Evaluation of the Bangladesh female secondary education scholarship program and related female education and employment initiatives to reduce fertility

External evaluation, funded under project 9363024, covers the period through 11/85 and is based on site visits, document review, and interviews with host government, nongovernmental organization (NGO), and other-donor personnel. It appears that the SP"s are having very beneficial effects - increasing female school enrollment, raising the age of marriage, lowering desired family size, and positively affecting FP knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Effects on female employment (in the Western sense), on the other hand, seem minimal. Some 6,056 young women are currently receiving stipends covering approximately half of their schooling costs - 3,456 under the first SP, which is administered by the Bangladesh Association for Community Education (BACE), and 2,600 under the second, administered by Southern Gonounnayan Samity (SGS). The Asia Foundation (TAF) has oversight responsibilities for both SP"s. Both TAF and SGS have effectively fulfilled their implementation responsibilities, but BACE continues to have the administrative and management problems documented in earlier evaluations. If substantial improvement is not seen within a year, USAID/B should seriously consider terminating BACE funding and reallocating the funds to a similar project through another NGO. Although there is great need to expand the scholarship program on a national basis, financial and managerial constraints make this impossible. A more gradual expansion over the next 20 years, however, could play an important interim role in the Bangladeshi educational system until the government is ready to take over all secondary schools, and would significantly lower the population growth rate. It is recommended that at least 50% of A.I.D. funding for female education/employment programs be directed to the program to allow immediate expansion from 2 to 15 upazillas. A variety of other female education/employment initiatives to decrease fertility are also suggested.