EVALUATION OF THE MIDDLE MANAGEMENT EDUCATION PROGRAM (MMEP) PILOT ACTIVITY (FINAL REPORT)

This special contracted evaluation, which is attached to PES (PD-AAG-322-B1), covers the period 10/78-2/80 and is based on document review and interviews with project and Egyptian business personnel and with trainees. Mainly because the terms of cooperation between the contractor, Southern Illinois University (SIU-C), and Egyptian counterpart institutions were not clearly defined at the project design stage, many key Egyptian institutions did not participate in the program. As a result of this failure, which should be avoided in future projects, SIU-C's contract was modified and the program was basically carried out in the United States through academic training at the SIU-C campus and practical internship at U.S. businesses. Key elements of the original program, in-country and country-specific education, never materialized. Ninety-six representative businessmen participated in the program, which focused on improving individual skills in the areas of U.S. political, economic, and business environment, and generally approved both it and SIU-C's performance. Suggestions for improvement include greater efforts to ensure that participating U.S. businesses parallel participants' home organizations; more emphasis on decisionmaking; reduction in classroom matter; and ensuring that all students are on the same level. While the project benefitted individual participants, it had little impact on Egyptian management training institutions because of their non-participation. The project design, while correctly linking manager to environment, incorrectly assumed Egypt would soon possess a U.S.-type business environment; while in fact the public sector will likely remain dominant in Egyptian business for some time. Thus the project provides no basis for a USAID/E long-term management development program. It is recommended that such a program combine individual and organizational renewal within existing legal, sociopolitical, and institutional constraints and that host country institutions participate in project design and implementation.