Evaluation report on family planning promotion through home economics

Evaluation covers the period 6/72-1/77 and is based on document review, visits to seven DC's, and interviews with staff at AID/W and at headquarters of the American Home Economics Association (AHEA), the contractor. The project has been moderately successful. AHEA has developed working contracts with 28 countries, eight of which have carried out significant amounts of project activities. Of these, progress -- which has depended on host country governmental and cultural support and the availability of solid institutional mechanisms -- has been greatest in Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines; least in Sierra Leone and Ghana; and moderate in Jamaica, Panama, and Nepal. Progress in integrating FP education into university home economics programs (where students, however, are relatively few) has been excellent, and has been good in vocational and teachers' colleges. Rural outreach has been most successful in Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. Educational radio messages and contacts with parents of day care children have been moderately successful. On the negative side, community development and extension services have been underutilized; recordkeeping is inadequate; few DC home economists have become actively involved; chronic shortages of teaching and reference materials exist; project leadership is too often concentrated in a few dynamic personalities; and assistance from AHEA headquarters to field workers and host country funding have been insufficient. Planning has been hampered by AHEA's failure to utilize DC home economist advisory committees and by A.I.D.'s failure to provide indepth analyses of country environments. The project should be extended for 5 years, provided AHEA: increase its headquarters staff to provide stronger field management; increase the involvement of DC home economics associations; determine, with the help of A.I.D.'s Office of Population (DS/POP) whether a suitable environment for the project exists before beginning work in a given country; and place more emphasis on assessing DC needs for teaching and outreach materials and on helping to obtain these materials.