Interim evaluation of the Omani - American Joint Commission scholarship and training project (272-0101)

Interim evaluation covers the period 5/83-10/87 and is based on document review, site visits, and interviews with Omani officials and other knowledgeable persons, including participants. The project has not lived up to expectations, especially in the area of long-term training. A.I.D. funding of graduate and undergraduate scholarships has had almost no influence on the field of study of Omani students in the United States. The responsible agency, the Ministry of Education and Youth (MOEY) has received no additional budgetary support from the project. It has, however, been required to provide the documentation to the OAJC for the Ministry of Finance - not the MOEY - to receive reimbursement from project funds; thus, the project has been, in effect, nothing more than a burdensome means of providing general budgetary support to the Omani government. In partial recognition of the problem, Amendment no. 1 transferred some $3 million from long-term to short-term training in June 1987. Government-wide budget cuts resulting from the drop in oil prices and the consequent drop in Omani revenues caused serious problems and delays in all sectors of the project, but were most evident in the short-term training and training planning activities. The budget cuts and parallel hiring freeze made it extremely difficult to provide counterpart and other logistical support needed for effective utilization of TA. In addition, it became difficult for the participating Ministries to release employees for training and to pay the required special benefits during their training period. It was only after the MOEY obtained exemption from payment of required supplemental allowances to short-term trainees that significant progress toward short-term training implementation was achieved. While there were also serious delays in approving draft training plans for the first four of the priority Ministries, these plans, procedures, etc. are now in place in several Ministries. The pace of implementation is accelerating rapidly and should continue to do so. There were also significant delays in installing a management information system (MIS) in the MOEY, due to initial uncertainty as to what type of equipment and software to utilize and then to the advisor"s inexperience with the equipment and software selected. Most of these problems have been resolved and plans have been approved to complete the basic implementation of the MIS. It is strongly recommended that all uncommitted long-term training funds be used instead for short-term training.