Building development support organizations : an evaluation of an AID management services grant to World Relief Corporation

Evaluation, prepared by an outside consultant, is based on interviews, field trips, and WRC reports. The grant furthered WRC's entry into development work and strengthened WRC's skills and its commitment to the material and the self-help side of development. Early WRC reliance on 3-day workshops and small projects was misguided, but WRC quickly learned from its mistakes. WRC adopted a new approach, focused on institution building, which produced the beginnings of a network of evangelical DSG's with good potential for development impact. Impact on indigenous DSG's seemed high in relation to grant funds expended. The Sri Lanka Evangelical Alliance Development Service (LEADS), incorporated in 3/83, already exhibits great promise and has taken steps that make independent institutional survival likely (although a program strategy and related plans are still lacking), while grant-funded workshops and technical assistance helped Philippine Relief and Development Services (PHILRADS) broaden its exposure to alternative training models and establish an impressive counterpart relationship with WRC. Current dialogue addresses the critical question of whether PHILRADS should, unlike WRC, implement development activities, e.g., its current five-village project among B'laan tribes in Mindanao, and not just support them. Lessons learned are: (1) donor funds for small projects should be used mainly to build up local institutions and establish their credibility, not as a substitute for the local income-generating capacity needed for survival; (2) church and missionary groups offer a promising vehicle for development provided they resolve the tension between their capacity to motivate and to reach remote, deprived groups and their frequent lack of the technical skills needed to render effective assistance; (3) A.I.D. grants to PVO's should stress flexibility and innovativeness; and (4) WRC's collaboration with counterparts provides a model for other PVO's, with success depending on acceptance of counterpart agendas, restraint in using money to command assent, and sensitivity to the danger of cultural arrogance.