The three fishery projects which aim to develop coastal and inland aquaculture and the training of administrative fisheries support services have begun quite separately under different Kenyan administrative agencies. Though distinct in origins their purposes are clearly complementary in the national development perspective. However until they can be established to the level where they can be seen to contribute to private spin-off benefits in jobs, earnings and community benefits, the level of donor and GOK contributions will always require clear justification. Accordingly, while the general aims and priority needs for job-creation, national self-sufficiency in food, etc. are accepted, the pace of development of programmes for faster short-term or medium-term results seem always to be under scrutiny.
Those projects seek respectively; to introduce by testing a new technology in coastal aquaculture (which takes time and persistent expert guidance); to re-activate poorly implanted subsistence fish ponds (over a widely dispersed and rather poor areas); to improve and train the supportive infrastructure services (through a newly built institution which is not yet fully functional). Recognizing these realistic constraints, it has been necessary to consider how these three projects can be strengthened to ensure their success, the most immediate means of achieving their aims, and how and if their complementarity with other institutional services can help bolster the implementation process and create more jobs and more food.
Reports of previous review missions, consultants and periodic reports have addressed technical and administrative aspects of the project. Consequently the mission has not attempted to give a detailed evaluation of each project rather, summary assessments of activities and forward projections of development options for the next phase and post-project spin-offs, are the main aspects considered, with emphasis on the defined terms of reference.
Effective roles are accordingly suggested for various supporting activities from other departments while extension activities encourage farmers to develop from subsistence to semi-commercial fish-farm production. Various needs then result from this approach as regards staff, services, credit and other specific inputs.
The Terms of Reference of the Mission, giving the general and specific issues to be considered are given in Annex 1 and this report follows the same general format. The mission gratefully acknowledges the assistance and willing collaboration of many senior offices and staff of departments and institutions associated with these projects. Though too numerous to mention individually, their data and ideas are summarized in the body of this report.
At the concluding meetings with the Ministry of Energy and Regional Development, and the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife respectively, the relevant sections of the draft mission report were presented and discussed, although the related draft project documents were still under typing and unavailable. General agreement was recorded on the findings and recommendations of the report and particularly the need for follow up projects to be initiated from the beginning of 1987. However the exact inputs of these projects remain to be defined in the respective draft projects documents.
The project Small-scale Fisheries in the Lake Basin area (KEN/80/006-KEN/86/027) had already been inscribed in Kenya's Forward Budgeting Exercise for 1986/87 as regards both government and donor (appropriation in kind) inputs, but this was not the case for Coastal Aquaculture Phase III (KEN/80/018-KEN/86/003) nor the Reinforcement of Fisheries Training at WFTI (new project KEN/86/006), hence an urgent meeting was scheduled before the end of November between representatives of the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, the Ministry of Finance, UNDP and FAO in Kenya, to attempt to resolve this matter which threatened to delay implementation of the recommended follow-up projects.
