Assessment of institutional capability of OIC International, Inc.

Special evaluation covers the period through 8/82 and is based on document review, site visits, surveys of and interviews with OIC graduates and their employers, and discussions with OICI, OIC, Mission, and LDC officials. The project has been hobbled by poor OICI-AID relations and severe staff cutbacks due to extreme funding delays. OICI has completed only 5 of 16 planned feasibility studies and only 4 of 11 planned proposals. A procedures manual will not be completed as planned, and only 10 of 16 planned new interest groups designed to initiate new OIC's have been incorporated or registered. The cutbacks have also had a deleterious effect on OICI project monitoring, field support to OIC's, and planning. OICI - which receives 99% of its funding from A.I.D. - has not yet begun to seek other funding sources. The OIC's have also suffered greatly from funding delays. Nonetheless, the 6 of 11 planned operating OIC's along with 2 graduated (self-sustaining) OIC's (all in Africa) have trained 5,682 people, mostly dropouts; 4,097 youths received vocational/technical training, 975 received entrepreneurial management training, and 133 received agricultural training. OIC's also trained 232 redundant civil servants and 245 adult farmers. All OIC's have long waiting lists. LDC officials, employers of the graduates, and past trainees are extremely enthusiastic about OIC programs, except that LDC officials give mixed reviews to agricultural training at OIC facilities. However, OICI has failed to plan for the operations of the six OIC's when A.I.D. funds are withdrawn. It is recommended that OICI: restructure its organization; focus on building and supporting OIC's rather than on training; discontinue costly boarding of agricultural trainees; develop a plan to assist graduated OIC's; revise its management information system to accommodate field needs and staff shortages; and give immediate priority to fundraising.