Mid-course evaluation of a training and advisory center for women (APEC/CENAM) in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic

Special mid-term evaluation covers the period 7/81-6/83 and is based on document review, attendance at CENAM courses, and interviews with staff and beneficiaries. As finally designed with TA from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), the project was reoriented to prepare women for entry into the informal rather than the formal labor market by providing VT in nontraditional skills and access to credit. However, although CENAM's dedicated promotoras have successfully promoted VT (1,252 women were waiting to be enrolled by 5/83), inadequate CENAM technical direction (both from a far removed and overburdened project director and onsite) and inadequate support from the CENAM board, together with CENAM staff's lack of experience in VT, make project objectives unattainable. Training in nontraditional skills, a central feature of the project design, comprises only 25% of CENAM courses (due to the fact that such courses are not currently offered in SantoDomingo) and no entrepreneurial or management training has been offered; the human resource development courses have a high dropout rate (41% vs. 7% in vocational courses); credit and the employment-related support services and TA needed to overcome the considerable obstacles to women's entry into the labor force have not been utilized due to a lack of technical expertise; and legal and psychological counseling have been underpromoted. Recommendations are that CENAM: hire a full-time technical coordinator; provide more nontraditional vocational and entrepreneurial training; contract ADEMI (unidentified acronym) to manage fixed and working capital loans; develop a participant follow-up system to monitor progress in creating/stimulating employment; provide additional training to promotoras; decentralize its structure and shift all technical matters to the technical coordinator and the Capotillo office; eliminate the position of assistant coordinator; and establish closer contact with A.I.D. A.I.D. should not fund similar projects until this project is functioning as designed.