Joint memorandum of understanding -- agriculture

land grant universities in A.I.D."s agricultural development program overseas. External evaluation covered the period 3/86-7/90. The project has stimulated interest in international development issues in the universities and through the universities to private and public institutions within the host countries. The universities have provided $8.4 million (68% of A.I.D."s commitment) in matching funds. The flexibility of the project, which allows the universities to decide the most important uses of grant funds, has greatly increased their sense of participation and proprietorship. Much of the faculty and community involvement generated under the project could not have been accomplished through the contract mechanism. On the other hand, the project"s flexibility is also the source of its greatest difficulty -- lack of support of A.I.D. Mission and Regional Bureau personnel. It is therefore recommended that follow-on projects retain a measure of flexibility while tying activities more clearly and directly to A.I.D. efforts in the developing countries. The project has also had difficulties in developing longer-term institutional linkages with host country institutions. An action decision is to open dialogue on establishing an institutional linkage program. Finally, the project design"s quantification of output targets (full-time overseas equivalents) is askew; only about half the targeted number of full-time overseas equivalent personnel was achieved for HBCU"s, whereas the target for the other land grant universities was achieved before the project began. Performance- based funding should be applied to the HBCU"s as there are increasingly clear profiles of strong and weak international programs.