Institutional cooperation between Mokolodi Wildlife Foundation and The Royal Norwegian Society for Development, Evaluation of the project

Background

In November 1993 an agreement was signed between the Government of the Kingdom of Norway and the government of the Republic of Botswana, which set forth terms and conditions for the provision of financial support to the establishment of the Mokolodi Educational Resource Centre outside Gaborone. The idea is that tourist activities sponsor the Educational Resource Centre, and therefore one can offer schools to come in at a low cost, hence making it available also to children who cannot afford to pay full price.

Norad was directly involved, from the establishment and consolidation and through the infrastructure building phase, until they in 1997 asked Norges Vel to take over the administration of the Norwegian support, and to join in as a technical partner to Mokolodi.

The main objective was to assist Mokolodi in further development of the environmental training resource centre, in means of quality and capacity of educational activities. Main activities in the cooperation has been exchange of knowledge between Norway and Botswana school children on environmental issues, training activities for the educational staff, expansion of teaching facilities and development of teaching tools. The cooperation also included small community projects involving neighbouring villagers to the reserve in bush clearing and craft production - and hence creating win-win situations between the reserve and the villages surrounding it.

Purpose/objective

The objective of the evaluation was to assess the short and long term impact of the cooperation, and also, based on the assessment, to get recommendations concerning additional interventions that may be considered to ensure sustainable impact of the project.

Methodology

Field visits, interviews, literature and reports review.

Key findings

- Weakness in organisational structure in Mokolodi, and lack of a clear prioritisation of educational and environmental activities.
- There is a need for expansion of the activity repertoire, including network building activities which will stronger link Mokolodi to other, likeminded institutions. Marketing of Mokolodi should be better and more targeted.
- There is a need for a strong, well functioning education committee.
- Financial constraints does not allow for expansion of environmental education, awareness raising, networking etc. as envisaged in strategy document and plans.
- There is a strong representation of women in the staff - also in leading positions.
- There is a friendly attitude towards Mokolodi from the neighbouring villagers - reflecting that they see the park as a positive development and that most of the 109 employees are recruited from the village.
- The evaluation team found that Mokolodi Nature Reserve and the local communities, and in particular the Mokolodi and Majakathata villages, truly appreciates Norges Vels involvement and assistance over many years.

Recommendations

The main recommendations are to strengthen the role of the education centre in the organisation, and to build network and good relations to likeminded institutions. A well functioning education committee is highly recommended, and as well to further incorporate tourist activities into teaching and environmental activities. Though the representation of women in staff is high, Mokolodi is recommended to raise the level of feminine perspectives in Board discussions. Mokolodi is encouraged to keep assisting the neighbouring villages, for instance by offering facilities for harvesting of non-timber products. The latter is an area where Norges Vel is recommended to continue its support. It is also recommended that Norges Vel act as a facilitator by bringing regional stakeholders together in order to share "lessons learned" and to discuss "ways forward" on projects with visions and objectives that are comparable with Mokolodi Nature Reserve.

Comments from the organisation

The evaluation is constructive and professionally conducted, and we agree in many of their findings, especially with regard to prioritisation of educational activities and networking with likeminded institutions. We believe a more structured management, with long time management plans would benefit Mokolodi. However, Mokolodi has achieved a lot in a short time. We espescially would like to highlight the fact that Mokolodi in just 12 years time has managed to create more than 100 lasting workplaces to a very low cost.

What we miss in the report is a deeper look onto the teaching activities, to evaluate the impact and value they have for students of different age groups. A more concrete feedback on the impact of our involvement and the cooperation as such would have also been welcome.