Fostering demand-oriented service delivery? A historical reconstruction of first experiences with ‘private funding, public delivery’ extension in Benin

This paper examines newly emerging patterns of agricultural extension in the context of wider liberalization of agricultural input supply, marketing and credit provision in Benin. It assesses whether the promises of privatisation were met in the case of the Sasakawa Global 2000 project. Thus, it assesses the extent to which service delivery became demand-orientated, flexible and effective in linking of new technology with complementary institutional designs. In order to gain insight in the dynamics through which such outcomes may be realized, the study zooms in on the process through which the project evolved. It is demonstrated that the PSG 2000 Bénin project did not contribute much to realizing the promises and expectations of privatized service delivery. An important conclusion is that whether services become ‘demand-oriented’ or not does not primarily depend on the formal funding and delivery arrangement, but rather on the quality of the process in which demand and supply are articulated and matched. This contradicts with the policy assumptions underlying privatization programmes.