Evaluation of Pan American Development Foundation : national Development Foundation program

Special evaluation, prepared under project 5980044, covers the period 1973-82 and is based on document review, interviews with A.I.D. and NDF personnel, and site visits. Since 1973, SOLIDARIOS, an independently organized federation of NDF's originally supported by PADF, has taken over many PADF activities (such as providing member NDF's with credit and technical assistance); relations between the two entities, while recently improved, remain somewhat strained. Further, from 1974-78 PADF did not work extensively to establish new NDF's, focusing instead on unrelated areas such as disaster relief and health services. Subsequently, PADF returned to its major goal of supporting NDF's, but apparently without learning - from its own experience or that of successful NDF credit programs (e.g., the Dominican Republic NDF) - that successful NDF's: do not try to impose the overly complex cooperative model of development on local groups; build on indigenous organizational forms, relying on group sanction and control for repayment; and do not try to pursue, simultaneously, the institutional goals of equity, efficiency, and viability. In Costa Rica and especially in Haiti, however, overambitious and paternalistic PADF approaches imposed more demands than the NDF's were ready to meet, necessitating changes to emphasize viability and efficiency. Conversely, PADF support in Jamaica was appropriate and effective; the Jamaican NDF is very successful, with the capability to become self-sustaining soon. It is suggested that, contingent upon PADF adoption of a learning approach (spelled out in this report), PADF programs be funded by matching grants rather than OPG's, for several reasons - to allow the PADF to use its comparative advantage as a PVO to bring private businessmen together to develop NDF's in support of unsecured credit programs; to give USAID's and other donors time to decide if new NDF's are worth backing; and to make the PADF more accountable to A.I.D. and challenge it to secure additional funding from U.S. corporations.