Evaluation of the International Executive Service Corps' operations in Pakistan

The IESC started its operations in Pakistan in 1984 and by the end of 1990 had completed 81 projects. In this report, Management and Financial Applications (Private) Limited (MFA) evaluates the effectiveness of IESC's operations. A survey of 35 IESC projects revealed the following. (1) 44% of clients felt that benefits were either equal to or greater than the costs, another 25% said that the benefits were less than the costs, and the remaining 31% were not sure. (2) There appears to be no discernible increase in the average cost of the project over time. Instead, the receipt of USAID funding in 1988/89 has allowed the IESC to cater to smaller clients at a lower cost. (3) Larger clients pay significantly more than smaller clients for Volunteer Executive (VE) services. (4) The majority of clients were introduced to the IESC through personal contact with the IESC representatives. (5) In most cases, the IESC expert did not face any problems. However, 28% of the clients responded that IESC experts faced some problems, including host organizational and environmental problems (62.5%), health/age problems (62.5%), and language/communication problems (22%). The percentages total more than 100, due to overlapping. (6) Projects lasted 3 months in 37.5% of the cases; 50% of clients were satisfied with the project duration, 34% were not. (7) About 40% of the clients said that their requirements for assistance had not completely been addressed by the VE. However, 25% of these held that the expert nonetheless provided useful advice. (8) 38% of clients responded that they requested the IESC to send the VE again for a follow-up visit. (9) Transfer of technology, broadly construed to include better working methods, modifications of plant processes, training of staff and improvement in organization, was reported by 53%. The subsector breakdown of the percentage of clients who reported that technology transfer took place was as follows: food & agriculture (43%), construction (50%), textile, apparel, and leather (50%), health & education (66%), chemical (75%), engineering (40%), finance (50%), printing (100%). (10) Only 50% of clients reported that the VE was familiar with their business and working conditions before arriving; 44% thought that the VE was unfamiliar with their business environment and had not been adequately briefed. (11) A majority of the clients reported that they followed the VE's recommendations, and about half of these said that the VE was actively involved in the project implementation stage. (12) Clients were mostly satisfied with the time taken by the IESC to respond to their request for assistance. (13) Three of the six smaller clients were highly satisfied while one other was satisfied. Only one smaller client was dissatisfied. (14) Overall, 65% of the clients were either highly satisfied (31%), or satisfied (34%) with the VE's advice. The only respondent in the printing subsector proved to be satisfied; 75% of those in the chemicals subsector, 75% in the construction subsector, and 71% of those in the food/agriculture subsector were satisfied. Detailed information on the financial impact of the VE's visit was not available as the clients were mostly not aware of this themselves or did not consider it worthwhile to make a concerted effort to come up with this information. However, some broad estimates are presented for some clients. On the whole, this is a useful service as clients are generally satisfied with the IESC's performance. However, if IESC is to improve: (1) client's needs have to be identified more accurately than is now the case; (2) clients should be given wider latitude in the selection of the VE; (3) the VE should be briefed more thoroughly before arriving and pre-visit communication between the VE and the client should be encouraged; (4) counterparts to VEs should be properly identified and briefed about the purpose of the assignment; and (5) the IESC should carefully screen out VEs who may not be fit enough to carry out the tasks envisaged under the assignment (health problems of the VEs have marred certain assignments). Further, the IESC will have to carefully monitor the fees it charges clients as there are competitor organizations, such as the British Executive Service Overseas (BESO) and the Netherlands Management Consultancy Program (NMCP) that appear to provide a fairly cost-effective service in the market that IESC has targeted in Pakistan. (Author abstract, modified)