects has been transferred to the provincial governments. Thus if the full benefits of the project are to be obtained, it is imperative that the training activities initiated by the project be continued and expanded to reach all project planning and implementation officials at the central level and in the 27 provinces in Indonesia.