AFRICAN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT PROJECT : AN EVALUATION BY THE OVERSEAS LIAISON COMMITTEE, AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION

Evaluation covers the period 7/76-7/80 and is based on visits to four African countries, an examination of project records, and a review of the project paper (PP). This evaluation focuses on sub-Saharan Africa -- an area which ranks the lowest of any major world region in terms of training capacity and available manpower. The project was designed to offer a variety of training options: U.S. training including the AFGRAD (African Graduate Fellowship) program, "job selected" academic training; short-term nonacademic training; training in Africa including INTERAFF II (academic training in third-country universities); non-degree, third-country training; and special, unscheduled training. INTERAFF II was never implemented. The PP presumed that the ratio of training in the United States as opposed to Africa would be on the order of 4 to 1 -- and was budgeted accordingly. However, because of the high cost of U.S. training in addition to other non-monetary reasons, the authors suggest that the PP be revised to redress this imbalance. To date, 52 of the 249 AFGRAD II participants have completed their training. To encourage more African-based training, A.I.D. should gather and disseminate information on available sources of training and develop working relationships with African organizations capable and willing to assist in placing trainees. U.S. academic training should be provided to candidates seeking M.S. degrees in programs not available in Africa and to those pursuing Ph.D."s, particularly in scientific and technical fields. A.I.D should continue to restrict training to development-related fields. Other recommendations include tracking returning participants and evaluating their subsequent utilization and taking special steps to increase the number of women participants. A 50-item bibliography is included (XD-AAG-474-1) in the report, which is itself attached to a PES facesheet (PD-AAG-474-B1).