Forty years in the Altiplano : a cross-cutting evaluation of AID-financed assistance in Guatemala"s Altiplano (from the 1940"s to the present). Volume I. Executive summary, summary report, photo section

development assistance to Guatemala"s highland Indian areas - the Altiplano - became a major element of A.I.D."s country development strategy in the late 1960"s. This assistance is evaluated herein with respect to the following core development areas: agriculture, including efforts in crop diversification, soil conservation, small-scale irrigation, rural credit and cooperatives, and marketing; basic preventive health care, potable water and sanitation, and family planning; primary education, bilingual and nonformal education, school construction, and teacher training; and complementary activities to strengthen municipal and community leadership, decisionmaking, and information systems. According to the report, A.I.D."s core programs have been appropriate and sustained over time and have clearly had a positive, cumulative effect, especially during the last 15 years, in improving earnings, employment, life expectancy, and education on the Altiplano. Key cross-cutting factors in this process have included institutional strengthening, training of all kinds (with a growing emphasis on the community), and policy dialogue with the Guatemalan government. However, powerful factors may retard the impact of present and future assistance efforts: rapid population growth, environmental degradation, institutional and bureaucratic problems, and political violence. Volume II of the report contains individual contractor reports and detailed recommendations, while Volume III contains appendices, including lists of past projects and documentation.