Evaluation report of the peace fellowship program -- AID project : development training peace fellowship component

graduate training to public and private sector personnel in Egypt. Evaluation covers the period from 9/88-9/93. Nine hundred and twenty-nine Fellows have completed training and 172 are still participating in U.S. training versus a goal of 1,250 Fellows. The latter target will certainly be met and could be exceeded by the PACD, 10/95. The Peace Fellows have completed degrees, thesis research, and published many academic papers in collaboration with U.S. counterparts and they have gained a wide exposure to the U.S. educational system and culture, one of the original motivations for the program following the Camp David Accords. Throughout the program various targets have been established and amended for specific groupings of Peace Fellows. The latest amendment (1992) aims to draw 24% of total fellows from the private sector, 23% from the public sector, and for 18% of Fellows to be women. In this aspect, the project's management performance has been good. The overall management of this project by the host government is one of the best illustrations of how an assistance project should work. The Egyptian government, in the task of providing graduate studies for Egyptians, has had long experience through its own programs funded by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE); the MOHE has managed the Peace Fellowship Program with confidence. If USAID/Cairo continues support for Egyptian participants in graduate level studies in the U.S., the MOHE would be the most appropriate counterpart agency to manage a new project of that type. A.I.D. has implemented the program in a professional manner. The USAID project officer has established effective working relations with the MOHE at all levels. The one serious weakness in the program's administration has been a lack of structured participant follow-up activities after the Peace Fellows complete their training and return to Egypt. A Comprehensive Orientation, Follow-up and Evaluation (OFE) Program has been proposed, and A.I.D. is urged to adopt it in the near future. Recommendations are as follows. For the near term, some adjustments should be made in the procedures of the MOHE, USAID, and the Egyptian Cultural and Educational Bureau, Washington, D.C. (ECEB). For the longer term, USAID, in collaboration with the MOHE, should design and implement a new program that would maintain the momentum of the current program and provide academic degree training in business, including general management, operations management, accounting, finance, management information systems, marketing, international business and trade, economics, environmental studies, tourism, education, nursing, and city planning. (Author abstract, modified)