East-West Population Institute's cooperative agreement with AID : an assessment

Mid-term evaluation covers the period 9/83-8/85 and is based on site visits, document review, and interviews with EWPI staff. EWPI staff are highly qualified and competent, especially in demographic research, and have actively worked with census offices and registrars, particularly in East and Southeast Asia. Considerable quantitative progress has been made in five of the six project areas, i.e., in workshops and conferences, working groups, research, resource materials, and publications. However, there is some semantic confusion regarding the sixth area, technical consultation, which is defined by EWPI broadly to include consultation and technical cooperation, but by A.I.D. more narrowly as technical assistance; in A.I.D.'s view, there is definitely a deficit in this area. A.I.D. is also concerned with the strategy EWPI has employed, which has been more academic than applied, implemented more at EWPI headquarters in Hawaii than in Asia, focused more on analysis of demographic trends than on program and policy analysis, and more concerned with East and Southeast Asia than with A.I.D.'s high priority countries in South Asia. A.I.D. would like to see EWPI be more direct in its capacity building efforts, i.e., provide more onsite TA and training and increase dissemination of research findings to policymakers, planners, and program managers. EWPI is willing to modify the project's workscope to better fit A.I.D. priorities. A.I.D.'s involvement in the project, particularly at Mission level, has been limited, but both A.I.D. and EWPI appear willing to increase their interaction through more frequent personal contacts and more focused reporting. Project expenditures are on schedule, but reimbursement by A.I.D. has recently been slow. A modified program for the cooperative agreement, which would include more emphasis on policy-relevant research, capacity building, and information dissemination - is suggested. Other issues needing to be addressed include a gap in project direction due to the extended leave of the the co-principal investigator and the lack of a line item for funding key EWPI personnel.