Mid-term evaluation Consejo Hondureno de la Empresa Privada [Honduran Council for Private Enterprise (COHEP)]

External evaluation covers the period 9/87-9/90. The SP has had mixed results. COHEP"s economic research has more than met expectations. Eighteen studies on such topics as agriculture, credit, trade, and investment constraints were conducted and ten position papers prepared. The impact of these studies included bringing to full public attention a number of key economic issues, and most importantly, supplying the analytic framework for the Government"s economic restructuring. Public relations, conferences, and publications have for the most part been successful. Nonetheless, the Consejo"s basic image -- a group of well-to-do merchants, based in Tegucigalpa and supporting the Nationalist Party -- has not changed substantially. Nor have COHEP"s positions always reflected the views of its membership. In fact, even though COHEP is the private sector"s lead institution for representing broad issues, COHEP lacks professionalism in this area, and many key private sector leaders with close ties to the government are not active in COHEP. Member associations still go directly to the government to resolve their problems. Services to members are improving, however. Internally, COHEP has established adequate accounting systems, operational plans, and personnel standards, though covenants regarding reorganization of COHEP and reform of its by-laws remain unfulfilled (reorganization is underway, however). In addition, COHEP has yet to develop a stable, trained, professional staff, it lacks a plan to achieve financial self-sufficiency, and collection of a capital fund has barely started. Income from non-grant sources covers only about 13% of budgeted spending, though with the change in the exchange rate, COHEP will probably not use the total grant by the 9/92 PACD. Several lessons have been learned. (1) More effort should have been made up front to secure COHEP"s understanding of the full implications of the Cooperative Agreement. (2) The assumption that strengthening COHEP would unite the private sector in support of a market economy was ill-founded. For COHEP to both promote economic modernization and serve as an open democratic umbrella organization of the private sector is close to being a contradiction in the Honduran context. (3) Promoting the value of a market economy in Honduras entails educating not only the public but entrepreneurs as well. (4) COHEP"s staffing problems illustrate the importance to project implementation of the availability of human resources. For Mission comments on the evaluation, see the abstract of PD-ABD-287.