Evaluation of S&T information transfer project

National Technical Information Service (NTIS) from end-1983 to 9/87. The project sought to expand the existing technical information (TI) network in Tunisia and initiate activities in 9 additional Near East countries. Evaluation focused on 3 countries: Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt. Project effectiveness was undermined by difficulties in identifying and recruiting host country cooperating agencies. Two countries, Lebanon and Oman, were dropped at the request of their USAID"s. The lengthy time period required to obtain agreements with counterpart institutions reduced the time available for institution building. Obstacles to links between NTIS and local organizatlons included a book monopoly (Tunisia), discomfort with idea of selling U.S. government reports (Tunisia and Morocco), and competition from TI services supported by other A.I.D. projects (Egypt). Use of a Cyprus-based consulting firm with branch offices in several Near East countries, was only partially successful in circumventing these difficulties. Some progress was made in organizational development. In Egypt and Morocco, collaborating organizations were strengthened via in-country seminars. In Egypt, the cooperating agency expanded its microfiche collection by thousands of documents, but was unable to link its operations with USAID/Cairo-supported TI services. In Morocco, considerable progress was made at the policy level. The impact of training in Jordan and Cyprus was diminished by staff turnover in the local organizations. In Tunisia, institutional impact was minimal as the Regional Coordinator, based in that country, did not transfer marketing skills to counterparts. Sales data for Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt provided further evidence of the project"s partial impact and effectiveness. Generally high sales in Tunisia, estimated to exceed 500 documents annually in the last year of the project, attributed to the active campaign of the Regional Coordinator, suggest that aggressive marketing can generate demand for NTIS documents in at least some Near East countries. Low sales in Morocco and Egypt, averaging less than 75 documents annually, were due to a combination of factors. In Morocco, promotion efforts were limited almost exclusively to conference presentations and distribution of brochures. In Egypt, a principal Mission concern was that concurrent regional and Mission-funded TI projects may give confusing signals to the Egyptian Government regarding U.S. TI policy. In addition, the market for TI services was usurped by the larger, Mission-funded project supporting the Egyptian National Science and Technical Information Network. Major assumptions of the project that were questioned by the evaluation included: the feasibility of cooperating agencies operating on a self-sustaining basis without diversifying services to include popular trade publications, academic journals, and other products; and selection of project countries, recruitment of counterpart institutions, and selection of marketing approaches without conducting country needs assessments.