EVALUATION STUDY - TRAINING COMPONENT - RURAL FEEDER ROADS PROJECT

This special contracted evaluation covers the period 1/1/79-10/1/80 and is based on a review of project documents, project personnel interviews, and site visits. This evaluation is attached to a PES facesheet and another special evaluation PD-AAG-328-B1, C1). The training component"s major shortfall is MWT"s failure to inventory staff and training needs as planned, leading to isolated individual training without established benchmarks. The training"s impact cannot be gauged, although it will likely have a limited, short-term effect. There is no list of potential trainees, trainee projections are inaccurate, and data on trainees entering the program are unavailable. No records are kept of trainee activities after program completion; although trainees from the Transportation Planning Unit and the Soils Testing Laboratory were found working in training-appropriate areas. Contrary to their original assignments, the Equipment Management Specialist and Heavy Equipment Shop Administrator have done little formal training of management personnel and have been directed to participate in the operational affairs of MWT"s Plant Maintenance and Hire Division (PM&HD). Training facilities are inadequate and, despite the use of individual materials, the lack of teaching aids has limited training utility. It is recommended that the government immediately take a skills inventory; that a comprehensive training plan be made; that the implementing agent, Tippetts-Abett-McCarthy Stratton (TAMS), and USAID meet with MWT staff to review project goals and to assess MWT and PM&HD"s commitment to the project; that the Technical Training Specialist re-assert his leadership role in the program; that MWT reconsider filling the Training Coordinator position; that USAID review the scholarship component and clarify TAMS" role in it; that ways of exploiting local potential institutional resources be researched; and that TAMS and counterpart managers consider project orientations for MWT and PM&HD staff.