Grant to Young Presidents" Organization (YPO) - (pilot project)

Evaluation covered the period 1983-87 and was based on document review, site visits, and interviews with YPO, A.I.D., and host country personnel. Although YPO planning visits to the target countries were almost always well-handled and produced high expectations for the implementation sessions, the latter were less effective and did not reach a large segment of potential participants. Reasons for this included a lack of time available to YPO team leaders for administrative details, inadequate briefings on the business environment of the host country, and the fact that team members were preoccupied with their own business interests and YPO staff were busy with member service programs. Mission staff were called upon to fill in gaps in program management, which they did well. The YPO teams" lack of familiarity with the specific business problems of their audience meant that the case studies they presented were found by participants to be interesting, but not particularly relevant. Less formal activities, however, such as small seminars on specific subjects, roundtable discussions, and one-on-one discussions between YPO team members and local participants, were quite successful. Other benefits under the grant included: new business contacts and, in a few cases, joint ventures between YPO team members and host country entrepreneurs; the formation of YPO chapters in Kenya and Jamaica; and help and advice given to Missions by the visiting YPO teams. The grant has ended and will not be extended. Lessons learned for similar activities are to: provide more A.I.D. monitoring and control; choose an implementing agency with organizational experience in LDC"s and well-established home office management; concentrate on one or two countries, excluding those with business climates very different from that of the implementing organization; provide for longer implementation phases in larger countries; use staff with host country experience for planning visits and assign special staff to link the planning and implementation phases; emphasize informal presentations; provide translation and interpretation services where necessary; and disseminate a clear statement of objectives to target audiences well before country visits take place.