Battelle project in Brazil

Evaluation covers the period ending 9/8l, is based on site interviews with project staff and potential subcontractors, and is attached to a special evaluation (PD-AAJ-063) and three other trip reports. Although the Brazilian core project is still in the early planning stages, its slow progress suggests the target completion date of early 1983 is unrealistic. Lack of a formal country strategy paper has made it difficult to judge the relevancy of suggested research topics (e.g., trends in the relationship between population and education, sanitation, mortality, and income distribution, respectively) and has forced the contractor, Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI), to rely on past contacts and A.I.D. intermediaries to identify potential subcontractors. Thus, BMI and A.I.D. have made few contacts with Brazil"s research community, except for the director of the Special Projects Division of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics who has proposed forming a new association to serve as the institutional base for the core project. In addition, BMI must still resolve whether to provide project funds to strengthen the work of family planning (FP) activists (given the considerable friction that exists between FP activists and the Brazilian social science research community). BMI must be prepared to defend whatever decision it makes on this sensitive issue. Finally, it is recommended that a country strategy paper identifying institutional alternatives and describing the complex Brazilian political situation be prepared as soon as possible.