Mid-term evaluation of the university linkages project (263-0118)

Mid-term special evaluation covers the period 9/80-3/83 and is based on site visits and interviews with project personnel and potential users of project research. Although an unrealistic time-frame has put it 1.5 years behind schedule, the project is on track, and criticisms within USAID/E and the local press are largely unfounded. The Supreme Council of Universities (SCU) has established the Foreign Relations Coordination Unit (FRCU) as an agency to review and provide grant funding for research proposals made by Egyptian universities, all 11 of which are participating in the project. The FRCU, which has a good potential for institutionalization, has determined priority research areas and to date its committees have very carefully reviewed 700 proposals and approved 87 for funding. Efforts are being made to avoid reduplication of research and to move from mini- to maxilinkage research proposals, i.e., from very specific to multidisciplinary research. Problems have included uneven information dissemination to the universities; undue stress on a few research areas (agriculture and engineering); and FRCU reluctance to reject proposals outright. Perhaps the project's most problematic aspect is the FRCU's interpretation of capacity building as rewarding universities merely for participating, e.g., by approving poor proposals, (contrary to FRCU's usual procedure). Another problem is that A.I.D.'s automatic inclusion of a TA contractor in the project seems patronizing and unnecessary given the extreme competence of FRCU management. Because the joint U.S.-Egyptian research envisioned in the project design has proven financially infeasible, U.S. university personnel have played consultant roles, to the satisfaction of their Egyptian counterparts. The most important impact of the project - which has already taught that institutions are not built overnight and that A.I.D. should not seek outside help to implement its own regulations - has been to remove the marginality previously associated with development research in Egypt. For USAID/E action decisions, see abstract of PD-AAN-92l.