Expanded program in economic analysis : Latin American and Caribbean planning network (LACPLAN)

Final PES covers the period 9/77-9/83 and is based on site visits and interviews with USAID and project personnel, contractor staff, and host government beneficiaries. All work funded under the A.I.D. contract has been completed, although, due to diversion of the attention of the InterAmerican Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) early in the project, an unfunded 2-year extension was necessary to complete the training activities. Project outputs have surpassed planned targets and include: an analysis of agricultural and rural sector planning and policy analysis capabilities in target countries (assessment data were collected in 23 countries); a total of 25 workshops, seminars, and training courses in 17 countries; an agricultural policy analysis manual and a training document for an agricultural planning and policy analysis course; a series of other training documents; and published results of work in Costa Rica, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia. IICA has demonstrated its abilities in agricultural and rural sector planning. However, as IICA was hesitant, due perhaps to political concerns, to become involved in policy analysis, its capabilities there are untested. Project experience has shown that an institution, such as IICA, involved in policy analysis should devote some resources to policy problem identification and, where it does not have the expertise to help resolve the problems, to locating assistance from outside the institution. Also, although the project did not engage in partial analyses of food and agricultural policies in the region, such analyses may result in significant social gains. Direct beneficiaries include those individuals who received training and planning personnel in countries which received TA - Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. No further actions are required.