Human resources development project for the Dominican Republic : mid-term evaluation

Special evaluation covers the period 5/83-5/85 and is based on document review, site visits, and interviews with key participants. Although the project is, in general, efficiently disbursing loans to its intended target group of low-income students, there is no certainty that project-financed training is being provided in priority areas. Labor market data were to be provided by the National Institute of Professional and Technical Training (INFOTEP), which dropped out of the project at the last minute (leaving the Educational Credit Foundation (FCE) as sole implementor), and no other institution with the capacity to provide labor market analyses has yet been identified. There is great concern as to whether the government will be able to employ the 434 (of a total of 1,934) students being trained as agricultural technicians. As follow-up procedures are not well developed, the employment status of the 394 students who have graduated can only be inferred from the fact that their loans are being repaid. Nor is the project meeting its institutional development objectives. Neither faculty training nor institutional subloans have been been provided; the former was made financially impossible when the peso was devalued and the latter complicated both by this factor and by participating training institutions' failure to appoint advisory committees (another area in which INFOTEP was to have been involved) and/or to articulate institutional development plans. A consultant has recently been hired by FCE to aid institutions with their development plans. Nonetheless, the project's student loans have provided significant capital to the institutions and in fact have been indispensable to the growth of small and/or new schools. Project TA was ineffective in strengthening either FCE or the training institutions. FCE has not revised its organizational structure to reflect project activities. However, staff have received both off-shore and in-house training, and grants to improve FCE computer capabilities were very successful. The project teaches that the quality of TA is crucial.