Assessment of the impact of A.I.D.'s participant training programs in Nepal

Government has provided long-term training in the United States, India, and other countries to 1,719 Nepalese nationals. This report evaluates the training programs on the basis of case studies of particular institutions and hundreds of interviews with participants and their coworkers. A major finding is that the programs have introduced large numbers of highly trained people into Nepalese society, who, in turn, have created a multiplier effect by strengthening or creating new institutions. Most of the trainees have moved to middle and senior levels of government agencies, with a few rising to positions such as cabinet minister, permanent secretary, and head of educational and research institutions. Many have been effective in diffusing new attitudes towards the work ethic, the merit system, and the need for continuous training into their respective institutions. It is apparent that Nepal's economic development would have been far less successful without the support of these programs. The contribution of third country training deserves special mention: many major development initiatives in agriculture, health education, rural development, and family planning would not have been implemented without it. On the negative side, trainees have not reflected the Nepalese population as a whole. Rather, they are drawn primarily from the socioeconomic elite and from the Katmandu Valley and other high-population areas. Women have been decidedly underrepresented, and in fact, the percentage of women participants actually declined from 14% in the 1955-1964 period to 4% from 1975-1984.