Development and management training (grant)

Initial PES covers the period 10/82-11/84 and summarizes an attached evaluation which is part of a consultant"s review of all USAID-supported training in India. With only 10% of project resources expended after 2 years, the project is far behind schedule. Of the four project components, one, U.S. long-term academic training, was cancelled as a result of a Government of India (GOI) policy decision, while a second, creation of in-country U.S./Indian consultant teams, has made little progress and is evolving towards ad hoc requests for help. The most active component to date has been U.S./third country short-term, non-academic training, which has sent 25 participants to the United States and two to the Philippines; of these, four were from the private sector and two were women. The fourth component, short-term, non-academic in-country training, is also making progress; USAID/I has engaged the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) to develop training plans for all GOI ministries. Reasons for the project"s troubles are: (1) USAID/I"s need to work with GOI ministries through the Department of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance rather than directly; (2) the faulty assumption that adequate ministry training plans either existed or could be developed quickly; (3) a conflict between the project"s design, which envisaged U.S. teams performing in-country training in close collaboration with ministry training "cells", and the reality - that ministry units generally contract for these services with one or two training institutes; and (4) the slow GOI clearance process and selective approach to naming U.S. participants. Key recommendations are to: continue the project with a redesigned follow-on project for FY 86 or 87; identify the U.S. training institutions best qualified to link with Indian counterparts; and renew emphasis on in-country U.S./Indian consultant teams while accepting the GOI"s preference to use U.S. consultants on an ad hoc basis. As a result of the evaluation, the contract of the Centre for Development Studies was cancelled.